Ray H. Bennett Lumber Company

Credit: 1921 Ad in "Mining Catalog"

Ad Courtesy of Donna Zellner Neal

Ad from 1957 North Star, North Tonawanda High School yearbook

1969 drawing of the Bennett Lumber Corporation complex at 190 Oliver Street, from "A Portfolio of Distinguished Designs by Bennett Homes" created by Kean W. Stimm, President. A copy of the publication has been donated to the Museum by Kean W. Stimm. An industrial consultant and graduate engineer from Purdue University, Stimm was the developer of the "Construct Computer System," a computer system for manufactured houses. Stimm owned Bennett Lumber from the 1960s to 1971. In 1971, he and eight employees left Bennett to form Architectronics to market a greatly advanced version of the computer system he developed during his tenure at Bennett. The 75,000 square foot Bennett facility was capable of producing 1,000 homes per year. Under Stimm, the Bennett plant in 1969 covered 75 acres and had 60,000 square feet of indoor storage and manufacturing buildings with 40,000 square feet of environmentally controlled storage for the special kiln-dried hardwoods and trim materials. The facilities were designed for year round manufacture to satisify the contractors and the all weather construction methods of the time. The modern buildings created one of the largest and finest plants in the northeast for the design and manufacture of custom homes. Under Stimm, Bennett produced pre-cut, panelized, custom homes, townhouses, garden apartments, and light commercial beuiligns, even churches. Bennett had three catalogs, one for the rural scattered lot market, one for large custom suburban homes, and a special catalog of 432 designs. They used a builder-dealer organization and sold direct to the dealers. They accepted all orders and would modify catalog homes in any way desired by the customer.

Drawing from pamphlet produced in 1973, "A Computer System for the Housing Industry" by Architectonics, Inc. in Williamsville, a company created during Kean Stimm's ownership of Bennett Lumber to design and market systems technology for the housing industry. The system was installed for purchasers by Computer Task Group.

Photo of a Bennett home under construction from a Bennett Homes publication by Kean W. Stimm , "Winter Home Building: Boon to Home Buyers and Builders."

A schematic from a publication prepared for a presentation by Kean W. Stimm of Architectronics, Inc., for the National Association of Home Manufacturers Fall Conference in 1976, "A Manufacturing Management Computer System for Housing Manufacture."

Magazine ad from 1920s

Letters and Comments from Museum Visitors

From: Charles R. Perry, Middleport, NY - March 2006

“Our names are Charles and Marjorie Perry. We live at 33 Kelly Avenue in Middleport, NY.

We started our “Karen “A” (revised) in May of 1954. Using the matched sheathing we built the basement forms and had them poured 6 ft. high. On top of the wall we laid two tiers of cement blocks. Also, within the basement we included a 6000 gal. capacity cistern. All the work was done by ourselves and relatives. We had the plans somewhat altered by the Bennett Co. We moved into our house in 1956 (50 years ago).

We still have the original booklet along with the price list.

The only changes we have made were covering the clapboards and replacing the wood windows with vinyl. In 1958 we added the garage and breezeway and in 1968 we added the den to the back of our house.

Note: My sister and her husband built the Clarksdale in 1955 and another family member the Maywood . Our neighbor next door built the Rutland the same year as we.”