Among the optimistic Americans who migrated westward in the late 1800's was A.C. Houston, who founded The A.C. Houston Lumber Company in 1884. The pioneers of the time had set out to build new lives, and Houston established the company that would provide building materials.

The first A.C. Houston Lumber yards opened in the small Kansas towns of Eureka and Hamilton. More than one hundred fifteen years later, A.C. Houston Lumber yards can be found in five western states. The corporate headquarters was located in Kansas until 1998, when it relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Much has changed in the past century, but the business philosophy of A.C. Houston has been passed down unchanged to third-generation family member, Robert A. Houston, Chief Executive Officer. "Our goal is to sell products of quality and strength, give the customer their money's worth, and to treat each customer the way we, ourselves, would want to be treated," Houston says.

A.C. Houston Lumber Company's journey westward began in Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, from which the company followed the western expansion of the railroad and the cattle market. The only way for A.C. Houston Lumber to serve its growing number of customers was to open over a hundred locations across the western United States. The torch was passed to A.C. Houston's son, Max, in 1926. "The company was almost lost in the Great Depression, but my father kept it going through good management and sheer determination," states Max Houston's son, Robert.

In the 1940's, because of changes in the industry, the company consolidated its smaller yards into larger building material centers, where quality and value could be preserved despite the hard times. A search for new, "riper" markets after World War II brought A.C. Houston Lumber to Las Vegas in 1948.

Primarily a volume supplier of lumber and building materials to contractors, A.C. Houston Lumber operates retail centers offering products that supplement the construction trade. The company additionally manufactures roof and floor trusses at various manufacturing plants using computerized, state-of-the-art equipment as well as providing engineering assistance and truss design.

DEDICATED EMPLOYEES

"Our company is about our people," said President and Chief Operating Officer, Ron Mason. "The success and quality of our company has always been in direct proportion to the quality of the people we have attracted to work here."

Mason attributes this prosperity not only to the sound management of its founding family, but to their willingness to delegate authority. "A primary strength of our company is Houston's commitment to allowing autonomous management in a variety of marketplaces," Mason said. "You can't run the yard in Las Vegas the same way as the yards in Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado or California. Managers have the flexibility to attack the specific needs of their marketplace, rather than conform under the guidelines of a chain or a national organization."

A.C. Houston Lumber remains true to the customer service traditions of its past, while responding to the market demands of the present. Or, as it states in a publication issued to celebrate the company's centennial, "By practicing a few old-fashioned values every day, we are able to offer the customer many new and exciting values every week"…and The A.C. Houston Lumber Company will continue the tradition in the future.