Happy Birthday: Bring on the cake and candles

The Beckstoffer's Mill Blog is one year old so I will be reposting a few of the first posts from April 2010, with some minor edits to clean up style and spelling mistakes.  It has been fun so far and I look forward to even more posts (and hopefully comments from others) in the months to come.

1917 Snapshot of Henry

A publication called Richmond Virginia A Glance at Her History: A Review of Her Progress; A Sketch of Her Commerce featured Henry in 1917. 

Among the men of industrial affairs who have been highly instrumental in the advancement of the building interests of the city, is Mr. Henry Beckstoffer.  This gentlemen has been a resident of Richmond for the past eighteen years and is a native of Hanover, Germany, and we can truly say there is no citizen of Richmond more highly respected or more loyal to its interests.  Mr. Beckstoffeer established himself in business fifteen year ago and has given to Richmond one of her greatest and most modern woodworking plants.  His planing mill is equipped according to the most modern ideas, with all kinds of woodworking machinery and the plant and yards cover nearly an entire city block.  The products include all kinds of lumber, laths, shingles, sash, doors, frames, all kinds of fancy mill work, and in fact everything required in the line for general home building. These products are broadly sold throughout Richmond and the central part of the state.  The plant is located at 1209 North Twenty-eighth street, and has phone Madison 5013. 

The Theme Park that Beckstoffer's built

Now that Spring is in full swing, local amusement park King's Dominion has opened its doors for the season and I wanted to recognize the important role that the Mill played with respect to King's Dominion's start over 35 years ago.    A Richmond general contractor still in business to this day named Kjellstrom & Lee (K&L) was awarded much of the construction work and placed numerous orders for millwork for KD in 1974 and 1975 and this project was a huge source of business for the Mill in 1975.  That year orders from K&L for the park were for $326,000 of work, which represented almost 40% of all orders in '75.  Without the work for King's Dominion, sales that year would have been reduced from $833,753 to $507,179 and made it a fairly average year for the seventies.  Instead 1975 became the highest selling year for Beckstoffers up to that point.

Some of the buildings millwork was needed for include your standard theme park buildings like souvenir stands, games buildings, and first aid pavilions, but a number of the orders placed at Kings Dominion were for millwork for themed family leisure centers including French, German, Swiss and Italian buildings. 

The park held a soft opening in 1974 followed by a formal opening in 1975.  In 1975 the park opened with 15 rides including a log flume, antique cars, steam train, Ghoster Coaster and Rebel Yell roller coasters and a collection of flat rides.

K&L did business with Beckstoffer's since at least 1965.  To learn more about the firm, go here.

Post-war Expansion

The Mill grew many times since it was first opened. In an April 2010 conversation with Bill Beckstoffer, I learned that a large expansion took place after World War II. He described how the truck loading building, the work room, the kiln, the boiler, the saw dust storage area and several sheds were all added during this time. Prior to this expansion, there were only 3 or 4 buildings on the site.
It's clear that the expansion had been planned for several years. Henry first started acquiring the surrounding homes on 28th Street in 1938. In September of that year, he purchased 4 homes (1223, 1225, 1227, and 1229 N 28th) from the estate of William H. Taylor. Court documents show that Henry bought the adjacent property at 1231 N 28th from Madeline Cheesman and A.L. Cheesman and other family members on January 16, 1942. It's not clear if there was still a house on the property at that time. In May 1944, Bernard and Herman purchased a portion of the Beckstoffer's property on the west side of the street (1224 - 1230 N 28th).
At that time Herman and Bernard played a major role in running the mill and they worked with the City of Richmond to close an alley that ran between R and S streets (meaning through the middle of the site). City records show that this was closed by ordinance on August 18, 1948.
It's assumed that the number of staff and orders placed all increased dramatically as a result of this expansion.

University of Richmond unveils a new building

Last week, University of Richmond (UR) held a media tour for its latest building, Queally Hall. This is a 37,000 square foot addition to the business school.

To read more about this, click on the below link. http://www.richmondbizsense.com/2011/03/17/queally-hall-is-open-for-business/

UR and Beckstoffers Mill have a long history together, one that goes back almost 60 years. In May 1954, records show that the Mill sold a large millwork order to Claiborne & Taylor for the UR Law School shown to the right.

In 1955 they sold another job to this same contractor for the UR Library.

In 1965, millwork was sold to Taylor & Parrish (T&P)- the builder who built Queally Hall - for the Refectory Building in October 1965 and $10,500 order in August.

In October of 1970 Thomas Nuckols placed a $32,000 order for UR's Dorm #6 and in October of the following year T&P did a small job (just over $1,100) in the University President's Office.

Presumably some of the contractors who placed orders at the Mill continued to do work at the University of Richmond, but that post will have to come another day.

Local School with many Bex connections

I often find current events in Richmond that have a connection to the Mill. The below article talks about a hundred year old local prep school that will be moving to the site of a monastery in neighboring Goochland County.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/feb/19/tdmain01-benedictine-considers-move-to-goochland-a-ar-853967/

There are several Beckstoffer's connections. First, there was a high school for males located there in the 1960's and early 1970's called St. John Vianney Seminary. Contractor Conquest, Moncure & Dunn built the original school and placed an order for the millwork at Beckstoffers. Records show this order was placed in December 1961 for $30,654. This firm is still in existence and you can learn more about Conquest by clicking here.

Second, a number of the Beckstoffer family members attended Benedictine High School, including Herman Beckstoffer. Herman was in the class of 1927 and was described in a newsletter as a football and track star, longtime member of the Board of Trustees, and a founding member of the Benedictine Athletic Club. He was also the father of five Benedictine graduates.

After closing, the seminary school was bought by Bon Secours Health System in 1986 and made into a drug and alcohol treatment facility, known as St. John's hospital. It later closed and was sold in 1994 to the Benedictine Society, the monastery in charge of Benedictine High. Plans call for renovation of the existing building and with any luck, one of the builders who frequented the Mill will get the job.

Bernard remembered

Bernard Beckstoffer died on this day 41 years ago. He was an equal partner with brother Herman from the 50's through the 70's. I wasn't able to find much information on him but he was born on January 26, 1908. He and Herman were both at different times President of the company, and often proprietor or owner according to City Directories. His son was William H. , aka Bill, who would later manage the Mill.