Smoot Lumber Co.
Smoot Lumber Company
founded 1822· dissolved 2023
Alexandria lumber and millwork firm founded by J. H. D. Smoot J. H. D. Smoot Founder of the Alexandria lumber business that operated continuously for two hundred years under successive Smoot-family names: J.H.D. Smoot, W.A. Smoot, Smoot Lumber & Coal, Smoot … in 1822; operated continuously under successive Smoot-family names for two hundred years until closing its Edsall Road yard in December 2023. Supplied architectural millwork to the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Smithsonian, and Mount Vernon.
The firm operated under multiple names across two centuries: J.H.D. Smoot, W. A. Smoot, Smoot Lumber & Coal, Smoot and Co., Smoot Lumber, and finally BMC Smoot Lumber after the late-twentieth-century BMC acquisition [1] ALXnow, 'Smoot Lumber yard closing,' 2023 Website . Its waterfront yards along the lower Strand and adjacent Union Street were among Alexandria’s largest industrial installations through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; a Historical Marker Database entry documents the planing-mill site [2] HMDB, Smoot Lumber Co. Planing Mill marker Government record .
The company was a critical supplier of architectural millwork for federal Washington after the Civil War, contributing to projects at the Capitol, the White House, the Smithsonian Institution buildings, and the Mount Vernon estate restoration. Its Edsall Road retail yard closed on December 1, 2023 after two hundred years of family-owned operation, ending one of Alexandria’s longest commercial continuities.
Sources
- 1.
ALXnow, "Alexandria's Smoot Lumber yard closing today after 200 years in business," December 1, 2023.
- 2.
Historical Marker Database, "Smoot Lumber Company Planing Mill," Alexandria, Virginia historical marker, accessed 2026.
Government record https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=129201 →
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