Claudius Poole: The early years

Claudius and Sally Poole settled into the busy resort and port area that was Covington and its environs in the late 1870s, and Claudius quickly became filled with the entrepreneurial spirit. He and a partner established a business that would become Poole Brothers Livery and Stable in 1894. Sally enthusiastically settled into the role of wife and mother, giving birth to and raising eight children. One of their sons, Wallace Maury Poole, would become the father of Poole Lumber Company’s founder, Weldon Wallace Poole.

Born in 1881, Wallace Maury Poole became involved in the family business, and married Alice Galmiche Hosmer on May 21, 1907. He eventually became sole owner of the business, buying out his brothers and re-naming it Wallace Poole Livery and Sale Stable in 1909.

Wallace took interest in the civic as well as business activities of Covington. He served as a town alderman and was elected mayor of Covington, manning the town’s top post from 1925 to 1929. He was also foreman of the town fire department, known then as Jefferson Fire Company No. 1. He and Alice had four children: Poole Lumber Company founder Weldon Wallace, his brother Vernon and his sisters, twins Lois and Iris.

Weldon Wallace Poole:
The birth of Poole
Lumber Company

Weldon Wallace Poole grew up in Covington, graduated from St. Paul’s School in 1928 and attended LSU, where he was an ROTC member. He married Theodora Milliot in 1933; they had two sons, Weldon Wallace Jr. and John. Later, Weldon served as a naval lieutenant in the North Atlantic during World War II.

When Weldon married Theodora, two dynamic northshore families came together Theodora Milliot was the granddaughter of Theodore Dendinger, a Florida Parish entrepreneur who owned one of the busiest building supply outlets in New Orleans, Madison Lumber Company on South Claiborne Avenue. While the Poole’s livery and stable business was playing an important part in Covington’s transportation industry at the turn of the century, the Dendinger family was busy harvesting and processing timber for the burgeoning New Orleans market.

To feed the New Orleans market’s demand for lumber for both home building and industrial use, Dendinger harvested timber throughout the Florida Parishes, practicing an early form of conservation by not clear-cutting the land. His policy was to cut only fully grown trees, leaving younger trees to reforest the harvested areas.

Dendinger, Inc. owned and operated sawmills in the port of Madisonville on the Tchefuncte and in Springfield, which was an important rail hub and port in Tangipahoa Parish before the turn of the century. Dendinger’s mills dressed the logs: They were cleaned, sawed, planed and dried into finished lumber before being loaded onto schooners for the trip across the lake to New Orleans and Madison Lumber Company, which served New Orleans from the late 1880s until 1953.

Inspired by the Dendinger family tradition, when Weldon Poole returned from the war to Covington in 1945, he founded Poole Lumber Company, a remanufacturing sawmill. The original site of Poole’s office and warehouse was an old blacksmith shop and buggy paint shop on Rutland Street.

Recognizing the post-war demand for new construction, Weldon shifted Poole Lumber’s direction towards becoming a supplier of finished lumber, which, like many other building materials, was in scarce supply following the war. After the business was re-directed to this market, the company was well on its way to fulfilling Weldon’s vision of having it be the northshore equivalent of Dendinger’s Madison Lumber.

By 1948, Poole Lumber was focused on finished building materials. In 1953, Weldon constructed a Redi-Mix concrete plant near the Covington Fairgrounds. Bob Sander, a retired Poole employee who started with the company in 1949, recalls the hectic, yet somehow simpler, post-war years. “In 1949, the business end of Poole Lumber Company was run from an army surplus desk and accounts receivable were kept in a cigar box,” Sander says. “Orders were placed on a ‘war priority’ basis. The supply train would come through about once a month, and those folks at the top of the list would get their concrete or other scarce building materials—the rest of the folks would have to wait ’til the next train. This shortage inspired Mr. Poole to open up the Redi-Mix plant in ’53, so everyone could have concrete when they needed it.”

The expanded combination of building material products allowed the company to be ready for the northshore’s population boom. With the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway’s construction in 1955, the northshore was opened to New Orleans area residents seeking a quieter place to live. The establishment of the Michoud rocket plant and the Stennis testing facility created thousands of new jobs; Interstates 12 and 10 tied these facilities to the Covington/Mandeville area, attracting even more commuters.

As the firm kept up with the expanding real estate market, Weldon and his employees continued to implement the latest in building design and construction techniques. The company always carried the latest and most innovative products available for builders to utilize in their work.

W. Wallace Jr.
and John Poole:
A period of growth

Weldon and Theodora’s sons, W. Wallace Jr. and John, worked after school at Poole Lumber during their high school years at St. Paul’s. In the late 1950s, after graduating from Southeastern Louisiana University, they joined the firm. By 1975, when the company left its original Rutland Street location after 28 years and moved to its present location at Columbia Street and Highway 25, they had been involved in the business for almost 20 years. Their skill and leadership helped keep Poole Lumber at the top of the industry during the northshore’s greatest period of growth, which started in the late 1970s and continues to this day.

Wallace and John were instrumental in shaping Poole Lumber into what it is today. Wallace designed the new lumber yard, including features such as drive-through access for loading materials, which made it one of the premier facilities in the South. John had the vision to turn a warehouse with no electricity into a 25,000-square-foot showroom, and further advanced the business by integrating computer systems into the operation. Together, the brothers created a one-stop shop for homebuilders in the area. For years, Poole’s was the only place on the northshore where customers could find kitchen cabinets, doors, windows, flooring, plumbing fixtures and hardware under one roof.

The two brothers received strong support from loyal employees such as Cathy Oalman, who has managed the office for more than 30 years, and general manager Mike Manguno, who joined the company in 1977. Through Mike, Wallace Poole forged a strong working relationship with Frank Fazzio, owner of Lumber Products on the southshore. The two companies have worked cooperatively, purchasing materials together at better prices and passing these savings on to their customers.

Weldon W. Poole, III:
Into the 21st Century

After graduating from St. Paul’s and the University of Alabama, Weldon W. Poole III, known as Wally, joined the ranks of Poole Lumber Company in 1996. True to the family heritage of bringing innovative home products to this area, Wally established Custom Audio & Video by Poole. As advances in electronics and changing tastes have created a demand for integrated home entertainment systems, the company has maintained its position at the leading edge of construction technology. Wally says, “Leading edge technologies such as flat-panel plasma and LCD monitors, HDTV and theatre-quality surround sound systems are becoming more affordable for the average homebuilder.”

Complementing its business activities, the Poole family continues its long tradition of civic responsibility. The people of St. Tammany have benefited significantly from the Pooles’ community involvement, which includes the 1995 donation of land on Columbia Street to Habitat for Humanity and the family’s support for the River Forest Wetlands and Wood Duck Habitat Program on the Tchefuncte River in Covington. Three of Covington’s fire stations stand on land donated by the Pooles, and the family also supports The Fairhaven Children’s Home.

For four generations, the Poole family has built a legacy of major contributions to all areas of life on the northshore—business, civic responsibility, and philanthropic concerns. And fifth-generation Thomas Gorringe, a freshman at St. Paul’s who works for the business on his school breaks, continues in the footsteps of all who came before him.