Our History
Since 1908, the Anderson Family has been involved with the construction industry at 666 49th Street South. Back then, Theo Anderson built commercial structures and later his son, Harold, built houses. In 1949, the retail operation opened and a few years later, Harold’s son Ted took over and made the place a home improvement and specialty millworks operation. Today, the business is operated by the fourth generation, Ted’s son, Fred Anderson.
Anderson Lumber is an old-school specialty lumber yard. The lumberyard dog, Madeira, will greet you at the door and the office cats are always lurking about. This place is nothing like the large home improvement centers.
If you are looking for quantities of commodity lumber like pine studs and construction plywoods, Anderson Lumber is not the place for you. We do not compete with the box stores. We offer high-quality lumber and specialty lumber products generally milled specifically for your exact needs.
Woodworking For Everyone
Whether you are a novice woodworker, a contractor, homeowner, designer or architect, the professionals at Anderson Lumber will assist you in finding just the right wood for your project. We are open to the public and invite you to come in, walk around, and take a look at all we have to offer.
We have a large selection of higher grade but more commonly used species such as Southern Yellow Pine, Poplar, Cedar and Cypress available “off the shelf”, but we also excel in providing custom mill services from the highest quality lumber available.
The properties of real wood and the modern growing and harvesting methods used make todays lumber contribute to the sustainability of the environment.
At Anderson Lumber, we’ve been “green” since before it was popular!
Anderson sells exotic lumber, marine grade wood materials and specialty woods for people who cannot find what they want, or need, at the national chains. Stop by and spend a few minutes. The hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9:00 a.m. till 1 p.m. on Saturdays.
Fred Anderson
Harold C. “Happy” Anderson
Theo Anderson
Theo Anderson
Theo Anderson: As a builder in Saint Petersburg, Theo Anderson built a tower intended to receive radio inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi’s first transatlantic radio message. Considered as a front-runner to become the first passenger on the world’s first commercial airline flight by the Saint Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, piloted by Tony Jannus, Theo lost the bid to then St. Pete Mayor A.C. Phiel.
After the Great Depression, Theo’s home-building business began to suffer and he asked his son Harold C. “Happy” Anderson to come home from MIT and help support the family. Happy built houses during the day as well as holding several night jobs managing to save enough money to begin to purchase property on the outskirts of downtown St. Petersburg. He built the first warehouse on the property in the 1930’s. That building is now our mill. In the early 1940’s, Happy built a house on the property from military surplus. The slate shingles came from the soldier’s barracks at Ft. DeSoto and are still on the cottage today.
Along with house-building, Happy started a retail building supply business and officially incorporated as the Harold C. Anderson Lumber Company Inc., on January 22, 1949. He was a believer in history and conservation and he purchased property on Park Street – the site of an ancient Indian mound and the suspected landing point for Planiflo de Narvaez and his exploration of the new world in 1542. Happy ensured that the mound would stay intact and it is there to this day. Please visit sacredlandspreservationandeducation.org to learn more about the historic importance of this area. The Sacred Lands site is still owned and run by Happy’s son Erik and his wife Doris.
Ted Anderson, Happys’ eldest son, served in Army Intelligence in Japan and returned in 1957 to help briefly run the lumberyard. After training in architectural millwork, Ted again returned to the business in 1962. After struggling to bring the business back to life, and with the addition of some other warehouses and out buildings, Anderson Lumber grew to become competitive with some of the national chains of the period in the area. Ted believed in quality and this philosophy served him well as the business grew.
This philosophy of quality is still evident today. Since 2002 Ted’s son, Fred Anderson, has brought the Harold C. Anderson Lumber Company to the forefront of specialty custom hardwoods and milled products in Saint Petersburg, FL.