In 1736 John Phinney’s 13-year-old son, Edmund, felled the first tree for the settlement in what was to become Gorham. The Phinney family has been felling trees, sawing lumber, and participating in the town’s civic life ever since.
This past spring Rose Phinney sold Phinney Lumber on Fort Hill Road (114) to Ware-Butler, a building supply company owned by Pleasant River of northern Maine.
Phinney Lumber has been at that location since 1928 when Raymond Phinney took over the sawmill from his brother Samuel. His son, John ran it from 1970 until the 1980s. John and Rose’s son, Mike, has been general manager for the last 25 years. He is still in that position now that the business is part of the Ware-Butler chain of Maine building suppliers.
According to Mike Phinney, “It had become increasingly hard for a small company to compete with the large Maine building supply firms, as well as with Lowe’s and Home Depot.”
Under new ownership the store and lumber yard has the same staff, but has added more salesmen and service personnel. Mike’s brothers Dana and Scot are still there and his mother comes to work every day.
Ware-Butler’s owner, Pleasant River, is the largest spruce and pine lumber company in the Northeast. When Pleasant River decided to go into the building supply business, they bought Ware-Butler, a retail lumber company based in Waterville. “With the addition of Phinney Lumber, Ware-Butler now has nine facilities from Grover to Gorham,” Mike Phinney said.
“Ownership has changed, but the sawmill here is still sawing,” Rose Phinney said. “We still have our woodlots and cut our lumber, in addition to spruce and pine from Pleasant River.”
Ware-Butler will cut cedar here for Moosehead Cedar Homes, which is also owned by Pleasant River.