BY COLIN MIXSON | This family-owned Chelsea institution is the right kind of chop shop!
Midtown Lumber Mart, a woodcutting and delivery service, has met the needs of local contractors, residents, and businesses since the ’60s, literally helping to shape the neighborhood inside and out with cut-to-spec timber and custom-made furniture.
“It’s an honest business,” said second-generation owner Michael Kopf of the emphasis on quality of service over volume of sales — a business model that, while managing to keep the doors open for decades, hasn’t exactly made him a rich man. But there are other rewards, including a peace of mind that has him sawing logs well into the night.
“You work, you do the right thing, you go home, and hopefully there’s another dollar more in your wallet than what you started the day with,” said Kopf, whose father and uncle co-founded the business in 1962, when they purchased the building at 276 W. 25th St. That location was, and remains, eminently appropriate as the headquarters of a bustling lumber business.
The property’s history is practically written in wood. Originally a horse stable, the building was retrofitted sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century for use as a warehouse by the massive California-based wood supplier West-Side Lumber Company — these days known among train aficionados for operating the last of the narrow gauge logging railroads of the American West. At its height, the railroad stretched 72 miles from their mill in present day Tuolumne, CA to deep into the vast sugar pine woodlands to the east, in what’s now the Stanislaus National Forest.
But, unlike the West-Side Lumber Company, Midtown Lumber’s bread and butter doesn’t lie in turning over vast quantities of California pine. The small Chelsea business instead prides itself on working hard to ensure the customer always comes first, even if it costs them a sale.
“If someone comes in saying they need a $120 piece of one-inch plywood cut to size, we’ll ask what they’re making, and chances are good they can make do with a $20 piece,” said Kopf. “No one who works here is going to say, ‘This is the amount, here’s what it costs, goodbye.’ We’re going to ask what you’re making, and advise. It’s always about service — honest service — and doing things right.”
Kopf himself is a chip off the old block. As a boy, he recalls playing amongst the lumber bins as sawdust flew and buzzsaws whirred. He started working full-time at the shop at 24 years old, following what was hitherto an early life of after-school, part-time woodcutting with his father.
And through it all, Kopf and Midtown Lumber have seen Chelsea evolve.
During the ’60s and ’70s, the neighborhood was a bohemian refuge, filled with the type of do-it-yourselfers that gravitated to the shop. The bohemians were followed by a wave of shutterbugs that transformed the neighborhood into a short-lived photography district, and the newly settled cameramen contracted Midtown Lumber to shape the wood that would become the backdrops for their latest shoots. Eventually, the photographers got priced out and replaced by a flock of small businesses, often computer shops, who came to the wood supplier for materials to build the cabinets and desks needed to display their latest tech.
These days, the area is experiencing a resurgence as a high-end residential neighborhood and a center for commercial enterprise. The customers walking past the roll-up gate that serves as Midtown Lumber’s main entrance are more often than not contractors seeking cut wood at the bidding of their well-to-do clients, according to Kopf.
“We have a lot of contractors coming in,” he said. “It’s not easy to build your own cabinets.”
And, along with the neighborhood it serves, Midtown Lumber has evolved in stride. In 2013, Kopf set up The Splinter Factory, a workshop nestled inside a Pennsylvania barn, where craftsman labor over custom-built furniture, largely for a New York City clientele.
In addition to the homes of local renters, their work has graced the galleries of the neighborhood’s many art sellers, in addition to some custom pieces for the Museum of Modern Art.
And they’ve done some weird stuff too, like cutting an over-sized wooden sword for what Midtown Lumber employee David Leto described as “role playing of sorts. Japanime or something.”
Throughout its more than half-century in business, things haven’t always been easy, and Kopf admits the business has seen its share of “ups and downs.”
In addition to cutting wood to spec, Midtown Lumber has a full-on delivery service, which is as much a delight to the city’s Parking Violations Bureau as the business’s clientele. In between deliveries, the business sometimes parks its vans close by on W. 25th St., inviting passing meter maids to start flashing neon orange citations.
“One of the most frustrating things are the parking tickets,” said Kopf.
And Kopf readily admits he doesn’t always get along great with his neighbors, who take umbrage at the odd scrap of construction material that sometimes is left to linger outside his shop.
“We have neighbors who have nothing better to do than complain about ridiculous things,” he said. “We try to be responsible, because of where we are, and we were here before anybody else anyway.”
Despite whatever hardships face the small lumber supplier, chances are good that their service-based niche will keep locals heading in their direction — not Home Depot’s — for decades to come.
“Anyone can sell a basic piece of sheetrock,” said Kopf. “Here, we pride ourselves on doing custom cutting to the size exactly, and helping local people.”
Midtown Lumber Mart is located at 276 W. 25th St. (btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.). Hours: Mon.–Fri., 8am–4:30pm and Sat., 9:30am–2pm. Call 212-675-2230 or visit midtownlumbermart.com. Also visit thesplinterfactory.com.
