{"id":789,"date":"2013-09-23T06:42:12","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T06:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/?page_id=789"},"modified":"2013-10-25T06:23:35","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T06:23:35","slug":"the-morgan-lumber-company","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/sample-page\/morgans-people-places\/places\/the-morgan-lumber-company\/","title":{"rendered":"The Morgan Lumber Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morgan Merchants \u2013 The Morgan Lumber Company<\/h3>\n
\"Morgan<\/a>

Morgan Lumber on Route 35 in Morgan, NJ. Photo courtesy of Christina DiPoalo Olender.<\/p><\/div>\n

So I was minding my own business a scant few years ago while cruising Facebook when I found the \u201c<\/span>I was and always will be a MORGANITE<\/a>\u201d group.\u00a0 While perusing though the list of offenders, I encountered someone with a name that I remembered from my days in Morgan and my less than stellar times as a player on the Morgan Panthers Pop Warner Football Team.\u00a0 Shortly after I sent the message, I received a series of fantastic correspondences and photographs from Christina DiPoalo Olender.\u00a0 I very much remember Christina\u2019s father, John DiPoalo, and his brother Danny DiPoalo for a number of reasons.\u00a0 My father was actively involved in the Morgan Panthers, in the capacity as President at times, and worked closely with Mr. & Mr. DiPoalo.\u00a0 All three were fantastic community minded people that made places like Morgan a wonderful place to grow up.\u00a0 Mr. & Mr. DiPoalo were also significant contributors in other ways to the Morgan community.\u00a0 Like the apple and the tree, Christina is also very community minded and is an absolute pleasure to correspond with.<\/span><\/p>\n

The following is what Christina provided to us about the history of The Morgan Lumber Company.\u00a0 You will soon see why Christina is uniquely situated to write about it.\u00a0 She also provided us with additional information for other topics which have been and others which will be used in other postings.\u00a0 I\u2019m very appreciative of Christina\u2019s enthusiasm and her willingness to contribute to this web site.\u00a0 When I started this web site, I had hoped that many other people would eventually contribute postings to it.\u00a0 Christina has been fabulous!<\/p>\n

While working at the Morgan based McCarthy Lumberyard in the mid to late 1950\u2019s, John DiPoalo started a side business selling wholesale lumber from his home on Lorraine Avenue.\u00a0 A short while after McCarthy Lumber closed it\u2019s presumably wooden doors, Mr. DiPoalo started the Morgan Lumber Company on an open lot on the south bound side of Route 35 between Lockwood\u2019s Boat Works and Weber\u2019s Garage.\u00a0 John was joined by his brother Danny and for several years Morgan Lumber operated as a retail lumberyard selling lumber, plywood, building supplies and paint.\u00a0 They also sold guns and ammunition.\u00a0 Their main business however was supplying wholesale lumber and building materials to several area home builders, notably Zimmerer in the Holmdel & Colts Neck areas and Joseph Polguy who built homes in the Sayreville area.<\/p>\n

\"Boat<\/a>

Boat Cradles with Christina DiPoalo. Photo courtesy of Christina DiPoalo Olender.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the early 1960\u2019s Morgan Lumber began to supply lumber to Henry Luhrs Sea Skiffs in Morgan.\u00a0 At this time, Mr. Luhrs was producing 1200 boats a year!\u00a0 By the late 1960\u2019s they began to phase out the retail store and concentrate on the wholesale business.\u00a0 Along with providing building materials to the Luhrs Company, Morgan Lumber also manufactured boat shipping cradles that were used by the boat builder during the manufacturing process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1970\u2019s, the baby boomer housing market began to wane and Morgan Lumber stopped supplying the homebuilders and focused on the boating industry.\u00a0 Along with the Luhrs Company, which had expanded to include the Silverton Marine and Mainship Motor Yachts companies and had moved to Millville, N.J., Morgan Lumber also supplied lumber and cradles to the Viking Yacht Company in New Gretna, N.J.<\/p>\n

Although the business changed over the years, one constant was Sylvia Cullum who worked in the office for many years in the capacity of Secretary and Bookkeeper.\u00a0 Sylvia and her husband Bob became long time friends of the DiPoalo family.<\/p>\n

Many will remember the large stack of boat cradles that lined the property but those living in the area during the 1960\u2019s may also remember the unusual rocket that was perched up on poles alongside the building.\u00a0 John, a decorated WW II and D-Day invasion veteran, was no stranger to the German V-1 \u201cBuzz Bomb\u201d (see the page about the V-1<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Brothers<\/a>

Brothers Danny & John DiPoalo. Photo courtesy of Christina DiPoalo Olender.<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyone who grew up in Morgan during the 60\u2019s, 70\u2019s or 80\u2019s will also remember that each year there was a Halloween parade where the children with the best costumes would win a prize (usually a shiny silver dollar).\u00a0 It was originally held at JesseSeloverSchool then later moved to the near by Little League field on Woodland Avenue.\u00a0 For all this time it was always on the flat bed of a Morgan Lumber truck where the judges sat to view the children as they paraded by.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan Lumber stayed in business until the late 1990\u2019s when John and Dan decided to close the business and retire. \u00a0The building remains and the property is now occupied by a number of business including U-Haul, Central Jersey Starter & Alternator, and New Jersey Partyworks<\/a> which provides amusement equipment ranging from fog and bubble machines to tents, popcorn machines, and inflatable bounce houses.<\/p>\n

\"Morgan<\/a>Originally posted on December 6, 2009.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morgan Merchants \u2013 The Morgan Lumber Company So I was minding my own business a scant few years ago while cruising Facebook when I found the \u201cI was and always will be a MORGANITE\u201d group.\u00a0 While perusing though the list of offenders, I encountered someone with a name that I remembered from my days in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":979,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-789","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":790,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/789\/revisions\/790"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}