Pike Builds New Office

Pike Lumber Company recently announced it is starting construction of a 22,000 square-foot office located at their northern Indiana corporate headquarters in Akron, Indiana. The present offices, built in 1937, have served four generations of Pike Lumber Jacks and Jills. The new facility, located at the east edge of Akron along State Road 114, will be built by local craftsmen and will feature interior furnishings and finishes exhibiting a full display of the company’s Pike Brand ® premium quality hardwoods. Board Chairman, John Brown said, “This is part of our 25-year plan of improving and modernizing to help future generations operate as efficiently as possible. The groundwork has been laid for the next generation of sawmillers.”

Special attention will be given to the construction using energy efficient products such as structural insulated panels (SIPS) wall and roof panels, and LED lighting. Interior finishes of flooring, doors, paneling, stairs, and trim will be from locally grown, sustainable hardwoods from Pike Lumber Company’s product line.

Although the Pike family of sawmillers in northern Indiana dates back to John S. Pike (1853) and D.A. Pike (1904), the modern day Pike Lumber Company was started by their 20 year-old great-granddaughter and daughter, Miss Helen Pike back in 1933. In 1934, she married her mill foreman, Howard Utter, and from these humble beginnings, has grown an operation with three state-of-the-art, high production mills in Milan, Carbon and Akron, Indiana.

As a manufacturer and distributor of premium hardwood lumber, Pike has one of the broadest product lines in the industry with over 15 species, thicknesses from 4/4 to 16/4 and special color and width selections. Pike specializes in American Black Walnut and Rift and Quarter Sawn White Oak.

Consistent with its philosophy of engaged shareholders, the company continues to be owned by a small number of participating families. It also owns and operates forestland in the tri-state area, manages several thousand acres of forestland for other landowners, and is one of the largest markets for standing timber and cut logs in the region.

As a result of its leadership in forest stewardship and bolstered by a staff of 21 university educated foresters, the company was awarded the Forest Stewardship Award in 2006 by the National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA). Pike Lumber Company is a fully integrated forest products corporation, working with the growing resource all the way through the manufacturing process to the kiln dried delivered lumber product serving manufacturers of furniture, millwork, flooring, and wholesalers. Completion of the new facilities is scheduled for fall of 2021.