Huttig Building Products History

In 1866, the Civil War had just ended. In many senses it was time to build and rebuild. In this turbulent year two newly arrived German immigrants, brothers Charles F. and William Huttig, founded a sawmill and lumberyard in Muscatine, Iowa. This enterprise evolved into Huttig Brothers Manufacturing which focused on sash and door manufacturing as its primary business. With a hard-won reputation for work of the finest quality, the company prospered.

In 1885 Charles H Huttig, son of Charles F., opened a branch of the company in St. Louis to serve as a distribution center. Seven years later this operation became an independent business, Huttig Sash & Door Company.

As it grew the new company met the needs of many diverse customers. Huttig built planes and military installations in World War I, survived the Great Depression, and contributed again to the U.S. effort in World War II by building ammunition cases, wooden body parts for trucks and other wood products. Huttig Sash & Door never lost sight of what it did best. The company weathered good times and bad, all the while continuing to grow and adding branch after branch.

Huttig has been growing for more than one hundred years. That's a measure of the quality of our work, the reputation we've earned as a result, and the soundness of our management.

We have the resources to keep on growing. We're among the largest companies in our field in our own right.

But we also know that size and a solid tradition are no guarantee of success in the future. So while we're proud of our nineteenth-century roots, we're even prouder of our twenty-first-century ideas. Huttig is a progressive company with an enlightened management philosophy. We value and invest in our employees. And we're committed to nonstop improvement in the way we serve our customers. We call it "Continued Quality Improvement."

Any business --- and any businessperson --- planning to be a leader in the next century must understand this. And live it.