In the summer of 1994, The Joinery Company successfully negotiated the purchase of all reclaimed heart pine timbers and planking from the world’s largest and most famous post and beam buildings–the Sears & Roebuck Complex in Chicago, Illinois.

The Sears & Roebuck complex was begun by Richard W. Sears in 1905 and completed in 1906. With 5 million square feet of floor space spanning two city blocks, it served as workspace for more than 9,000 employees in 1906. At that time, it was the world’s largest commercial building and a fitting home for what would later become the “World’s Largest Store”. In 1906, its employees filled orders for nearly 5 million customers. At its height, there were 22,000 employees working there. One can only imagine the number of customers that Sears served during that period. During the early part of the twentieth century, the Sears, Roebuck & Company facility was reputed to be the largest post and beam buildings ever built anywhere in the world.

When the last truckload of Reclaimed Heart Pine had been shipped to The Joinery Company’s factory in North Carolina and processed, over 12 million board feet of timbers and planks had been salvaged and recycled into wide plank flooring, millwork, cabinets, and fine furniture.