Simpson Family fonds

Description

This digital collection consists of photographs relating to a succession of sawmills and wood processing and manufacturing facilities founded and operated by Stanley Merriam Simpson in the Okanagan region. These photographs date from about 1913 to about 1965. Please see a full archival description at: https://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/sms-ltd-and-successors-sous-fonds. His sash and door factory on Abbott Street, manufactured and sold windows and doors, custom furniture, and wooden fruit boxes for the expanding Okanagan fruit and vegetable industry. The business operated out of this location until 1948. Needing a reliable and accessible source of logs, Stanley Simpson bought land at Manhattan Beach along the lakeshore, in Kelowna's North End. In 1930, he began constructing a sawmill and box factory and three years later, added a veneer plant to the site. S.M. Simpson died in 1959. Horace B. Simpson, Stanley's son, managed S. M. Simpson Ltd. until 1965 when the company was sold to Crown Zellerbach, Canada. A branch operation of the U.S. company, this was the first of a succession of owners, and though the Simpson name was attached to the operations for several years, the family was no longer involved. More descriptive details are available in each of the collections below.