For some people looking forward during a recession, the future looks ominous and uncertain. Businesses owned and operated by the founding family’s third or fourth generation have a different perspective. These “heritage” businesses have weathered several economic slowdowns since the 1940s, including the dot-com bust and the 1970s recession and its infamous billboard, “Will the last person leaving Seattle — turn out the lights.” Lifelong family members and employees on staff, and success measured in decades, give these enterprises confidence and perspective. Here, the leaders of seven heritage businesses remind us what to do when times are tough: work together, serve others, be kind and be honest. And it will be alright.
McLendon Hardware
WEB SITE mclendons.com
YEAR FOUNDED 1926
HEADQUARTERS Renton
INDUSTRY Hardware
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 475 FIRST GENERATION Moses “Pop” McLendon and Helen “Mom” McLendon
SECOND GENERATION Dorothy Thompson, Bob McLendon, Wanda Kauffman, Ted McLendon, Pat McLendon and Jan McLendon
THIRD GENERATION Twenty-six family members, including David Thompson, Keri Thompson, Gail McLendon, Brian McLendon, Linda Homes, Diane Kauffman, Mike McLendon, Robin McLendon, Chris McLendon, Debbie Judd, Kim Easton and Shelley Barney
FOURTH GENERATION At least eight people, depending on season, plus in-laws
ORIGINS A Tennessee native who settled in Renton, Moses Jones McLendon teamed up with his father-in-law and his father-in-law’s brothers in 1926 to operate U.S. Junk Co., a store that sold anything, new or used. In the 1940s, Moses joined with Dale & Johnson Hardware to form Dale and McLendon. In 1962, Pop bought Dale’s interest, and the store became McLendon Hardware. Today, it has locations in Renton, Kent, Puyallup, Sumner, White Center and Woodinville, in addition to Seattle Lumber and two distribution warehouses in Renton.
SECRET OF SUCCESS “The family and company prides itself on good customer service, and a great selection of items in every department at a good value,” said spokeswoman Suzanne Thompson. “Our customers and employees are our number one concern, and we treat them as such. We have customers who have been shopping with us for 50 years and employees who have worked for us for over 40 years. The family is very community involved and feels that by helping the community the community helps us.”
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT McLendon Hardware belongs to five chambers of commerce. The company helps the communities with festivals, parades, school projects and other needs. For instance, McLendon’s donated a trailer to the city of Renton and filled it with tools, gloves and equipment to help maintain the city’s parks.
FUN FACT In June 1981, when the Renton store burned to the ground, the store lost all records of what customers owed on store credit accounts. Customers brought back their receipts and paid what they owed. McLendon Hardware built a bigger store at the same address.
Kenmore Air Harbor
WEB SITE kenmoreair.com
YEAR FOUNDED 1946
HEADQUARTERS Kenmore
INDUSTRY Float and land plane operations, sales and service
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 175 year-round, 250 summertime
FIRST GENERATION Bob Munro, Reg Collins and Jack Mines
SECOND GENERATION Gregg Munro, president; Gregg’s sister Leslie Banks, secretary and treasurer; and Marjorie Greene, former partner
THIRD GENERATION Todd Banks, Leslie’s son and general manager
ORIGINS Three high school friends, Bob Munro, Reg Collins and Jack Mines, reunited after World War II and founded the company with one plane and a hangar in 1946. In the early 1950s, Kenmore signed on as a Cessna aircraft and parts dealer. Along the way, Kenmore Air Harbor acquired Otter Air, a seaplane company offering scheduled service to Victoria, B.C., and Lake Union Air, including its Seattle terminal. Today, Kenmore Air Harbor’s 52 staff pilots and 25 aircraft, including piston Beavers and turbine Otters and Caravans, land about 140,000 passengers each year on glaciers, lakes and harbors among the fjords and islands of the U.S. and Canadian Northwest. Some flights go as far as the Bahamas.
SECRET OF SUCCESS The company’s philosophy remains unchanged: Do the right thing. Gregg Munro said: “It goes back to our parents (the first generation) and how they got along and raised us. We were expected to get along.”
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Kenmore Air established a scholarship in memory of Bob and Ruth Munro for high school students through the Northshore Scholarship Foundation. The company also supports the Northshore Performance Arts Center, Medical Teams International, Restore International, Rotary, Kiwanis Club, local high school athletic programs and other causes.
FUN FACT Because of its longstanding reputation and customer service, Kenmore Air routinely flies celebrities, their families and guests. Clients have included Harrison Ford, Jodie Foster, Goldie Hawn, Katharine Hepburn, Hugh Jackman, Michelle Pfeiffer and John Wayne.
Lee Johnson Chevrolet Mazda Kia
WEB SITE leejohnson.com
YEAR FOUNDED 1933
HEADQUARTERS Kirkland
INDUSTRY Automotive retail
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 120
FIRST GENERATION LeRoy E. Johnson, dealer, and Ed Murray, LeRoy’s brother-in-law and general manager
SECOND GENERATION LeRoy M. Johnson, dealer, and Dick Meyer, general manager
THIRD GENERATION Tod Johnson, president; Brett Johnson, dealer; Dick Meyer, general manager; and Scotty Thompson, general sales manager
ORIGINS In 1933, LeRoy E. Johnson bought the dealership at Kirkland Avenue and Lake Washington Boulevard with partners, whom he soon bought. The dealership built and moved to a new facility near its current location in 1964. It was forced to move again when, in 1968, planners determined that the dealership stood in Interstate 405’s future path. In 2008, the dealership celebrated its 75th anniversary.
SECRET OF SUCCESS “We treat everyone like family,” said Tod Johnson. “We pride ourselves on the longevity of our employees, many with more than 20 years of experience.”
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT For this family, the emphasis is to support kids in the local community. This includes everything from providing convertibles for parades and homecomings to sponsoring sports teams and contributing to many charitable organizations. The family also supported efforts to build Kirkland’s Peter Kirk Pool and the Kirkland Performance Center.
FUN FACT LeRoy E. Johnson helped bring Little League baseball to Kirkland in 1951, making it the first Little League in Western Washington. Lee Johnson Field in downtown Kirkland’s Peter Kirk Park is dedicated to LeRoy M. Johnson because he played, coached and sponsored several teams there.
Kemper Freeman Development, Inc.
WEB SITE bellevuesquare.com
YEAR FOUNDED 1946 HEADQUARTERS Bellevue
INDUSTRY Real estate development and management
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 155
FIRST GENERATION Legh Miller Freeman
SECOND GENERATION Frederick Kemper Freeman Sr.
THIRD GENERATION (Frederick) Kemper Freeman Jr.
FOURTH GENERATION Suzy (Freeman) McQuaid and Howard McQuaid and Amy (Freeman) Schreck, and Kevin Schreck
ORIGINS Kemper Freeman Sr., who was ineligible to serve in World War II because he lost sight in one eye, contributed to the war effort by building ships at Port Angeles. In 1946, he used his money to develop the Eastside’s first shopping center on a 10-acre strawberry farm that his grandfather, Legh Miller Freeman, bought in 1944. Bellevue Square, which opened with about 20 stores and a movie theater, has grown into the iconic Bellevue Collection, which features about 300 retail stories, 148 condominiums, two hotels and roughly 1 million square feet of office space. The family brought Bellevue to new heights when it built the 21-story Bank of America Tower (1988), the 25-story Hyatt Regency Bellevue and the 42-floor Lincoln Tower One (2005), which is one of the city’s tallest buildings, accounting for roughly 8 percent of downtown Bellevue.
SECRET OF SUCCESS Kemper Freeman Jr. said: “It was almost an accident that we (Freeman Sr. and Freeman Jr.) started working together. In business, it was the best relationship that we ever had. It was our strength and our ideas — once we have an idea hammered out, we will hold onto it. … It doesn’t mean we didn’t have disagreements. The good news is we never got mad at the same time. … The culture of the family becomes the culture of the business. … That is an asset or a liability.”
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Overlake Hospital, Performing Arts Center Eastside, Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and the school district are among the community causes the Freeman family has championed. Also, two generations served in the state House of Representatives: Miller Freeman (1913-15) and Kemper Freeman Jr. (1973-76).
FUN FACT Until he was 23, Kemper Freeman Jr. worked on farms because his family did custom farm work with special equipment for other farmers. “There is hardly a piece of farm ground in East Bellevue I haven’t had something to do with. … As a young kid, you got to run all that equipment, and it was as close to heaven as you could get. … That kind of work is very gratifying and healthy, and you learn a lot. A lot of things I learned help me today … tenacity, self-reliance, make do with what you have, how to make it work.”
Rowley Properties, Inc.
WEB SITE rowleyproperties.com
YEAR FOUNDED 1954
HEADQUARTERS Issaquah
INDUSTRY Property management and commercial and residential development
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 25
FIRST GENERATION George W. Rowley Sr., and Mary Patricia Rowley, owners
SECOND GENERATION George W. “Skip” Rowley Jr., chairman of the board
THIRD GENERATION Sisters Kari Rowley Magill, chief executive officer, and Kelly Rowley Richardson, assistant broker and property manager
ORIGINS Confident that Issaquah would become a suburban city, George W. Rowley Sr. bought 640 acres of undeveloped Squak Mountain land in 1954. For the next 22 years, George Sr. and his wife built at least 300 homes there. Then, the company began building and managing commercial real estate. More recently, the company completed the John L. Scott building, the first Gold LEED-certified building on the valley floor; the Hilton Garden Inn Seattle/Issaquah, which is Issaquah’s newest hotel; and Hyla Crossing, a high-tech office building. Today, the company has about 60 acres with 63 buildings in Issaquah, about 11 acres in North Bend and, with partners, about 60 acres in Maple Valley.
SECRET OF SUCCESS “We are tied to our land — whatever it needs to be to serve the community over time,” said Kari Magill. “One of our secrets to our longevity is to recognize what those needs are and to respond to them in a way that is a win-win. We can see them because we're fully integrated into the community.”
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT “Many of the first roads on Squak Mountain were paved by my grandfather and my father personally,” said Magill.
FUN FACT To help reduce winter flooding in Issaquah, Rowley Properties worked with government agencies, environmental groups, tribes and others to safely move Tibbetts Creek. The effort also built a trail and started the creek’s first salmon run. A green heron was recently seen there. Many years ago, the creek began as a drainage ditch dug and re-dug annually by farmers.
Greenbaum Home Furnishings
WEB SITE differentbydesign.com
YEAR FOUNDED 1959
HEADQUARTERS Bellevue
INDUSTRY Furniture
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 60
FOUNDER Ken Greenbaum
OWNERS Cindy, Steve and Jon Greenbaum
ORIGINS In 1959, Ken Greenbaum opened Ken’s Suburban Furniture in Bellevue with two employees. In 1984, he purchased Ken Schoenfeld Corp., combining the building into the 44,000-square-foot furniture showroom known today as Greenbaum Furnishings. In 1990, a service center opened in Woodinville. In the early 1990s, the family decided to close the company’s distant locations, like those in Tacoma, Lynnwood and Tukwila. Instead, they focus on their original Bellevue location and filling custom orders. In 2007, a clearance center opened in Woodinville.
SECRET OF SUCCESS Jon Greenbaum said: “Treating our employees as family and trying to make sure customer service is always our number one priority. … We understand what each other’s roles are and we respect that. We support each other. We trust each other’s decisions.”
ABOUT THE ANNIVERSARY Jon Greenbaum said: “It has been rewarding to have the business to carry on. We want to carry on the Greenbaum name. … We are looking forward to carrying on that legacy. ... It is amazing, in my short lifetime, how much the city (of Bellevue) has grown and how much more potential is there and how we can hopefully be part of that growth. We are cautiously optimistic that Bellevue will continue to blossom (and) that companies are coming to Bellevue and making it their corporate headquarters. … We just might have to be a little patient.”
Aqua Quip
WEB SITE aquaquip.com
YEAR FOUNDED 1959
HEADQUARTERS Renton
INDUSTRY Pool, hot tub and hearth business
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 80
FOUNDERS Esther and Dick Quint
OWNERS Brian and Nancy Quint; and Kathleen and Erik Carlson
ORIGINS: Dick Quint decided the family business, a lumber yard near Seattle, needed to diversify. Inspired by a trade magazine article about a lumber yard that sold pool products, he decided to do the same in 1959. The business completely converted into a pool service and supply company about 10 years later. Ever-evolving AquaQuip recently entered the fireplace business. Today, there are nine retail locations, including ones in Bellevue, Redmond and Lynnwood.
SECRET OF SUCCESS Brian Quint said: “Treating people with respect. … It’s the golden rule. And good old-fashioned hard work.”
ABOUT THE ANNIVERSARY Brian Quint said: “Being our 50th year, it gives us a sense of strength. So this is another challenge, but there is another level of responsibility to our parents and our parents’ parents. … This is a new challenge, but we have been down this road before. … We’ve got something good going on here. And we want to celebrate.”
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