Owner nails down decision to close lumberyard

Jack Bloess started working at Looney and Bloess Lumber Co. as soon as he was big enough to weigh out nails.

More than 70 years later, he’s decided it’s time to call it a day for the lumberyard.

The lumberyard, which sits on South Washington Street just south of the bridge, has been in Sedalia as long as the town has been around. Come March, the business will be shut down so Bloess can retire.

“I’m getting too old to mess with it. I’m tired of it. It’ll be the first time the Bloesses haven’t had a lumberyard in Sedalia,” said the 80-year-old.

William A. Bloess, Bloess’ great-grandfather’s brother, started the business in 1863.

“He came up here when Sedalia started. Eventually, my grandfather bought the lumberyard from William Bloess in 1889. Then, in 1904, he and Lee Looney bought this property here” and moved the lumberyard to its current location, he said.

His father took over. Then he and his brother headed the company starting in 1972.

“It’s just been a great place to work, never a dull moment,” he said. “It’s different every day. It’s not monotonous.”

At one point, Looney and Bloess Lumber Co. had lumberyards in Warsaw, Lincoln, and Hughesville. At the Sedalia location, Bloess said that at one time, the store sold 50 boxcars of material in a year.

Now, Bloess plans to close down the final location for good on March 30. The next three months will be spent selling off inventory and hopefully the land itself.

The lumberyard sits on a parcel two blocks long and half a block wide, he said. He also owns the parking lot and land across the street.

“It’s kind of to the point where there’s not enough business to justify staying open,” Bloess said.

Merchandise markdowns will start on Jan. 2, said Megan Labille, an employee for the last 14 years. The store is open Monday through Friday.

Labille said she, Bloess, and general manager Rusty Carver made the decision to close.

“We knew, we made the decision together,” she said. “We didn’t want to make it, but it was inevitable.”

Labille said she liked the flexible hours and the family atmosphere of the business. She has brought her children to work, including five-month-old Macey, who slept behind the counter in a crib Thursday.

“I didn’t know that I thought I’d stay here, but I did,” she said. The job at Looney and Bloess was only the second or third she had ever had.

“I’ve worked here half of my life,” said Carver, who has spent 24 years at the business, working his way up from a delivery driver to general manager.

“It’s sad. I’ve been here a long time and know a lot of people,” he said. He hasn’t quite figured out what he’ll do next, but he hopes to keep selling some of the archery equipment carried in the store.

A few customers have been told, Labille said, but not many.

“Just a few close customers that grew up coming here,” she said. One customer said that he felt like hearing someone had died when he found out, she said.

As for Bloess, he hopes to continue the framing work he has been doing out of the store once it shuts its doors for good and continue painting.

He and his wife, who died in 1983, once owned an art gallery, and he majored in art at the University of Missouri.

He also said he would spend time at his home on Lake of the Ozarks.

“I can go down there, sit on the deck, and do nothing,” he said. “That won’t last long.”

Though he won’t get up and go to work every day, Bloess said he will stay busy.

“I’d go nuts if I didn’t have something to do,” he said.