Hyde-Murphy Company (Images of America)

The Hyde-Murphy Company was one of the largest and most renowned specialty woodworking mills in the United States. The company was a producer of high-quality architectural millwork and constructed elegant homes, businesses, and public buildings around the country, with offices in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC. The company was founded in 1901 when two families merged their business interests. Joseph S. Hyde owned a sawmill in Ridgway, in the heart of the Pennsylvania lumber industry, covered with valuable, mature, and virgin timber forests. Walter P. Murphy owned a planing mill downstream on the Allegheny River in Freeport. Hyde floated his lumber downriver where Murphy turned the wood into architectural products. It was natural for the two families to merge to manufacture high-quality woodworking products. Murphy moved to Ridgway, and the company flourished. The business survived a devastating fire, rebuilding and prospering, and its artistic, distinctive woodwork can be seen today in the Library of Congress, the Pentagon, the Supreme Court, and the Smithsonian Institution. The Hyde-Murphy Company ceased operation in 1961.