About Us
Founder, Mr. Leachman, who had lived in Washington since 1936, spent more than 60 years in the lumber business. He also was a bank director, a farmer, a member of the board of visitors of Hampden-Sydney College.
He began his career in lumber at the age of 20 as a sales representative for Mixer & Co. of Buffalo. In 1937, he joined Johnson & Wimsatt as general manager. He was named president in 1940 and became majority stockholder in 1955. He also was president of two subsidiaries, the White Pine Lumber Co. of Reno, Nev., and the Ashland Lumber Co., of Ashland, Va.
Under Mr. Leachman's guidance, the company opened outlets in Camden, N.J., Georgetown, Del., Newport News, Va., and Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C. It became one of the largest wholesale lumber businesses on the East Coast.
The firm was located in Southwest Washington until 1958, when it moved to Springfield, Va., as the result of urban renewal projects in its old neighborhood.
In 1968, it merged with Boise Cascade forest products company and Mr. Leachman retired.
In the early 1970s, when Boise Cascade began to phase out the old Johnson & Wimsatt operations, John P. Leachman, one of Mr. Leachman's sons, reactivated the company's name and continued in the lumber business. The senior Mr. Leachman was named chairman when the family resumed control over the firm and he held that position until his death.
He also was a director of the Alexandria National Bank and the old Metropolitan National Bank of Washington. He had farm holdings in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and North Carolina.
The Company moved its headquarters to Chevy Chase, Maryland in 2020.