New Downtown Bend, Oregon Location, New Image
Lumbermens Insurance, a full-service insurance agency in Bend, is celebrating one hundred years of operation. Founded in 1914, Lumbermens’ roots date back to the founding of Bend. The agency is one of the oldest companies with continuous operations in Central Oregon and remains strongly tied to the community today.
Lumbermens represents the consolidation by purchase or merger of local insurance agencies established to service the many businesses and residents that arrived in the early 1900s to support Bend’s booming timber industry. These consolidations included the Bend Insurance Agency, noted as the first insurance agency established in Bend in 1905 by Judge H. C. Ellis.
The main part of Lumbermens was established in 1914 by Ward H. Coble, the noted founder of the Liberty Theatre and builder of the Coble building. Coble’s agency was later owned by J.C. Rhodes, until he sold it to Lumbermens National Bank in 1929, where it was incorporated and given the name Lumbermens Insurance Agency.
Lumbermens National Bank maintained office space for the agency in the lobby of its offices on Wall Street for five years, until the passage of the Building Act forced national banks to divorce their insurance agencies from banking operations. In 1934 Lumbermens National Bank sold the agency back to Ward H. Coble and his brother-in-law Frank R. Prince, who eventually moved the agency into the ground floor of the Coble Building at 118 Oregon Avenue in Bend (see photos).
Lumbermens occupied the corner building on Franklin and Bond from the 1970s until 2004, when Lumbermens Executive Joe Bankofier demolished the old building and replaced it with the gleaming new Franklin Crossing building that now stand in its place. Lumbermens moved into the second suites of the Franklin Crossing building in August of this year.
Lumbermens is celebrating its centennial with a fresh corporate image, including a redesigned corporate identity and beautiful new downtown offices in Franklin Crossing (see photos). The company’s new look reflects its forward-thinking enthusiasm and its pride in being part the founding fabric of Bend for over 100 years.
Lumbermens carries all kinds of insurance from home, car, health and life and business and commercial.
Since the timber town days in 1914, Lumbermens has grown to a staff of nearly 20 experts representing the best insurance companies in America today. When it comes to insurance for your family or business, it’s important to see the big picture. They help keep you out of the woods with insurance coverage. Today, they are still a hometown team, working hard to help customers whittle out plans for the future, put down roots and grow strong.
Lumbermens Insurance is a licensed full-service insurance agency representing over 50 national insurance companies offering business, life, auto, health and home insurance products in 12 U.S. states. The Lumbermens Insurance mission is to work for the success of the clients they serve by providing caring and innovative solutions to their insurance needs, delivered with the highest standards of integrity and excellence.
541-382-2421, www.lumbins.com
