Prior to 1918, two lumbermen, John Workman and Wally Savage operated a sawmill in the northern part of Washington, near Arlington. In 1923, they built a manufacturing plant in Renton to kiln–dry and process green clear lumber into the finish, moldings, and other high-end products. They named the corporation Savage Lumber and Manufacturing Co. after WallySavage.

The first location was Renton. This was the only location until 1933 then Savage dedicated to distributing, at wholesale, a wider variety of products than lumber and millwork, and rented a warehouse for this purpose at 1215 Western Avenue, Seattle. This building is now occupied by Compton Lumber Co. About 1940, property for our present building was purchased from the Milwaukie Railroad but construction was delayed on account of the war. In 1947, a warehouse and office were built (at our present Seattle location). The building then was only half its present size and the completed structure was finished in 1951.

In 1955, we opened a warehouse in Spokane from a location leased from the Northern PacificRailroad. In 1958, we bought our present site on Ferry Street and built the first of three warehouses there. In that year, we sold our Renton plant, moving to our present Tacomaaddress at 1001 East 25th Street. We added three new buildings and moved our machine and millwork equipment to Tacoma from Renton. In 1973, a Portland branch was started which gave us complete wholesale distribution facilities in the four major northwest cities