GIBSON CITY — Alexander Lumber Co. plans to close its Gibson City lumberyard by the end of March, leaving the possibility that the city will have no lumberyard for the first time in 140 years.

Dave Agee, district manager for Aurora-based Alexander Lumber Co., said the company made the decision to close the lumberyard at 107 S. Sangamon Ave. because of a loss in business resulting from the depressed economy.

The majority of the lumberyard’s business is selling lumber for the housing market, and Agee said people have not been building new homes or remodeling their homes as much.

“It’s a struggle for small-town yards to make ends meet,” Agee said. “The business level is just depressed because of the economy, and it just puts a lot of pressure on the yard to make a profit.”

Alexander Lumber expects to close the Gibson City facility “by the end of March,” Agee said. In the next several weeks, the company plans to start moving materials out of the lumberyard, Agee said.

The facility’s four full-time employees may be offered positions at other Alexander Lumber yards in the area, Agee said.

“It’s a tough time for the employees,” he said. “We have other yards in the area that are hopes are we can find a home for them there.”

There are no plans to close any of Alexander Lumber’s 25 other lumberyards in Illinois, Agee said. Other locations in the area are in Champaign, Gilman, LeRoy and Bloomington-Normal.

The Gibson City facility’s customers were sent a letter last week notifying them of the closure, Agee said. He said the company hopes to “try to transition those customers to our surrounding yards.”

Agee said the company has not decided what it will do with the Gibson City property. It may be put up for sale.

Meanwhile, Gibson City Mayor Dan Dickey said he plans to write a letter to Alexander Lumber management to see if there is anything he can offer to keep the business in Gibson City.

“I don’t know if it will help or not, but I will try,” Dickey said. “If that doesn’t work, I will get actively involved in pursuing another company. But it would be nice to keep them here. It’s worth the effort. ... I’m not giving up hope.”

Agee said closing the lumberyard is not an easy decision.

“Certainly yard closings are — we’ve experienced some over the last few years — they are not fun. They are not easy on the employees. They are not easy on the family that owns the company. And they are not easy on the community,” Agee said.

The lumberyard in Gibson City is the third in the area to close in recent years; others were the Alexander Lumber facility in Rantoul that closed in 2008 and a lumber yard in Fisher — Fisher Lumber & Building Supply — that closed last July.

The property in Gibson City has housed a lumberyard for more than 100 years, and the city has always had a lumberyard in operation, whether on that property or another.

Doug Hager owned the lumberyard on South Sangamon Avenue prior to selling it to Alexander Lumber Co. in December 1999. Hager said the news of the lumberyard closing came as a “great shock” — but one he could see coming.

“The business is changing,” Hager said. “You know how small towns go. But it’s still a shock.”

The first lumberyard operated at 107 S. Sangamon Ave. was opened in 1907 by Peter Schertz, who began P. Schertz Lumber and Coal with U.M. Holmes. Schertz was joined in the business by his son, Jesse V. Schertz, who bought out Holmes in 1912. Peter Schertz retired in 1925 and sold the business to Henry Hager, who was later joined in the business by his two sons, Doug and James.

The Hager family operated the lumber yard from 1925 until December 1999, when they sold the business to Alexander Lumber Co. The family added a True Value Hardware franchise to the business and expanded the business greatly over the years, especially in the area of farm buildings.

But the site of the town’s last remaining lumber yard was not its first. Gibson City’s first lumber yard — Spalding Lumber Co. — was established in 1871 on the southwest corner of Tenth Street and Sangamon Avenue, in the location now occupied by Specialty Grain, 231 N. Sangamon Ave.

According to “The Pioneer Village of Gibson City” by Mary Grimm Pate, Spalding Lumber was sold in 1903 to Alexander Lumber Co. of Chicago. The business was sold to Mr. Fred Miller in 1915, and then to his son-in-law, D. Stanley Stoker, to become Stoker Lumber Co. After a fire destroyed Stoker Lumber, it was not rebuilt.

The town’s past lumber dealers were civic-minded. Peter Schertz, Henry Hager and Stanley Stoker all served as Gibson City mayors.

Alexander Lumber was founded by John Alexander, a Scottish immigrant, in 1891. He came to Wausau, Wis., and was sent to Aurora in the 1880s to open a lumberyard. He bought the yard in 1891 and incorporated the business. One of his sons, also named John, continued to operate Alexander Lumber, while another son ran Alexander Warehouse and Sales. Walter Alexander, the company’s current president, is the third generation in the business.

Paxton Record correspondent Jean Noellsch contributed to this report.