Warren Hull; Lumber Company Co-Founder

Warren Hull, an early San Fernando Valley settler who co-founded the Hull Bros. Lumber Co., has died at his Encino home. He was 94.

A longtime Encino resident, Hull died Monday of complications of old age, said his granddaughter, Linda Hull.

A native of Nebraska, Hull moved to the Owensmouth-Canoga Park area in 1912 with his family. Each school day, Hull rode his horse-drawn buggy to the Pacific Electric Red Car stop in Van Nuys and from there continued to Hollywood High School, from which he graduated in 1914, according to his family. After serving as a second lieutenant in the Army during World War I, he returned home to work for Hayward Lumber in Los Angeles. Following a transfer to Fillmore as manager of a Hayward Lumber yard, Hull and his brother, Merritt, started their own sash and door business in West Hollywood in 1922. Five years later, the Hull brothers opened a lumberyard in Reseda and in 1932, a new Hull Bros. Lumber Co. was built in West Hollywood. The existing Hull Bros. Lumber Co. facility was opened in the early 1950s in Canoga Park. Hull continued with the family business until his retirement in the mid-1960s.

Hull belonged to a Masonic lodge and was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Encino.

He is survived by his wife of 72 years, Edith Hull; sons, Wally Hull of Calabasas and Wayne Hull of Woodland Hills; eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

A funeral, with burial to follow, is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday in the chapel of Oakwood Memorial Park, 22601 Lassen St., in Chatsworth. Pierce Brothers-Praiswater Mortuary in Canoga Park is handling the arrangements. Contributions can be made in Hull’s name to the charity of the donor’s choice.