Jacobi Building Materials

A family-owned business, Jacobi Building Materials Inc. will celebrate 50 years of business this year - a truly remarkable story! It all began when Charles Jacobi, a teacher at Winnetka Elementary School, built a small used brick wall at home. The neighbors got interested and soon found him storing 10,000 bricks in the family garage. Leaving his te... aching career behind, Mr. Jacobi refinanced the family station wagon and added some money from his teacher's pension plan to open the company's first location - originally named American Stone - in Burbank in 1956. In 1959, the City of Burbank disagreed with the masonry yard's zoning. As luck would have it, a small, existing building materials yard in Canoga Park became available. Mr. Jacobi purchased this company for $5,000 and leased the property from the Union Pacific Railroad (now Southern Pacific) at its present location on the corner of Vanowen Street and Canoga Avenue in Canoga Park. At that time, an old, small real estate office was there. He changed the name of the company to Jacobi Building Materials Inc. A few years later, he expanded the business by leasing the four-and-a-half-acre vacant field adjoining the existing yard. Jacobi Building Materials Inc. became, at this time, with their five-and-a-half-acre location, the largest (in square footage) brick, block and rock yard in Southern California. In 1971 they constructed the building seen at this location today. In 1978 Bob Jacobi got involved at his father's request and began to do some part-time bookkeeping for the business, earning $200 a month. Bob and Jane got married in 1978. Jane actually started working at the yard before Bob. In 1979, Bob quit his job as an accountant for Litton Industries and came to work full-time for the company. Bob and Jane have been completely and totally devoted to the success of this family-owned success story. They are the proud parents of a son, Derek, and a daughter, Lacey.Read More