In 1902 a man named Myers Y. Cooper opened a lumber yard on Red Bank Road. Twenty-seven years later he became the 49th Governor of Ohio. The lumber yard is still there, on the same road, run by the same family, and it will sell you deck boards on a Saturday morning.
That is a genuinely unusual sentence to be able to write about a building supplier. Most of the businesses in this category are branches of something headquartered elsewhere. Hyde Park Lumber and Design Center is on its fifth generation of one family at one address, and it has been there long enough to have supplied rowboats during the 1937 flood and built ammunition boxes during the Second World War.
This guide covers what they stock for the outside of a house, what a design-led supplier does that a big box cannot, and how to use them properly if you are planning a deck.
One Family, One Address, More Than 120 Years
Cooper’s conviction, in the company’s own telling, was that American homes deserved craftsmanship that would stand for generations. He went on to the governorship from 1929 to 1931. His wife, Martha Kinnecy Cooper, founded the Ohioana Library in 1929, which is still going too.
The business stayed in the family the whole way. Mike Judy, Cooper’s great-grandson, ran it for years. Today it is led by Mills Judy, Mike’s son and Cooper’s great-great-grandson.
In 2010 the company was inducted into the Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame, with former Ohio Governor Bob Taft presiding over the ceremony, and was profiled in Construction In Focus as a family business with an extensive history. There is a pleasing symmetry in one Ohio governor honoring the company another Ohio governor founded.
What matters to a homeowner is what that continuity produces. Reviewers describe it as a family owned business that treats you like family, note plainly that these people are local, and one praises the out-of-big-box thinking you will not find at national suppliers. A contractor writes that they send their clients here first.
| At a Glance | Hyde Park Lumber & Design Center |
| Founded | 1902, by Myers Y. Cooper, later the 49th Governor of Ohio |
| Run by | Mills Judy, Myers Cooper’s great-great-grandson. Still the founder’s family, still the same address. |
| What it is | An independent lumber yard and design showroom. Supply and design guidance, not construction. |
| Stocks | Decking, railings, columns and posts, stairs and stair parts, molding, trim, siding, doors, windows, cabinetry and decorative hardware |
| Address | 3360 Red Bank Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45227 |
| Phone | (513) 271-1500 |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to noon. Closed Sunday. |
| Website | hydeparklumber.com |
Location, Directions and Access
Hyde Park Lumber and Design Center is at 3360 Red Bank Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45227. The yard and showroom can be reached at (513) 271-1500.
Red Bank Road runs through the industrial and commercial corridor between Fairfax, Madisonville and the Little Miami, and the yard has been on it since before most of what surrounds it existed. It is a straightforward drive from Hyde Park, Oakley, Madeira, Mariemont and Anderson, and it is one of the closest suppliers of its kind to the eastern suburbs.
Hours and Access
They are open Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to noon, and closed Sunday. The Saturday morning window matters, because it is the difference between a supplier a working homeowner can actually use and one only contractors can reach.
- This is both a yard and a design showroom, so you can pick up material and make selections in the same visit.
- Reviewers describe consistent help from the counter through to the forklift, which is not universal in this trade.
- Their own site lists a slightly later weekday opening than their Google listing shows. The hours above are the ones on their Google listing.
- They can recommend a contractor if you need one. That referral is worth asking for, because a supplier hears which builders cause problems long before a homeowner does.
What a Lumber and Design Yard Covers
Their published product lines run to cabinetry, columns, posts and turnings, decking, decorative hardware, doors, molding, trim, railings, siding, stairs and stair parts, and windows. For anyone building outside, six of those matter.
The useful way to think about a place like this is that it covers the half of a deck you can see. Decking, railings, posts, stairs, trim and the door you walk out of are all selections, and selections are what a showroom is for. Framing lumber, footings, concrete and the hardscape under an adjoining patio come from elsewhere, and so does the labor.
That division is why the referral matters. A supplier that sells you railings and then points you at a builder is in a very different position from one that sells you both.
The biggest of those decisions is the surface. It is worth settling what type of wood is best for a deck in this climate before you walk in, and if budget is driving the project, knowing the most affordable decking material gives you a floor to negotiate up from rather than a ceiling to be talked down to.
Selections Are Cheaper Than Changes
The reason to use a design-led supplier rather than a shelf is that the questions get asked in the right order and at the right time. Railing style changes the post layout. Post layout changes the framing. Board direction changes the joist spacing. A door swing changes where the stairs can land.
All of that is free to decide on paper and expensive to decide once something is built. A showroom visit with a drawing in hand is the cheapest hour in the whole project.
- Bring the plan. Selections made against a real drawing go faster and produce fewer surprises than selections made from memory.
- Bring a photo of the house. Trim, columns and railing profiles are matching decisions on an older house, and matching is visual.
- Ask about lead times before you like something. Falling for a product that is twelve weeks out is a good way to lose a summer.
- Ask what they would not recommend here. A supplier who has sold into this climate for a century has opinions about what fails locally.
One thing to settle early is the wood versus composite question, because it is not only about looks and price. There are real permit differences between composite and wood decks in Cincinnati, and knowing them before you choose can save a round of revisions.
Specifying a Deck on the East Side
Materials are only half of a specification. The other half is the part the building department cares about, and railings sit right on the boundary between the two.
Railing height, baluster spacing and how a guard is attached are all code items rather than taste items. Deck footings, railings and safety codes is worth reading before you fall for a railing system, because the handsome one and the compliant one are not always the same product.
It also helps to know roughly what you are spending before you start choosing. Running a calculator to estimate the cost of building your deck gives you a number to hold the selections against, which is the difference between a budget and a hope.
Platinum Deck and Patio builds decks, paver patios and retaining walls across the Cincinnati metro, and on the east side in particular the sequence that works is drawings first, selections second, and material ordered against a real plan rather than a rough idea.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do they build decks?
No. They are a supplier and a design showroom. The building is done by contractors, and they will recommend one if you ask.
Can homeowners shop there, or is it trade only?
Homeowners are welcome. Reviewers describe being helped from the counter through to the forklift, and the Saturday morning opening exists for exactly this reason.
Do they carry composite decking as well as wood?
Decking is one of their published product lines and covers both material families, along with the fasteners. A reviewer specifically credits them with stocking hard-to-find deck screws and drivers.
How old is the business, really?
Founded in 1902 and still at the same Red Bank Road address, under the founder’s family in its fifth generation. They were inducted into the Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame in 2010.
What should I bring?
Drawings if you have them, dimensions if you do not, a photograph of the house, and a realistic budget. Photographs of anything the new work has to match are worth more than a description.
The Bottom Line
Hyde Park Lumber and Design Center is the rarest thing in this category: a genuinely independent supplier, in one family, at one address, for more than 120 years. It survived floods and a world war doing useful work, and it now sells the visible half of a deck to people who care how it looks.
For a homeowner, the practical value is the showroom conversation. Decking, railings, posts, stairs and trim are all decisions that are free on paper and costly once built, and a supplier with a century of local pattern recognition is a good place to make them.
Take your drawings, go on a Saturday morning, and call (513) 271-1500 first if you want to be sure the right person is in.
Then ask them who they would trust to build it. They will have an opinion, and it will be an informed one.