National Roofing Museum

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Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from National Roofing Museum, Arts and entertainment, 3110 Cherry Palm Drive Suite 290, Tampa, FL.

America’s first national museum dedicated solely to the history of roofing, encouraging and developing the preservation of roofing artifacts, and disseminating a chronological timeline of the roofing industry’s feats.

10/17/2026

Roofing History: Rex Flintkote and J. A. & W. Bird Co.

This vintage advertisement for Rex Flintkote Roofing circa 1904, offers a fascinating look at the early days of manufactured roofing materials and the companies that helped transform the industry.

Boston-based J. A. & W. Bird Co. traced its origins to the 1830s, initially operating in the pharmacy and chemical supply business before expanding into paints, varnishes, and eventually roofing products. The company became known for Rex Flintkote, a prepared roll roofing product made from treated wool felt.

The advertisements headline, Its So Easy to Lay, emphasized simplicity of installation, claiming that even a child could almost do it. Rex Flintkote was also promoted as resistant to fire, water, acids, and harsh weather conditions. These were ambitious marketing claims at a time when manufacturers were competing to replace traditional roofing systems with affordable, readily installed alternatives.

The little boy pictured in the advertisement became a recognizable part of Rex Flintkote's branding. By the early 1900s, the company encouraged customers to Look for the Boy on every roll. Rex Flintkote even appeared at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair, where the product covered the Palace of Varied Industries.

The Flintkote name would eventually become one of the most recognizable in American roofing and building materials, expanding well beyond its early roll roofing products.

10/10/2026

A little roofing history from 1951!

This vintage matchbook advertising Ruberoid roofing products for Frank T. Luby of Urbana, Illinois, offers a glimpse into how roofing contractors marketed their businesses 75 years ago. Ruberoid has an important place in American roofing history. Originally founded as the Standard Paint Company in 1886, the company introduced RU-BER-OID asphalt roll roofing in 1892.

By 1921, the product had become so successful that the company adopted the Ruberoid name.Ruberoid went on to pioneer interlocking asphalt shingles in 1933 and eventually merged with GAF in 1967, the same year it introduced Timberline laminated shingles.

I enjoy finding these small pieces of roofing memorabilia. Something as simple as a matchbook can tell a larger story about the contractors, products, and innovations that helped build our industry.

10/03/2026

A little roofing history for Oktoberfest.

This wooden stein from 1933 bears the name Marmahon Roofing Co.

Nearly a century later, it is a great reminder that roofing companies have always found ways to mix business, fellowship, and a little fun.

With Oktoberfest underway, it seemed like the perfect time to share this one. Prost to the roofers who came before us and to preserving the history of our industry.

09/26/2026

Here is a piece of roofing history from around 1960.

Reflecto-Barrier Sales Co., Inc., based in Hartford, Connecticut, was part of the postwar transformation of commercial roofing, when manufacturers were developing increasingly sophisticated roof assemblies rather than simply selling individual roofing materials.

This brochure promoted the company’s Reflecto-Barrier system as a fire-resistant protective system for modern roof construction. The system incorporated Monsanto’s Ultron vinyl film and was marketed for use in roof assemblies that could satisfy Factory Mutual Class 1 requirements.

Reflecto-Barrier was not a short-lived concept. By 1958, architectural publications were describing the company’s vinyl-film v***r barrier system and specialized application equipment. The company continued appearing in roofing specifications and product literature into the 1960s and 1970s, including tested roof assemblies involving steel, concrete and wood decks.

09/19/2026

Here is a piece of Chicago roofing history from September 11, 1914.

This letterhead comes from the Western Roofing & Supply Company, which operated from 3611 Loomis Place in Chicago. The company was closely affiliated with the Philip Carey Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati and served as a distributor of Carey roofing and building products. A contemporary account of Chicago’s Central Manufacturing District notes that Western Roofing’s building was constructed in 1912, contained roughly 40,000 square feet, and included two stories and a basement.

The letterhead itself is almost a catalogue of the early twentieth-century roofing industry. Western Roofing offered flexible cement roofing, roofing paints and cements, tarred and asphalt felts, damp-proofing materials, building papers, coal-tar products, pipe and boiler coverings, and a wide range of asbestos products. Philip Carey was already a major national manufacturer of these materials, and historical records show the company manufacturing roofing, insulation, and related products well before this letter was written.

By the early 1900s, roofing was moving rapidly toward manufactured systems and standardized materials. Composition roofing, asphalt products, felts, cements, insulation, and fire-resistant assemblies were becoming increasingly important. Carey was one of the companies helping drive that transition and was advertising manufactured roofing systems nationally by this period.

Chicago was also an ideal place for a roofing supplier to grow. The city was one of the country’s principal manufacturing, railroad, and distribution centers, allowing companies like Western Roofing to move products throughout the Midwest. Its location within Chicago’s Central Manufacturing District placed it directly within one of the most important industrial complexes of the era.

Even the transaction reflected in this letter tells a story. Western Roofing was shipping $127.18 worth of material C.O.D. to C.C. Huffine & Co. in Indiana, with payment handled through a sight draft and local bank. More than 110 years later, the methods have changed, but manufacturers, distributors, contractors, credit, transportation, and material supply remain fundamental parts of the roofing business.

09/12/2026

This 1933 Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Company “Invincible Roofing Approved Roofer” sign represents a company that would grow from a Depression-era startup into what it later advertised as the world’s largest manufacturer of asphalt roofing and allied products.

Lloyd A. Fry Sr. entered the asphalt roofing business as a young man and started his own roofing manufacturing company in Chicago in 1930. That first effort failed.

In 1933, during the depths of the Great Depression, Fry started again. This time the company took off. Fry manufactured and distributed asphalt roofing products, including asphalt shingles, roll roofing, saturated felt and built-up roofing materials. “Invincible” became one of the company’s principal brands, along with Genasco.

The “Approved Roofer” language on this sign is also significant. Roofing manufacturers were already developing networks of contractors associated with their products and brands. Signs like this gave contractors a way to tell customers that they had a relationship with an established manufacturer. In many respects, it was an early predecessor to the manufacturer-certified and approved-contractor programs that are common throughout roofing today.

Fry grew aggressively. By the 1950s, the company operated 19 roofing plants strategically located across the United States, producing asphalt roofing products on a national scale. Period advertising promoted not only Fry roofing materials but also its 20-year Full-Value Bond, which covered specified failures involving both materials and application costs, an early example of manufacturers using warranties as a competitive selling tool.

The company's history ultimately became part of another major roofing name. Lloyd A. Fry Sr. sold the business to Owens Corning Roofing in 1977.

09/05/2026

S. M. & C. M. Warren was one of the most important early companies in the development of modern American composition roofing.

The firm consisted of brothers Samuel Mills Warren and Cyrus Moors Warren. Samuel entered the composition roofing business in the 1840s and established operations in Cincinnati. Cyrus joined him in 1845, creating S. M. & C. M. Warren. By 1847, they had begun replacing pine tar or pitch with coal tar, which was cheaper, more available, and ultimately more suitable for expanding composition roofing commercially.

Samuel Warren was a founder of the modern roofing contracting industry, and the Warren brothers were central figures in transforming composition roofing from an experimental technique into a commercially viable roofing system. Their work came at an important time because American cities were increasingly using flat and low-slope roofs, which created demand for economical, continuous waterproof roof coverings.

The ad itself is particularly interesting because it shows that the Warrens had already developed something resembling a roofing system business, rather than simply selling a single commodity.

The company also operated as both a manufacturer and roofing contractor. This gave the Warrens direct feedback from field installations and helped them improve the system. Historical accounts note that the Warrens continuously experimented with their roofing materials. Cyrus Warren became especially important because of his work in the fractional distillation of coal tar, producing more refined and consistent roofing products.

The Warren enterprise eventually extended well beyond one Cincinnati shop. Members of the Warren family established related roofing and coal-tar businesses in Buffalo, St. Louis, Long Island, Louisville, Brooklyn, and other markets. By the mid-1850s, the family's chemical operations had developed into the Warren Chemical & Manufacturing Company.

That business became much larger than a roofing-material supplier. Coal tar contained valuable chemical compounds, including substances used in the emerging synthetic dye industry. The Warrens therefore became part of the developing American chemical industry as well as the roofing industry.

Their roofing technology continued to evolve. They eventually used natural Trinidad asphalt combined with petroleum-derived materials, moving the technology closer to the asphalt-based roofing products that dominated the twentieth century. The National Park Service identifies the Warrens as industry leaders whose innovations helped establish composition roofing across the United States.

By the early 1880s, Warren Chemical & Manufacturing Company was advertising asphalt roofing nationally, including installations on major industrial buildings and railroad facilities. Its advertisements claimed more than three decades of experience in composition roofing and offered tarred felt, asphalt roofing, roofing pitch, and related products.

08/29/2026

This specification booklet for Reilly Bonded Roofs was published in 1962 by the Reilly Tar and Chemical Corporation of Indianapolis and reflects the era when built-up roofing systems relied heavily on coal tar pitch, tarred felts, gravel, and slag surfacing.

Reilly’s roots went back much further. Founder Peter C. Reilly entered the coal-tar business in 1886 and organized his own coal-tar distilling company in Indianapolis in 1900, which eventually became Reilly Tar and Chemical Corporation. By the 1920s, operations included coal-tar refining and creosote wood treatment, and the company later expanded into specialty chemical manufacturing.

What makes this piece especially interesting is the scale shown on the cover. By 1962, Reilly listed plants from Chicago and Cleveland to Texas, Alabama, Utah, Washington, and Virginia, illustrating how national the roofing-material supply chain had already become.

The company later changed its name to Reilly Industries in 1989, marking another chapter in a business whose history stretched across much of the twentieth century.

Old specifications like this are a reminder that many of the systems, materials, and technical standards we use today developed from more than a century of experimentation and industrial roofing practice.

08/22/2026

This is a great piece of roofing history from Scott & Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the early American manufacturers of iron and steel roofing.

Scott & Co. was established in 1872 and operated from 75 East Front Street in Cincinnati during the late 19th century. Cincinnati city directories list the company at that address by the early 1880s, and contemporary construction publications were already discussing Scott & Co. roofing systems in 1882. One technical publication described the company's sheet-iron roofing design and its use of crimps intended to address the expansion and contraction of metal roofing.

The advertisement itself provides an interesting snapshot of how metal roofing was marketed more than 130 years ago. Scott & Co. promoted standing seam roofing, crimped roofing, corrugated roofing and siding, while emphasizing that its systems were "easy to apply" and required "no expensive tools." The company was also clearly selling nationally, advertising special rates for carload quantities and later telling customers that it would pay the freight on roofing and siding for mills and grain elevators.

Scott & Co. remained in the Cincinnati roofing business for decades. By 1893, Cincinnati's Illustrated Business Directory identified Edward D. Bevitt of Scott & Co. at 75 East Front Street. By 1904, the company had moved to 234 East Front Street at the Public Landing and had expanded its offerings to include roofing, siding, sheet building materials, ceiling products, corrugated iron arches, eaves troughs, conductor pipe and roof coatings.

One dating note: although this piece is sometimes identified as an 1888 or 1889 advertisement, the wording "Our Twentieth Year" is difficult to reconcile with the company's documented 1872 founding. That language would place the advertisement closer to 1891-1892, so I would describe it as circa 1890 unless additional provenance establishes an exact date.

What stands out to me is how familiar the sales pitch sounds. Durability, ease of installation, labor savings, freight costs and the ability to install the system without specialized equipment were selling points then just as constructability and labor efficiency are today.

The materials and technology have changed dramatically. The fundamentals of selling a roof have not.

08/08/2026

This July 5, 1927 letter from Johns Manville offers a fascinating snapshot of industrial history. Sent from the company’s New York office at 292 Madison Avenue and signed by Advertising Manager W. S. Lockwood, it asks Lamson & Goodnow Mfg. Co. to identify the right chief engineer to receive The Power Specialist on a regular basis. That simple request shows how major manufacturers built influence in the early twentieth century by marketing directly to engineers and other technical decision-makers.

The letterhead tells an even bigger story. It reflects the scale of Johns-Manville’s reach, with offices across the United States and beyond, and it highlights a wide range of products tied to construction, power plants, insulation, roofing, and industrial applications. It also reflects the material realities of the era, including the prominent role asbestos played in manufacturing and building products at the time.

Historically, Johns Manville traces its roots to 1858, when Henry Ward Johns began producing roofing materials in New York. The company later grew through its merger with the Manville Covering Company, and in 1927, the same year as this letter, it went public on the New York Stock Exchange. In that sense, this document captures Johns-Manville at a key moment in its growth, when industrial expansion, technical marketing, and national distribution were shaping the future of the building materials industry.

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3110 Cherry Palm Drive Suite 290
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