About Us

In 1958 Jack Barnes and Lou Moretzsohn formed a partnership and opened a business to sell some roofing. Over the past 40 years that idea has blossomed into a six-location company that distributes not only roofing, but siding, widows, doors, kitchens, decking, insulation and many other products for the professional builder, remodeler, and installer.

Their first location was on Sidgley Avenue, Philadelphia, PA. and at that time, Jack and Lou traded under the name of Tustin & Howard Inc., as there was a third partner by the name of Ben Howard.

In 1960 they opened a branch location on Broad Street Malvern, PA. In 1961, they parted company with Howard and changed the name of their business to J&L building Materials, Inc. In the transaction, they left Philadelphia location to their former partner.

The next J&L location was in 1960, when the Chester yard was opened.

In 1970, the Chester location was closed and moved to Glen Mills. In February 2000 the Glen Mills location was moved to Concordville, .

The next expansion came in 1973 when the collegeville location was opened.

In 1984 the Frazer location was purchased and opened for business in the summer of 1985, and the Malvern location was sold. With over 50,000-sq. ft. of storage under roof, Frazer was to become the standard by which facilities are judge.

1988 brought with it an opportunity to expand to the west and property was acquired in Landisville and the location was opened by August of that year.

In 1991, the succession plan was put into motion and David Moretzsohn, Lou's oldest son became President of J&L, and David Barnes, and Jack's youngest son became executive V.P.

Lou and Jack began to look at upgrading the existing locations by either adding on or moving altogether if necessary. With that goal in mind the search was on to upgrade Collegeville. After exhaustion all options available to improve the existing location, it was sold in 1992, and the business was moved 2 ½ miles east on Germantown Pike to its present location in Norristown.

The move quadrupled the amount of storage under the roof to 28,000 sq. ft. It also afforded the opportunity to open yet another "State of the Art" showroom for which J&L has become so well known.

The move to Norristown, and opportunity presented itself in Delaware to acquire an existing distributor by the name of Buckeye Supply. In January of 1992, Buckeye Supply became J&L's fifth location. In 1999 Buckeye Supply was renamed as J&L Building Materials, Inc. Newport, Delaware's location.

In 1994, tragedy struck the J&L family when Lou Moretzsohn, became ill and passed on in April of the year. He is sorely missed and will forever be remembered fondly by those who shared his friendship.

In 1997 our Douglassville location was opened and became our 6th location