Marvin Windows and Doors

Through craftsmanship, innovation and dedication to servicing customers, Marvin Windows and Doors has become the largest made-to-order wood window and door manufacturer in the world.

The Marvin Story

The Marvin story begins in 1904, when George Marvin came to Warroad, a small town in northern Minnesota about six miles (10 km) from the Canadian border. He came to Warroad to run a grain elevator and lumber yard for a Canadian firm, but when the firm relocated, George chose to stay behind. He spent the next seventy years building a business that would become a cornerstone of the Warroad community.

George founded the Marvin Timber and Cedar Company in 1912, and months later renamed it the Marvin Lumber and Cedar Company. In 1939 George's son Wm. S. "Bill", a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, came to work for his father thus becoming the Company's eighth employee. Harry York, the lumberyard manager, prompted the expansion of the company when he requested a machine that could keep him busy during the quiet winter months building window and door frames and then barn sash and screens.

Before the window business could develop further, however, World War II broke out. To help with the war effort, the company accepted defence subcontracts, and its workforce increased to 40 employees. After the war, Wm. S. "Bill" Marvin knew that without jobs, many of Warroad's young workers would be forced to move elsewhere. He recognized that making windows meant creating jobs, and jobs would give Warroad's residents a reason to remain in the area. Because of the craftsmanship, work ethic, and dedication of Warroad's unique men and women, Marvin has grown steadily to become a major producer in the industry.

George Marvin passed away in 1976, but today, second, third, and fourth generation Marvins still remain actively involved in the business. Today, Warroad, a community of nearly 2,000 people, is home to one of the industry's foremost producers of quality custom made window and door products with a workforce close to 3,000. The community, the company, and, above all, the customers benefit from this unique relationship.

In all those years of stubbornly refusing to leave Warroad, Marvin Windows managed to innovate many industry firsts:

• First in industry to deliver product via company-owned fleet of trucks
• First to introduce wood bead glazing instead of putty
• First to offer factory-installed jamb extensions
• First to offer high performance insulating glass ( Low-E Glass ) on entire product line

Low-E 2

Low E stands for low emissivity. The lower the emissivity the higher the percentage of long-wave radiation blocked thereby improving thermal performance. Low E glass is coated with a thin microscopic, virtually invisible, metal or metallic oxide layer. The primary function is to reduce the U-value by suppressing radiative heat flow. A secondary feature is the blocking of short wave radiation to impede heat gain. There are two basic types of Low E glass. The first, vacuum or sputter coated Low E, is referred to as soft-coat (See Low E II definition in Glossary). The second is pyrolytic Low E, commonly referred to as hard-coat. (See pyrolytic definition in Glossary.)