Life started for LMC in 1935 in a small office in Center City, Philadelphia. Annual rent was $600 per year for a three year lease. In 1941, the company moved to larger facilities, again in Center City, right over the city’s largest movie house – The Fox Theatre. The next move was in 1956 to 50 east Wynnewood Road in Wynnewood, a suburb West of Philadelphia and not too far from our current location in Wayne. PA.Tired of renting and convinced of the company’s viability, LMC bought its first office building in Wayne, PA in 1959. It was the old Bell Telephone Building at 148 East Lancaster Avenue. Purchase price was $54,000. The building was eventually sold in 1968 for $95,000.
Meanwhile, in 1966, LMC purchased a large property on North Aberdeen Avenue, also in Wayne. They kept the building and some land for parking but sold the rest of the property to ACME Markets, a local grocery store chain. This building was the LMC Headquarters when Tony DeCarlo joined the company as Chief Financial Officer in 1977. Mr. DeCarlo would eventually become the President and CEO of LMC, but wait, we’ll get back to Mr. DeCarlo in a moment. He has a great story you’ll want to hear.The North Aberdeen property was a sound investment and served as LMC headquarters from 1966 until 1982. In 1980, LMC purchased its current facility at 137 West Wayne Avenue - two office buildings, one 40,000 square feet with four floors, the other 7,500 square feet on three floors with a small carriage house in between, on a little more than two acres. The buildings were fully occupied with tenants and it took two years to clear out the first two floors of the larger building so LMC could set up shop.
For the next few years, there were tenants on the top two floors of the main building. One of these was a collection agency which kept long hours to accommodate its nationwide activity. One Saturday, Mr. DeCarlo recalled walking around the LMC office when he thought he smelled something cooking. His nose led him to a small office in the collection agency’s area, where he found that their head of computer operations had set up housekeeping. His clothes were hanging on a coat rack and his girlfriend’s were on another. The couple cooked on a hot plate and even used LMC’s shower facilities to bathe! Come Monday morning, Mr. DeCarlo told the owner of the collection agency to disband this living arrangement, which he did.From 1990 on, LMC has occupied all four floors of the main building, leased out the small building to tenants, and used the carriage house for storage. We have recently undergone some renovations on each floor of the main building, moving around some of our departments and upgrading all the office spaces. This building is the place all current LMC employees call home and where we are celebrating our 85th anniversary this year.
