History

Our History

On August 16 1971, a new business opened its doors to the residents of the Central Pennsylvania city of Altoona. The name of the company was Allegheny Glass & Mirror. The founders were Edward and Lois Simanski. Although neither Ed or Lois had little or no formal business experience, they decided to ignore status quo and put both feet forward, dedicated to the unfamiliar task of successfully maintaining a specialty trade company.

Mr. Simanski had worked for other glass companies in the past on both the residential and commercial scale. With this experience he was able to readily accept the work detail that was ultimately to be the backbone and life of the new company.

Allegheny Glass & Mirror was to be a simple business that would provide glass and glazing service to the public with most of the jobs yielding to the small to medium sized accounts. Some days, with business cards in hand, Ed would set out on a mission of finding new opportunities for the company. By simply driving around town, he would look for broken windows in residents homes and give them a card with an approximate estimate on fixing the repair. With any luck, the person would accept the bid or maybe call later to schedule the job.

As said before, Allegheny Glass was to be a small shop. But, as the years went by, larger jobs came along which required more help. Thus, more employees were needed, which led to even bigger accounts that required more extensive product lines and inventory.

With the small shop, located in the Juniata section of Altoona, now bursting at the seams for lack of space, the once “small” company was faced with the decision of expanding. Finally, in the Spring of 1976, the operations of Allegheny Glass & Mirror moved to its present home at 701 Tenth Avenue. Ed and Lois built the new facility with the satisfaction that Allegheny Glass & Mirror was now a successful growing company that had its sights set on the future.