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Unpublished Tribune photo from April 1951

Don't Let Your Heat Go Up in Smoke!  Our new suction furnace cleaner will give you the greatest dollar value on your heating budget.  A clean heating plant is a short cut to savings. Leo Rasmussen is pictured at left.

A.C. Buchanan sold his plumbing and heating business in 1939 to Clare Van Voorhis, who operated then in Campustown.  In 1949 Clare bought and extensively remodeled a building at 120 Kellogg to suit his plumbing business.  Fred and Bill Van Voorhis in 1943 opened a sheet metal, heating and air conditioning business at 107 East 2nd Street.  Later, in 1949, they joined Clare in the newly remodeled building at 120 Kellogg.  In 1963 Clare retired and sold to his son Robert.

[Above]... are the nine trucks and 15 employees at Van Voorhis Plumbing and Heating, 120 Kellogg.
Jack Thorsen pictured at left.

Contemporary view of 120 Kellogg

Clare Van Voorhis, who heads the plumbing side of the business, came to Ames New Years' day in 1923.  He started his own business in 1939 and has been joined by other members of his family.  Mr. Van Voorhis, his brother, Stanley, and son, Robert, operate the plumbing side of Van Voorhis plumbing and heating.  Two brothers, William and Fred, own the sheet metal side of the business.

A specialty of the plumbing side of the company is the new all-steel Youngstown kitchens which come in modern pastel colors and conventional white.  This department of the company also features Rudd water heaters of all sizes; Youngstown and G.E. dishwashers; complete boiler and radiator service for homes and buildings, and plumbing fixtures by such names as Crane, Kohler, Briggs and American Radiator and Standard Sanitary.

The sheet metal side of the business has the exclusive agency in Ames for Lennox heating and air conditioning equipment.  They also feature Mitchell air conditioners in sizes to meet any home need.

The shop can handle any job connected with sheet metal.  In recent years, they have installed elevator and grain drying equipment all over the central west.

Mr. Clare Van Voorhis has something on the wall of his office which demonstrates the versatility of the firm.  Recently, he took time off from duties to take a fishing trip off the coast of Mexico.  The nine-foot Marlin on his wall attests skill with fishing as well as plumbing lines.