About Us: History

For over 70 years, S.R. Smith has been making state-of-the-art diving boards, pool slides, rails and ladders that make pools more fun and safer to use. We built our reputation on our fast, reliable turnaround times, ability to do custom work and the highest level of customer service. Our quality and fast turnaround times have been recognized in our industry by many awards that we’ve continued to win, year after year.

S.R.Smith boasts the fastest industry turnaround for both our stock and custom products. We are the largest privately held manufacturer of diving boards, slides, rails and ladders in the industry, with over 130 employees.

• 1932 – Founded by Samuel R. Smith, an entrepreneur and former plant manager of Beaver Wood Products Co. in Portland, OR. The first S.R. Smith building was located on Macadam Ave. in downtown Portland. First product was Douglas Fir Springboards.
• 1952 – S.R. Smith moved to Canby to be closer to the Douglas Fir and the railroads. S.R. Smith would manufacture diving boards and load them directly onto train cars.
• 1960 – Moved to current plant on Berg Parkway that overlooks the Molalla River, in order to expand manufacturing capacity.
• 1962 – Sam Smith sold the business to then Secretary-Treasurer, Rene DuPont.
• February 24, 1966 – Plant burns to the ground and temporarily moves back to original Canby plant location by the railroad tracks. While the company was being rebuilt, DuPont found jobs for every worker, and had the plant producing diving boards again within two weeks!
• 1981 – S.R. Smith acquired Swan Manufacturing – a manufacturer of stainless steel handrails and ladders.
• 1985 – Water Slides were added to the product mix.
• 1995 – Tennessee plant was added so product could more quickly reach East Coast customers.
• 2002 – S.R. Smith’s commercial products organize under a new, separate brand, S.R. Smith Commercial, which has experienced exponential growth since its inception.