Fortunately for Bill Graham, flames from the November fire that swept through 7609 Raytown Road didn’t reach the 6,500-square-foot space he leases on the west side of the building. A little smoke damage is all Graham Plumbing Supply has suffered.
But it took several months to get power back after the fire, and the whole ordeal has caused 71-year-old Graham to think a little more deeply about retirement lately.
“I’m looking for a successor,” Graham said recently, leaning back in a low chair behind the store’s long wooden counter.
Graham is Kansas City’s go-to source for antique toilets, pedestal sinks, and the thousands of obscure (in some cases obsolete) repair parts that help funnel water in and out of these fixtures. He’s the guy plumbers could call when they need a specific brass valve for a 100-year-old sink. He’s something homeowners could call upon when remodeling a bathroom and want a toilet with a little vintage character.
“I would say I’m probably the only company in town that has the parts, inventory and knowledge that I have,” Graham said. “At least I don’t know any others.”
Two men have owned Graham Plumbing Supply for the nine decades the company has been in business. Graham’s father, LA, founded the company in 1932 and ran it for the next 50 years. Graham bought it in LA and has been at the helm ever since.
Graham Plumbing Supply has always sold spare parts but used to specialize in general plumbing repairs including boiler and water heater maintenance. Back then it was based in Midtown. From 1940 to 1980, LA owned a 20,000 square foot lot at 3122 Main St.
“Then the city gave Wendy’s Hamburgers the right to the property,” Graham said. “We ended up at 3833 Broadway. That was in 1980. I ransomed my father in 1982. Then, in 1999, comes Walgreens.”
The pharmacy chain wanted half a lot on the corner of 39th Street and Broadway Boulevard. Graham eventually sold out. (Like Wendy’s on Main, Walgreens is still in that location today.) He packed up his antique toilet bowls and gas caps, along with his brass pipes and old galvanized fixtures, and took it all to Raytown Road.
In Raytown, progress was slow at first. Downtown has had steady business from property management companies who needed hard-to-find parts for the maintenance of all the old homes in the area. Raytown wasn’t quite that old-fashioned in that regard. “Also, they immediately tore down our old building and no one knew how to find us,” Graham said.
Then, around 2001, Graham made a smart move. He bought a 1-800 number from Westburne, a large nationwide plumbing supplies distributor that was going out of the parts business.
“They had vendors across the country selling this catalog called Star Plumbing and Maintenance Parts,” Graham said. “I asked to buy the number and they said yes. There was no copyright on it.”
Soon customers were calling Graham Plumbing Supplies, thinking it was the line for Star.
“We told them Star was out of business, but we probably had what they were looking for — faucet parts or cabinet screws or something,” Graham said. “What we did. At that time, however, we also started to buy more in bulk. So this was a whole new game for us.”
Graham said he still has several hundred customers across the country calling and placing orders based on that old catalog: large plumbing companies, general contractors, local governments. If he doesn’t have the part, he will order it.
Nowadays, Graham is more interested in the ancient side of his business. He loves to buy things, fix them and sell them.
“Come back this way,” Graham said. He rounded the corner to a cluttered back closet and pulled a small box from a shelf. Inside was a shiny faucet.
“This is a Chicago Faucet, one of the finest faucets ever made,” he said. “I had it re-chromed and put in new parts – state-of-the-art quarter-turn ceramic cartridges. This would fit in an antique pedestal sink, that’s where I’ll put it.”
Sometimes plumbers come to Graham with discarded pre-war toilets that they can’t stand being towed to the landfill. He once bought 83 Kohler toilets from a St. Louis hotel, all from 1930, which came with their original fittings. He has two left: a purple one and a yellow one.
Graham’s showroom floor, if you can call it that, is a sea of dozens of white and pastel sinks and toilet bowls, set on the carpet with no price tags. Some are for sale, others are waiting to be picked up, others are ongoing projects. Most are kind of vintage. They are arranged in a long rectangle that gives a walkway from the door to the counter.
A customer came, an elderly man in a blue and yellow Navy veteran cap. He cautiously approached the counter and Graham met him on the other side. Graham had sold the gentleman a brass fill valve for his 1955 American Standard toilet a week earlier. Now he wanted a brass ball valve for it.
Graham tried to talk him out of it.
“If it was my toilet, I’d put new guts in it,” Graham said. “I just completed a toilet this morning roughly the same year as your vintage and I installed a Fluidmaster flush valve and a Fluidmaster fill valve. You can’t beat these Fluidmasters. They eliminate the need for your rod and float ball. They are easy to insert and replace, and cost $12.”
The old man wasn’t ready to make that decision. He said he would think about it and come back. He went.
Graham returned to the subject of his retirement. He and his wife would love to spend more time with their three children and one grandson, and he wouldn’t mind spending a little more time golfing and fishing. But first he needs someone to do his one-man business for him.
“I think people see all of this, and maybe it puts them off,” Graham said, gesturing vaguely at the mountain of inventory surrounding him. “It’s true that few people have the expertise I have. But damn, I’m ready to train. And I’m not asking a ton of money for it.” He reckons $100,000 should seal the deal.
“I don’t know when my number will be available,” Graham continued. “Something happens to me, there’s probably going to be an auction of all this stuff and that’s it.”
He shook his head and seemed to think about it for a moment. A large industrial fan gave out a steady roar. Country music was playing softly on an old radio behind the counter. A customer came in. Graham stood up.
“Hello,” he said.
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David Hudnall is a story writer for The Star. He is from Kansas City and is a graduate of the University of Missouri. Previously he was editor of The Pitch and Phoenix New Times.
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