Same family. Same corner of P Street.

Fourteen-year-old Ernest Eloy Montoya sold newspapers in front of the Southern Hotel and watched a new building go up down the street, the one Bakersfield would come to know as the Fox Theater. As a young man he carried cement for the crews installing mission tile at the Bakersfield Inn, billed at the time as the largest motel of its kind in the world at 312 rooms. He felt honored to be part of it, and there was plenty of work for Ernest and his brothers Louie, Frank and Nick, four young men easing their family's load together.

In 1939 Ernest married Alyce Lopez. Six children followed: Jo Ann, Patty, Jeanie, Ernie Jr., Rick and Beth. The family remembers her as the lace around her husband's life and the heart of the household, a loving mother, a resourceful and creative financial manager, and above all a wonderful friend to Ernest. Of all his partnerships, the marriage proved the most successful. There were parties, a yard full of toys, and a go-cart Ernest never quite outgrew, the childhood his early responsibilities had postponed.

After earning his contractor's license, Ernest invited his brothers into business with him, Alyce at his side as bookkeeper. They named it State Roofing and Insulation Company, also known as Ace Roofing. The brothers shared a comfortable, efficient working relationship that only time could separate, and through the war years the Montoya families traveled California and Arizona roofing the government's army barracks.

The earthquake of 1952 devastated Bakersfield and the surrounding areas, and nearly destroyed Tehachapi to the east. Ernest and his brothers were instrumental in the rebuilding. It is a debt of trust the mountain communities have never forgotten, and neither have we.

By his mid-fifties the brothers had retired, and Ernest was too young to retire and too ambitious to quit. One dream was still open: serving the community as a roofing-materials distributor and an advisor to the everyday homeowner. He and Alyce took out a Small Business Loan, and on May 1, 1971, Bakersfield Shingles Wholesale opened at #4 P Street, selling roofing materials to the public with a staff of technicians for residential work. BSW, as everyone came to call it, was built to reach the family with a budget.

Sons Ernie Jr. and Rick both majored in business administration and brought continuity and their own judgment to the firm, leading it into commercial and residential work and full restorations, with Alyce keeping the books for decades more. They run the company today from the same corner of P Street.

In July 2000, BSW finished the roof restoration of the Fox Theater for the Historical Society, the same building Ernest watched rise as a boy selling papers down the street. Not many companies get to close a loop like that.

BSW has run Saturday-morning roofing classes for homeowners and given seminars to the City of Bakersfield Building Department. The crew still trains hands-on in the yard with the manufacturers whose systems we install. A trade this old deserves to be passed on properly.