Magnificent virgin Longleaf heart pine

So many of our most precious things are taken from nature. Such it is with our Virgin Longleaf heart pine flooring and beams. About the time Columbus was discovering America in the 1400s, the seedlings of Longleaf pines were beginning their own journey deep in the hills of Virginia and the Carolinas. By the time of the American Revolution, these pines were 250 years old and the giants of the forest.

With the colonies expanding, the towering trees, some 6 to 8 feet in diameter, became the select wood of choice, with only the heart, the densest and strongest part of the long leaf, cut and milled into beams and floor joists for use in buildings, factories and homes across ever growing America.

Some 80,000 acres of Longleaf pines were milled for the next two centuries; used to build the very foundation of American commerce. The heart pine was renowned for its tight growth rings of as many as 30 to 35 per inch. Unfortunately, supply dwindled by the early 1900s, as the virgin pine forests disappeared. Today, even as buildings hundreds of years old crumble, the heart pine remains strong and determined.

Now almost 500 years later, this rare pine lumber is a trademark of a Jordan Traditions home. Salvaged from old train stations, demolished buildings, dilapidated farmhouses and homes across America, Jordan Traditions seeks out this rare and treasured wood, ships it to south Louisiana and gives it life again, as the heart of its carefully crafted homes.

From precise re-milling, to installation and finishing, it is handled with reverence and care. After all, the history of our country still lives in this determined wood. And the Jordan family knows that.