History
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From humble beginnings, our family company has evolved into the largest importer of tile in the eastern United States. With a wide variety of imported tiles from Spain, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Greece, Mexico and Asia, we are able to offer our customers the most comprehensive selection of products possible. Over the course of our long history, we have established an unrivaled reputation for caring and design expertise.
It was 1955 in Springfield, Massachusetts when Harry Marcus of Marcus Tile realized that he was picking up as much tile at the two distributors in Hartford, Connecticut for other contractors in Springfield as he was for himself.
There were no distributors in Springfield, making it necessary for Harry to go to Hartford just about every day to pick up tile for his four man team of installers. Harry and his wife, Mollie, decided that it was time to go into the distribution business for themselves. The foundation for Best Tile was born when the Marcuses decided to sell their installation business and partner with the Wenczel Tile Company to open up Standard Tile Distributors in August of 1956.
Harry quickly expanded by opening a branch warehouse in Hartford, CT in 1957. This did well and Harry expanded to West Haven, CT in 1958.
With his partner in New Haven, Jack Knies, an additional location was opened in Fairfield, CT in 1965. Steve Marcus, Harry & Mollie's oldest son, entered the business and after managing the Hartford warehouse, and opened a new location in Albany, New York.
It was during the early 1970's that we began importing tile - first from Japan and later from Italy, Spain, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, South America, England, France, Germany and Indonesia. By this time, the company was a major player in the tile business in the Northeast.
The expansion continued. Steve, with a managing partner, Bob Rose, expanded first into Syracuse, NY (1973) and then to Buffalo, NY (1975) and to Rochester, NY (1977). Brad Marcus, Steve's younger brother, came into the business and opened his first store in Worcester, MA (1977) (now in Shrewsbury, MA), then to Dedham, MA (1980).
Steve and Bob, with a managing partner, Chet Whittam, expanded to Pittsburgh in 1984. Also in 1984, Steve and another managing partner opened in the Poughkeepsie, NY market.
In May of 1985, another store was opened in Warwick, RI, and then Danbury, CT (now Brookfield).
Our successful excursion to New Jersey took place in 1990 with Ralph Marra as a managing partner. An additional location was opened in Keyport, NJ. In 1995 another showroom was opened in East Brunswick. Moving south, a store was opened in Lorton, VA outside of Washington DC, followed by stores in Richmond, VA and Rockville, MD.
Jack opened a showroom in Manchester, CT in 1995 and the company expanded to Middleton, MA in 1996. The company continued its geographical expansion when Steve expanded in 1998 with Frank Donahue into the Raleigh, NC market and in 1999 with Doug Maynes in Burlington, VT. Frank then opened our Chapel Hill/Durham, NC store in 2004 and our Greensboro, NC store in 2008. In 2000, Brian Ford joined Steve as partner in Albany, NY and expanded to Saratoga Springs, NY in 2008.
Steve Marcus and Bob Rose bought out the group of Boston stores in 2006. They hired Doug Maynes to oversee the running of the Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont stores. Additional locations were opened in Woburn, MA in 2007 and Plymouth, MA in 2008.