We are a local business that prides ourselves in building good relationships and providing excellent service. Since 1940, we have been serving our local community through residential and commercial glass repair and replacement. We are extremely proud of our role in supplying quality glass products in the Huntsville area for the past seven decades. Turner grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. His dad owned fifty two rental houses and it became Bob’s job to paint either the exterior or interior of one of the houses each week. “Mr. Bob” as he was known later in life said he never went to a ballgame or practice where he didn’t have paint on him somewhere. He attended The University of Alabama on a four year athletic scholarship. He played both offensive and defensive end for Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas. Robert was on the first Alabama team to play in the Rose Bowl. An exciting aspect of the Rose Bowl game for Mr. Turner was that the team traveled cross country by train. Bob went to work for Pittsburgh Plate Glass out of their Birmingham office. In 1940 he wanted to start his own business and decided Huntsville needed a full service glass shop. On January 14, 1940 an announcement stated: “New Business Opened Here” Mr. Turner had a partner, W. Miller (his wife’s uncle) who had been an electrician in Athens, AL. Among the first employees were two brothers: Arnold and Ed Sibley who worked for Huntsville Glass their entire careers. He was just getting his business up and running when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Turner and both Sibley brothers immediately enlisted, and he decided he had to close the shop. His wife Mary disagreed and she ran Huntsville Glass while the guys were serving during the war. There was so much work at Redstone Arsenal they could hardly keep up. They loaded all the glass their old truck would hold in the morning and repeated this at lunch. This was before vehicles had tempered and laminated glass and they replaced lots of construction vehicle glass. The business flourished and soon outgrew the original location at 221 Washington Street. They built a new building at 2201 Holmes Avenue, where the business is still located. A side note, there is a small building at the rear of the property on Holmes that housed R.V. Turner Salve Company, which was made from a recipe passed down from Mr. Turner’s father. He advertised and sold the small round tins all over the world! The Food & Drug Administration shut his operation down sometime in the 1960’s, but he got orders for years, sometime with a small bit of cash enclosed. Bob retired in 1975 and turned the day to day operations over to Arnold Sibley. Arnold hired his youngest brother Ira, who had been in the floor covering trade. Arnold ran the business until 1980 and it was turned over to Ira. He ran the business until 1987 and turned it over to Stan Wells, his son-in-law. When Stan retired Steve Smith took over as manager. Steve’s expertise in custom showers and mirrors is the reason so many designers and architects use Huntsville Glass for their custom projects. The company became affiliated with North Alabama Glass Company of Decatur in the early 1990s. Huntsville Glass Company is a proud member of the Huntsville Madison County Builders Association, the National Glass Association, the Alabama Home Builders Association and the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce.
