Lainhart’s 25th Street location in West Palm Beach. The company closed after 119 years. [Photo: Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post/ZUMAPRESS.com]

The recession has led to the sale of Palm Beach County’s oldest continuously operated business, 119-year-old Lainhart & Potter. The lumberyard supplied building materials to Henry Flagler. Its land and operations were sold for $2.8 million through bankruptcy court to Brooklyn, N.Y.-based MarJam Supply, which has operations in 12 states. In Florida, it operates in Jacksonville, Orlando, Fort Myers, Miami, Wildwood and now West Palm Beach and Jupiter through the Lainhart deal. MarJam says that as of April only about 12 people were employed at the former Lainhart sites but it expects to double that shortly as the company expands. It also wants geographic expansion in the state. “We look forward to being throughout Florida,” COO Carmen Arguelles says.