Our History
Gundlach's Plumbing was first established in the year of 1900 by two partners. Max Gundlach Jr. and his partner A.C. Wroot. They opened the plumbing repair shop on the corner of 20th and Chester under the name Gundlach & Wroot. In 1927 I. Rees Jones bought into the business for a grand total of $4,666.00 and shortly after expanded the company services to include tinning and sheet metal work. The state contractor's license was issued as No. 1338. We still get funny looks and questions on the low number.
In 1930, the business was officially renamed and incorporated under the name Gundlach Plumbing and Sheet Metal Co. Ltd., which is the name still used to this day. Gundlach's then relocated to 2324 Chester Ave., a former horse stable and automotive repair building.
In 1934 the two Jones brothers joined their fathers business. Cecil and Lee Jones worked together to bring the air conditioning feature to the business. Cecil was trained in New York at the Carrier factory training facility anticipating the demand for air conditioning in homes and businesses in Bakersfield. You can still find old water cooled system that were built from scratch in some of the older homes and buildings in town, and yes they are still running today.
Max Gundlach passed away in 1941 and his widow Gussie Gundlach sold the remainder of the business to the Jones family. During the 1950's and 1960's Gundlach's became one of the largest mechanical contractors in town, building such projects as Minter Field, St. Francis Church, the maternity ward at Memorial Hospital and several local high schools.
In 1985, Gundlach's discontinued the tinning and sheet metal fabrication side of the business and focused on service and remodel work for plumbing and air conditioning. They relocated to 2313 K St., next to the 24th street café. The building was eventually demolished and is now a car wash. Gundlach's was moved to its current location at 1330 32nd st., where the retail parts counter was eliminated.
In April of 2004 Trent Jones (the son of Cecil Jones) and his daughter Jenifer Starbuck sold the long time family run business to Ken and Shelly Wonderly. Ken had been in the business for over twenty years and had worked for some of the largest mechanical contractors in the country. The company has experience substantial growth over the past three years and provided state of the art solutions for their plumbing and air conditioning customers. The Gundlach's of today offers its customers "today's technology with good old fashioned integrity."