Rick Widdison couldn’t wait until Frontier Building Supply opened its new Coupeville store Monday morning.

Widdison, a longtime Coupeville resident and general contractor, stood in the dark near the entrance several minutes before the store’s scheduled 7:30 a.m. opening, eager to see what was inside.

He was waved in early, mingled for a bit, then grabbed a blue tarp and a bottle of Xtreme Blue windshield washer, and eventually became the first customer to be rung up at the register.

“When I heard they were coming here it was like ‘hallelujah,’” said Widdison, owner of Raw Enterprises. “I really want for them to be successful here.”

The opening of a new lumber yard and supply store in Central Whidbey is a welcome development in a town where residents and home builders have had to travel to other communities to pick up essential items in recent years.

Recognizing the void in Central Whidbey after ProBuild closed its store in the same location four years ago, Frontier Building Supply signed a lease with building owner Ken Hofkamp to bring a lumber yard back to Coupeville.

The new store, located at 102 S.W. Terry Road, is the company’s fifth outlet, joining its anchor store in Anacortes and other sites in Oak Harbor, Freeland and Sedro Woolley.

However, Coupeville’s store is unique because it devotes more attention to farming, electrical and plumbing supplies than the other stores.

“Our forte is the lumber business but we’ve always been retail-friendly and we’ve always been a little bit of hardware,” said Chuck Posey, the company’s general manager. “When we decide to do this project, we had so many people who wanted to know if we could be a farm supply store as well. We looked into it and made the decision to commit to that and we’re on a real steep learning curve to learn that business. But we’ve located some people who are really good and have been able to utilize their knowledge base.”

Posey’s connections to Coupeville led to the decision to open the third store on Whidbey Island, according to Terry Johnson, who owns Frontier Building Supply along with his brother, Mike.

Posey used to live on Whidbey Island near Penn Cove for a number of years before moving to LaConner. He’s been with the company for nearly 30 years and used to manage the Oak Harbor store.

“I don’t think we would have taken this on if Chuck wouldn’t have been here,” Terry Johnson said. “He has great vision for the company.”

Posey met with the Johnsons at the store site in October and was asked how long it might take before the new outlet could open.

“I rather flippantly said 90 days,” Posey said with a smile Monday. “Yesterday was day No. 86.”

To accomplish that goal, Posey rarely budged from the Prairie Center site as he and his team often worked from sunrise to sunset to get the store ready.

He said he was grateful for the hospitality of the nearby Tyee Hotel and Restaurant, where he slept and dined since Oct. 11.

“They are great people over there,” said Posey, adding he’ll also miss the chicken fried steak and chocolate cream pie.

The result of Posey’s commitment, homework and vision is a store stocked with anything from drill bits and putty knives to rabbit hutches and specialty dog food.

There also is a section of the store devoted to a recycled latex paint brand known as MetroPaint that Posey raves about for its quality, lower cost and environmental-friendliness.

“The community participated in what you see here,” said Posey, who got input from residents on the types of items to carry.

Store manager Patrick O’Neill, one of six employees who will work at the store, will continue to take inventory requests to try to keep residents and building professionals from having to travel elsewhere to find needed items.

The store also features special touches such as an image of a sailing ship etched on the glass near the entrance and a large Coupeville Wolves logo on the back wall.

The interior walls also reflect the community’s history with black-and-white images of the town provided by the Island County Historical Society Museum.

Among them are photos of the original Prairie Center Mercantile business that was built in 1915 and served as the community hub for dry goods, hardware supplies, groceries and farming equipment.

Herb Pickard sold the store to Hofkamp in 1973 and it ultimately became known as the Prairie Center Red Apple grocery store that it is known as today.

Meanwhile, Pickard opened a lumber yard behind the store known as the Prairie Home Builders Center that same year.

The store has taken on several different owners and names over the years, including Lumbermen’s, ProBuild and now Frontier Building Supply.

Posey is pleased to be part of Prairie Center history and is proud of the flagpole that was installed in front of the store. The flagpole belonged to Herb and Muriel Pickard and was donated by their daughter Jan Pickard.

The flagpole is a piece of history associated with a family that was at the center of the Prairie Center business community for a half century, starting in 1921, when Moritz Pickard, Herb’s father, and his brother-in-law Sam Gelb, bought the mercantile store.

“It meant a lot to us,” Posey said of the donation. “This is a historic lumber yard.

“With Herb being a central figure in developing Prairie Center business … it’s significant to us.”