The company was founded in by M.L. Duncan and his brother-in-law, J.W. Graham, and from its beginning operated in the same
W. 14th Street location. Graham left the business after only a few months, and generations of the Duncan family then operated it.

Originally the company was named the Beader Box & Manufacturing Co. and it primarily built boxes,
crates and industrial pallets. Soon it entered the building supply, custom millwork and cabinetwork field.
In 1917, the name was changed to Duncan Box & Lumber.

When it was founded, the company's net worth was $3,635.98, the lot where the plant stood was valued at $200
 and its buildings at $1,250. When the company began, it had four employees. By the 1950s it had more than
100 workers on the payroll. The company's three-acre plant was located on both sides of W. 14 Street,
with 11 buildings and a half million board feet of lumber stored in its yards. Two spur tracks lead
into the plant from the adjacent Chesapeake & Ohio Railway main line.

Long known for its custom millwork, Duncan Box in recent years had mainly relied on its hardware business and lumber sales.

In 2012, Norman Taylor, acting in a joint venture with his brother and sister, purchased Duncan Box from the
Duncan family. Taylor is vice president of another Central City business, Taylor Iron & Metal Inc., a recycling center.

When Taylor closed Duncan Box in 2015, he said that although he and his siblings had high hopes for the company
when they purchased it, they ultimately found they couldn't effectively compete with today's big-box retailers.