The History of Three Rivers Optical
Since its beginning in 1969, Three Rivers Optical has been, first and foremost, a family business. The business was founded by Bill and Madeline Seibert. Three Rivers Optical is now overseen by their children Steve, Mary Ann, and Joe—each of whom grew up with the business. Today, our optical family is much bigger. It is composed of many employees, thousands of optometrists, and several first-rate suppliers. We have all grown together, helped each other to improve our care, products, and services, and celebrated our accomplishments as a close-knit group. Our company is the result of hard work, unshakable loyalty, and the spirit of adventure shared by the members of this family.
The very first Three Rivers Optical manufacturing complex was a 250-square-foot storeroom in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, where our founders started by grinding wholesale, uncut glass lenses. From there, we began manufacturing uncut plastic lenses and started developing a strong reputation throughout the industry. By 1979, we added finishing equipment, which gave us the capability to edge and finish our own ground lenses. Next, we added polycarbonate lens equipment and our original coating line. Before long, we were able to offer the first generation of Transitions photochromic lenses.
Today, we are a fully-integrated optical lab. With account managers throughout most of the Eastern United States, we provide comprehensive lens products, frames, cases, and sundries from companies like Shamir, Unity, Zeiss, Younger, Vision Ease, Hilco, Signet Armorlite, and other top manufacturers.
Since 2000, Three Rivers Optical has undergone a shift towards new technology and cutting-edge capabilities. We were one of the first labs to move to Digital CNC fabrication with a DAC lathe (2003). Freeform manufacturing followed soon thereafter with Shamir products (2004). In 2005, Joe Seibert developed TR “O” seg—the first digitally-surfaced, freeform-lined bifocal. In 2009, we created SEEMORE Digital Lenses, our value lens line that we offer at prices that are less than branded models. We are one of the few HIPAA-compliant labs in the United States today.
Three Rivers Optical is also a tried-and-true leader among independent optical labs. We have been selected as the Transitions Lab of the Year and honored by the Optical Lab Association as one of the Top 25 Labs in the country. Vision Monday has continually ranked us in the Top Ten Independent Laboratories in the nation. We are also the 2014 VSP Unity lab of the year and winner of the Optical Lab Products Magazine Lab 2014 Innovator of the Year. We are proud of the fact that Three Rivers Optical is one of the largest single-location, family-owned laboratories in the country.
Throughout all of our growth and development, we have always maintained the core values that this company was founded upon. Our values revolve around family first, and every day our owners are in the office, working hard along with the whole company to help build a better tomorrow for our family of customers, vendors, suppliers, and the communities that we serve. Welcome to our family!