Exhibit 99.1

CONTACT:
Thomas S. McHugh
Chief Financial Officer
314-216-2673

COMPANY PRESS RELEASE

              Huttig Building Products Announces Management Change

     ST. LOUIS, MO, March 5, 2003 -- Huttig Building Products,  Inc. (NYSE: HBP)
     today announced that Barry J. Kulpa has resigned as the company's President
     and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors.  The
     company  also  announced  that  Michael A. Lupo,  a director of the company
     since  December  2002,  has been  appointed  interim  President  and  Chief
     Executive  Officer  while a search  for a new Chief  Executive  Officer  is
     conducted.

     Mr. Lupo has extensive senior level financial and operations management and
     board   experience  in  a  variety  of  public  and  private  domestic  and
     international  companies,  including 15 years' experience with ABT Building
     Products Corporation and Morgan Products Limited, companies in the building
     products  distribution  business.  Mr. Lupo has been the Chairman and Chief
     Executive  Officer of MEDX, Inc., a supplier of cameras,  parts and service
     used in nuclear medicine, since February 1999.

     Huttig  Building  Products  is a  distributor  of building  materials  used
     principally  in  new  residential  construction  and in  home  improvement,
     remodeling  and  repair  work.  Its  products  are  distributed  through 56
     distribution  centers  serving 46 states and are sold primarily to building
     materials dealers,  directly to professional builders and large contractors
     and to home centers, national buying groups and industrial and manufactured
     housing builders.

     This press release may contain  forward-looking  information  as defined by
     the Private  Securities  Litigation  Reform Act of 1995.  This  information
     presents management's expectations, beliefs, plans and objectives regarding
     future financial performance,  and assumptions or judgments concerning such
     performance. Any discussions contained in this press release, except to the
     extent  that  they  contain  historical  facts,  are   forward-looking  and
     accordingly  involve estimates,  assumptions,  judgments and uncertainties.
     There are a number of factors that could cause  actual  results or outcomes
     to  differ   materially  from  those   addressed  in  the   forward-looking
     information.  Such factors are detailed in the  Company's  Annual Report on
     Form 10-K for the year ended  December  31, 2001 filed with the  Securities
     and Exchange Commission.