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Historic place

Church's Lumber Yards

107 S Squirrel Road, Auburn Hills, MI

A lumber yard that started hauling boards by horse and wagon in 1890 is still selling lumber on the same downtown corner today.

📅 1890–present🏛️ StoreStill here
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The story

107 S. Squirrel Road is the downtown Auburn Hills home of Church's Lumber Yards, founded by Calvin Church in 1890 -- originally supplying lumber, coal, and feed "loaded by hand and delivered by horse and wagon." Calvin's son Clarence carried the business through World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. Clarence's sons Jim and Roy then expanded, opening stores across southeast Michigan, and Roy's son Bill Church became the fourth-generation owner.

In the early 1990s the company retrenched against big-box competition, closing some stores and pivoting toward contractors and builders. In spring 2014 it renovated roughly 5,000 square feet at this site into a showroom of installed product samples. On July 1, 2023, Church's Lumber Yards was acquired by Builders FirstSource, which operates the 107 S. Squirrel Road site today.

What's There Now

An operating Builders FirstSource lumber yard, showroom, and building-supply facility (the former Church's Lumber Yards).

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The business stayed in the Church family for four generations, from horse-and-wagon delivery to a modern design showroom.
It sits one block south of Auburn Hills' original 1821 founding corner -- a lumber yard next to the town's birthplace.
After 133 years of family ownership, it was absorbed by national supplier Builders FirstSource in 2023.

Nearby history

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Flagstar Strand Theatre for the Performing Arts

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Six movie palaces once lined downtown Pontiac's theater district. The Strand is the one that came back from the dead.

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