‘Progress happens,’ but Heller Lumber remains a century later as Arlington Heights’ oldest business

From the days of selling coal for heating homes to innovations in the building industry like laminated veneer lumber, the Heller family has seen quite a bit over the course of a century in business.

And with the distinction of being the oldest business in the same location in Arlington Heights, the fourth-generation company doesn’t plan to go anywhere anytime soon — even with the changing and redeveloping neighborhood around them.

Heller Lumber Co., at 24 N. Hickory Ave., made it through the pandemic — when demand rose for home improvement projects but supply chain problems prevented quick delivery of materials.

And the company weathered the recession and associated hit to the building industry.

“It was not a picnic. It was extremely difficult,” said Kathy Pollard, whose grandfather Eugene and great-uncle Lewis Heller started the business in 1924. “And that’s why it’s great to celebrate now, because things are going very well.”

Heller Lumber has remained on the same 1⅔-acre footprint just east of downtown Arlington Heights since the Heller brothers sold the family farm and arrived from Marietta, Ohio, a century ago. Today, it’s one of the few independent, small-scale lumber yards left in the suburbs.

They’ve maintained a strong stable of customers — from homebuilders and remodelers to weekend warriors and fixer uppers — as well as strong long-term relationships with suppliers who still deliver wood via a railroad spur that runs between the Union Pacific Northwest line and the backdoor of the lumber yard.

“High-quality lumber. High-quality service. That’s where we try to make our niche,” said Jane Garb, whose great-grandfather was Eugene and today is the company president. “You certainly are going to find a salesman who is going to walk you through and help you, whereas if you go to the big box stores they’re not going to help you much if you don’t know what you’re looking for.”

It was in large part the railroad that spurred the Hellers to settle here and start their new business, Pollard said. Their first big project was supplying materials for new Tudor homes in Arlington Heights’ Stonegate neighborhood.

A vintage photo shows the early days of Heller Lumber. Company officials say sign letters were placed on the roof in the late 1930s, but were later relocated in the 1970s to the front of the building.
Courtesy of Heller Lumber

And once homes were built, they had to be heated with coal — a “dirty and labor-intensive job,” Pollard said.

But Eugene was an innovator and engineer — using a truck rather than horse-drawn wagon to make deliveries, and patenting a toter that attached to the truck and made conveying loads of coal into basements easier.

By 1960, the company had two trucks and one forklift. Today, there’s six trucks and five forklifts.

Bob Heller, who took over the family business at age 25 in 1956 when his dad Eugene died, oversaw tremendous growth in the company during the suburban building boom of the 1960s and 1970s. He mentored his son Bill, who began working in the yard as a teenager on weekends and summers, then later started doing the books and taking on more and more responsibilities until his dad retired in 2000.

Bob Heller, left, and his son Bill represented the second- and third-generation ownership of the company bearing their family name.
Courtesy of Heller Lumber

Bill’s untimely death from brain cancer in 2006 brought Garb, his daughter, to the leadership role.

“They had this really strong work ethic, both of them,” Garb said of her father and grandfather. “They really were so dedicated to their careers and what they were building here.”

Garb, who runs the shop with a staff of 10 employees, has maintained her dad’s contacts in the remodeling industry. Contractors, who mostly call and email their orders now, represent the majority of the company’s business, while homeowners make up most of the foot traffic in the lumber yard.

While decking, doors and trim is delivered by truck, large orders of dimensional lumber still come by railroad — one of the reasons the Hellers have wanted to stay put amid redevelopment efforts in the area over the last decade.

Bob Heller resisted the village’s establishment of a tax increment financing district in 2014 amid the municipality’s vision of turning the light industrial area into a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood that could complement the nearby downtown.

Charles Witherington-Perkins, the village’s recently-retired longtime director of planning and community development, told the Daily Herald last year “there’s no intent or effort by the village to move the lumber yard out.”

Pollard said things “got a little bit dicey” with the village 10 years ago, but she says she knows a number of trustees who support the company remaining where it is.

“Yes, progress happens, but I think we have always shown that we’re good neighbors and have been a good business in that we pay the taxes that the village uses,” Pollard said. “I’m sure my grandfather a hundred years ago could not have pictured what this looks like, and in 100 years, things will probably have changed. But we’re pretty happy with things the way they are going right now.”