ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996                TAG: 9607180092
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-8  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHRISTOPHER L. BOYD STAFF WRITER 

HOME LUMBER GOING, GOING ...

GONE. The long-standing specialty business, rocked by wholesale lumber companies held an auction Wednesday to sell off its remaining items.

Gary Webb, president of Mulch N' More, came to Wednesday's auction of Home Lumber Co. intending to buy a forklift and pay no more than $3,000 for it.

"We need another, and I thought I could get a bargain," he said.

Webb didn't have the winning bid.

Home Lumber, a milling and wood detail specialist company in Southwest Roanoke, closed March 31. For sale was its 5.22 acres and three buildings, plus everything in the facility from microwaves to diesel trucks - a total of 508 items.

The sale brought in about $150,000, said Boyd Temple, who is with Woltz and Associates auction company. He and representatives of Waldvogel, Poe and Cronk Real Estate Group, which co-sponsored the sale, didn't have a final tally.

Walter Beckner, retired president of Beckner Boiler and Supply Co., purchased one building used for storage space.

A train track separates his building from the other two, which were bought by John Lipscomb of M and L Investments.

The day was a relief, said Jimmy Lester, whose family had owned Home Lumber for half a century.

Lester, president and owner since 1965, said he made the decision to sell and retire from the lumber business after a series of incidents.

"I had just turned 65, my wife passed in September, I had a sister die," he said Wednesday. "It had gotten to the point that it was time to turn it over."

Lester said that of the five or six mill lumber companies that were alive just a few years ago, only two remain - Ideal Building Supply and Red Ball Lumber.

He began working in the business when he returned home from the military in 1956. His two uncles, whose last names were Sigmund, purchased the property in 1941.

The sale represented still another passing of a specialty business, said auctioneer James Woltz. Competition from large wholesale lumber companies such as Lowe's and Moore's have caused mill companies that do detailed wood work to "take a hit," he said.

"There's probably a day coming when this business will resurrect itself. As more and more [milling companies] go out of business the demand for detailed lumber will increase," Woltz said.

Many area businesses were represented among the crowd of more than 200 registered bidders, some with special agendas. One contractor who wanted to remain anonymous said he just wanted to meet the new owners so he could "properly" introduce himself in hopes of getting more business for his company.

LENGTH: Medium:   63 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN SPEARMAN Staff    Boyd Temple, an auctioneer with 
          Woltz and Associates tries to sell racks of lumber Wednesday at the 
          Home Lumber Corp. color.