History

Throughout its nine generations of family ownership, Cowls has been unique among the lumber and building materials businesses in the Pioneer Valley and neighboring regions. Constantly evolving, it has grown from offering timber and hardware to providing a wide range of competitive products and services to professional contractors, handymen, maintenance crews, and do-it-yourselfers.

It started in October, 1741, when Jonathan Cowls crossed the Connecticut River from Hatfield and his family was one of the first five to settle land in what was then Hadley and is now North Amherst. Over the next 270+ years, the Cowls family purchased timberlands in approximately thirty other towns in Hampshire and Franklin counties, winning numerous awards along the way for sustainability and forest stewardship.

In 1980 8th Generation Cowls, Paul C. Jones opened Cowls Building Supply. The store quickly became a successful, full-line, full-service retailer of lumber, paint, hardware and building materials. More recently, the new Kitchen Design Center and Flooring Showroom was added.

Today, two of Jonathan Cowls' descendants, Evan Jones and Cinda Jones, still make their living from the business that started and is still on, the family farm. While the Cowls Sawmill closed in 2010, W. D. Cowls, Inc. Land Company has set new goals for sustainable forestry, land conservation, alternative energy, and environmentally-conscious development.

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