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(GRAHAM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Curtis and Geneva Buchanan cut a cake May 8, 2014 to celebrate 40 years of their business in Graham. The event was held with a ribbon cutting ceremony from the Graham Chamber of Commerce. -
(SAMANTHA WINDER | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Curtis and Geneva Buchanan take a photo with Kris Camp at Buchanan Building Supply. The store will be celebrating 75 years of operation in November. -
(GRAHAM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Buchanan Building Supply ACE Hardware celebrated 40 years in Graham with a three-day anniversary event in May 2014. The celebration was kicked off with a Graham Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting ceremony May 8, 2014. -
(SAMANTHA WINDER | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Curtis Buchanan with his great-grandson Braden, great-granddaughter Holli and great-grandson Chayton at Buchanan Building Supply. The legacy of Buchanan lives on in the store as members of his family continue to work at the store.
For five decades the legacy of one family has lived in the walls and aisles of ACE Hardware/Buchanan Building Supply in Graham, providing service with a smile to generations of customers.
It was in the early 1970s that Curtis Buchanan was in business with his father as a homebuilder in the DFW area and got the call to move to Graham.
“He was working for his dad at the time who put him in connection with some people to build homes out here in this area near Possum Kingdom, and he felt the pull to from God to come and start a family and start his business and move his family to Graham, Texas, where he opened the store,” Buchanan’s granddaughter Samantha Winder said.
In 1974, the Buchanan family built their home and opened Buchanan Building Supply in Graham. The first location of the business was the current location of Vetoni’s Italian Restaurant at 1111 Hwy. 16 S.
Buchanan recounted in May 2014 that the first few years had some rocky moments such as in the second year when the store was hit by a storm.
“In our second year a disastrous storm hit Graham. We lost the roof at home and at the store. The store never closed. We mopped up the floor and kept the doors open for the community,” he said.
After three years, the need arose to expand the store, and in early 1978 the new store opened at its current location at 1200 Packing House Road.
Buchanan passed away Friday, July 19 at the age of 80 after actively serving the community. Winder said calling the locations he created just stores would downplay their impact.
“The store is so much more than a store. It is the Buchanan family. You can’t walk through the doors without stepping into the heart and soul of Curtis Buchanan and his descendants,” she said. “…God and his family were the most important things to my Pawpaw, so he built a place that allowed him to surround himself with both a place that his kids, grandkids and great-grandkids could grow in. He left a legacy of family, love and community, disguised as a hardware store.”
Nine of 19 employees currently employed at ACE Hardware/Buchanan Building Supply are family members connected to Buchanan working to keep the legacy of the store alive.
A celebration of 50 years of the store will be held Nov. 8-9, with the Graham Chamber of Commerce hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony for 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 8 at the store. That Saturday the store will have vendors come out and will host prize raffles, face painting, food, refreshments and more at the store.
The event serves as an appreciation for customers all the way back to the opening of the store in 1974 to those being served now and in the future.
The legacy of service to customers was seen in February 2022 when the family and employees of the store did all they could to provide for the community during Winter Storm Uri.
“My mom, my stepdad, my aunt and multiple employees just put their heart and soul into the store and into our community by being up there even with the lights out (and) having the doors open for people to come in and get supplies to help fortify their homes during the storm even though there was no electricity. …They couldn’t run electronic tickets or anything like that. They just did power hand tickets as best as they could, and kept the store up,” Winder said. “...They did everything they could to stay available to the community… and that’s kind of the basis of how the store has been run for all these decades. My grandfather made a lasting impact by making sure that he was there.”
