Mills & Mills began at the turn of the century when William R. Whiteside, an undertaker from St. Louis, Missouri, settled in Olympia, Washington, and built the original facility at what is now 414 S. Franklin St. in 1901. In 1906, the Whiteside family moved operations to the then more promising area in Grays Harbor and sold the business to Louis J. Sticklin of Chehalis, Washington.  The Sticklin Undertaking Company operated the business until 1915, when it was sold to Jesse T. Mills. In 1919, he brought his nephew Arley D. Mills into the business of Mills Funeral Parlors. In the mid-1920s, the uncle-nephew team changed the name to Mills & Mills Funeral Home. 

Jesse died in 1943, and Arley brought an old friend, Lawrence O. “L.O.” Swenson, into the business as a partner. This arrangement lasted until Arley died in 1956 and Lawrence took over as the sole owner of the business. The business was then sold to Dan L. McCaughan in 1963. He held proprietorship until January 1980, when he sold the business to Doug and Barbara Twibell. The business had been known as Mills & Mills Funeral Service. In the following years, the name evolved to Mills & Mills Funeral Directors and later to Mills & Mills Funeral Home.

On February 28, 2001, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake centered in the Nisqually Delta hit the Olympia area. The building rocked and moved with the rest of downtown Olympia. Unfortunately, the building sustained substantial damage and the business was moved to Olympic Memorial Gardens on Littlerock Road.