HOULTON, Maine — Family-owned furniture and flooring retailer Dunn Furniture announced Monday that it was closing the book on its 110-year history.
“My grandfather started the business in 1908 with a couple of local business people,” said Frank Dunn, owner of Dunn Furniture. “It originally opened as a furniture store combined with a funeral home. We survived a fire; experienced growth and multiple expansions; and endured difficult times after Loring Air Force Base closed in 1992 and our business dropped about 50 percent. We have appreciated all our customers and made a lot of friends through our many years as part of this community.”
Dunn proudly recalled that the store was well-known throughout Aroostook County for its downtown window displays, which his father implemented after being inspired by Macy’s on a trip to New York City.
“Each year the displays got bigger and more elaborate,” he said.
The furniture store-morgue business had humble beginnings on Court Street under the local movie theater during the time of silent movies. After a fire in the same year it opened its doors, Dunn Furniture moved to a hotel building with the first three floors dedicated to furniture and the fourth floor as the morgue.
In 1971, Dunn Furniture moved to its current location and over the next 15 years expanded to occupy a 30,000-square-foot building. The business was hit hard after Loring Air Force Base, located about 60 miles away, closed in 1992 and Dunn said “about 40,000 people were displaced from the community and county.”
As part of its “Going out of business” sale, Dunn Furniture, located at 141 North St. will offer drastically reduced prices on furniture for the living room, bedroom and dining room from popular brands such as La-Z-Boy, Ashley, Simmons, Vaughn-Bassett, Hammary, King Koil, Southern Motion, Mega-Motion and Tennessee. Home accessories and flooring for residential and commercial are also on sale.
The 20,000-square-foot showroom is dedicated to a vast selection of fabric and leather upholstery in traditional and transitional styles, case goods for dining and bedroom for every lifestyle, mattresses of all sizes, home accessories from lamps to bedding, and flooring solutions in carpet, hardwood, laminate, vinyl and ceramic tile.
For more information, visit the store website at www.dunnfurniture.com.
