One year ago, the Simonet family closed the doors on its 145-year-old furniture store, seemingly closing the book on one of the oldest family-run furniture businesses in America.
But on July 1, the doors reopened.
Now a new generation of the Simonet clan is attempting to resurrect the Stillwater institution.
Jim O'Brien's great-grandfather opened Simonet's Home Furnishings & Design in 1864. The family store, originally meant to be a showroom for furniture the family made themselves, quickly expanded to include other brands. It survived the Great Depression, but the current recession and a highly competitive market for furniture left it shuttered in spring 2009.
"The business wasn't there," O'Brien said.
He'd been with the furniture store for more than 60 years when it closed. He still runs the family's funeral home, which also was started by his great-grandfather. But losing the furniture store was tough.
"Like a lot of small furniture stores, it got caught in the economy," said Mike O'Brien, Jim's son.
With the doors closed on the original store, Mike O'Brien was left with 27,000 square feet of commercial space. He offered to sell it to Mike Kranz, who runs Midtown Antiques Mall in the original Simonet building in downtown Stillwater. But the two decided instead to form a partnership and reopen the furniture store.
