From Furniture & Funerals in 1911 to Furniture & Flooring in 2022
Union Furniture & Flooring has been in business for more than 100 years, owned by the same family since 1974.
It feels like there’s no shortage of places to shop for furniture these days. More and more retailers seem to be adding it to their inventory. That might surprise you, since furniture (mainly custom upholstery) has been harder to come by than usual, but one of our furniture reps summed it up this way: Selling furniture is easy; it’s everything that comes afterward that’s hard. In other words — the logistics of getting the furniture delivered to the store, then delivered to customers and, finally, keeping customers happy so that they come back to buy again and again is what’s a challenge. Not everyone can do that. Here at Union Furniture and Flooring, we’ve been doing that for decades. We marked our 110th anniversary last year, nearly 50 years in the same family.
Founded in 1911 by the Otto and Horn families, Union Furniture Co. then was a fraction of the size it is today — just a single two-story building at the corner of Washington Avenue and Locust Street compared to the 85,000 square feet now stretching a full city block. That original structure is still a part of the store. The original tin ceiling and wood staircase are also still intact. Back then, we didn’t just sell furniture — we made it. And along with sofas, chairs and tables, we also made caskets. You read that right. In that era, it was common for furniture makers to also be in the funeral service business. In that slim two-story building, furniture was sold on the main level, caskets were stored upstairs and embalming was done in the basement.
Eventually the caskets and funeral services were moved to another location, making way for more furniture and home items (at one point we actually sold appliances and paint). The first of many expansions went up in 1954 with a 10,000-square-foot addition to the north. Later, vacancies down the block made way for more additions which provided the space we needed to add our flooring department and design center, where we work with customers to select all types of flooring (hardwood, carpet, vinyl, laminate), tile for backsplashes, fireplace surrounds or showers, and countertops, too. We have a trained and experienced design team to help you make selections. And, for customers who want it, we also offer an in-home design service, where a designer will come to see your space and make recommendations.
Today, those flooring and design services are one of our biggest drawing cards. Customers come from all across the St. Louis metro area and beyond visit our showroom to shop the top brands in the furniture and home design industry: La-Z-Boy, Flexsteel, Mayo, Craftmaster, Liberty, Universal, High Life, Hooker, Karastan, Mohawk, Shaw . . . As the second oldest furniture store in the state, we have earned a reputation for providing quality products and top customer service. Word of mouth has always been our best form of advertising, and that makes us proud. We welcome you to visit the store for yourself, but we do offer a bit of advice: give yourself plenty of time to browse. There’s a lot to see.