As they have for the past 25 years, the owners of Kirk’s Furniture in New Holland held a holiday open house at their business and invited kids to come and visit with Santa Claus.
“It was very successful and Santa Claus saw a lot of kids,” co-owner of Kirk’s Furniture, Bruce Kirkpatrick, said. “It is something to help out the community with the visit from Santa, him coming to our store. We also get to explain a little bit of our goods to the parents. We had a good turnout and had refreshments and door prizes for them.”
The door prizes were announced and awarded to three people Sunday during the open house. They were Diane Drefch of Washington Court House, Ferena Collins of Lancaster and Lelsa Dallison of Washington Court House. It was overall a success, according to Kirkpatrick.
Kirk’s Furniture in New Holland was established in 1913 by Cassius and Ansel Kirkpatrick, Sr. The store was located at 55 North Main St. with about 3,000 square feet of floor space.
In 1934, the store moved to the present location at 9 West Front St. and had an expanded 6,000 square feet of floor space. With this amount of space, new lines like General Electric and Bassett were added. Ansel’s oldest son, Eddie, joined him in the business as the store grew to serve a larger area, while Ansel’s other two sons, Richard and Junior, helped out after school and on weekends.
In 1942, the store closed because of the war and did not open again until 1945. The store was remodeled and reopened with 8,000 more square feet giving the show room a total of 14,000 square feet. Kirk’s Furniture’s customers came from an even larger area such as Circleville, Washington Court House, Chillicothe and London with the new lines, more selection, and better buying power.
In 1947, Kirk’s Furniture in Washington Court House was opened with Eddie Kirk as the owner. During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Kirk’s continued to grow and in 1958 added even more square footage to the main store in New Holland. With the addition of 12,000 square feet and a grand total of 26,000 square feet, Kirk’s Furniture was the largest furniture store in South Central Ohio. They were open every night until the mid 1960’s when they changed to new hours and continue with them today, open everyday to 5 p.m., Monday, Wednesday and Thursday until 9 p.m. and still closed on Sunday.
With Junior running the family business, his sons joined him; Gary in 1962, Danny in 1964, Bruce in 1970, and Randy in 1975. As in the beginning with Cassius and Ansel, Kirk’s Furniture is still a family owned and operated business that has prospered for over 100 years. The store expanded in 1980 and 1983 with the purchase of two additional buildings located near the main store and again in 1991 with an addition of another 5,000 square feet to the main store, bringing the total floor space to over 40,000 square feet.
Kirk’s carries most of the nation’s leading brands including Flexsteel, Broyhill, Best Chair, General Electric, Lane, La-Z-Boy, Peters Revington, Riverside, and mattresses by Serta, just to name a few.
In 1992, Bruce’s son, Brock, joined the business and became the fifth generation to work in the store. Today, Kirkpatrick co-owns the company with his brother Randy Kirkpatrick.
