(RIGHT) - Ruth and Don Gross, seated, along with their sons, Gary and Stan, are celebrating their furniture store's 60th anniversary this month. The store opened it's door in Dade County in 1948.By SUMMER KELLEY
(RIGHT) - Ruth and Don Gross, seated, along with their sons, Gary and Stan, are celebrating their furniture store's 60th anniversary this month. The store opened it's door in Dade County in 1948.
When you walk through the front doors it looks like your typical local furniture store and it many ways it is, but there are many things that make this business special including the years and history it has in Trenton.
Gross Furniture in Trenton is celebrating their years in business. Sixty years ago, on July 1, 1948, the store that would be known as Gross Furniture opened its doors. Henry “H.E.” Gross, the father of current owner Don Gross, began the business as a general merchandise and hardware store.
According to Don Gross, besides hardware and supplies the store carried ladies’ and men’s clothing, building materials, appliances, and believe it or not, very little furniture. At the time Gross’ contracted with a furniture warehouse in Chattanooga where customers would be taken to pick out furniture to be delivered later. It wasn’t until 1975, Gross said, that the store moved to dealing with only furniture and appliances.
In the beginning the business was housed in the same building where the store is currently located on Hwy. 11 next to Trenton United Methodist Church, but the building was much smaller then and also housed a grocery store operated by someone other than the Gross family. Over time the building was expanded until it became part of the shopping center it is located in today.
Originally the building and its parking lot were level with Hwy. 11 and now you can see how much the road has been built up over the years showing just one of many changes the Gross family has witnessed through the years.
“The interstate has had a lot to do with changes,” Gross said. “Trenton has really changed and built up.”
In the past 60 years, Gross and his wife, Ruth, have witnessed the growth of Trenton and the addition of chain stores and fast food restaurants. The Gross’ have also noticed a change in the way business is done, saying that things just aren’t as personal as they once were.
Don and Ruth take pride in the fact that they have customers who have been loyal to their store nearly as long as they have been in business and in knowing those customers, if not by name, by their faces.
Another obvious change has been the price of things. In 1948, Gross said that a good couch would have cost about $159 to $195. Ruth said she remembers a customer getting upset over the fact that price of a pair of overalls had been raised to $3.98.
One thing that hasn’t changed about the furniture store is the fact that the business is definitely a family company. In August of 1947, H.E. Gross began working for A.L. Dyer at the store in Trenton, commuting between his family in Summerville and Trenton every week.
Then in January of 1948 the Gross family moved to Trenton and purchased the store from Dyer in July. A week after the purchase, Don Gross, who was 20–years–old at the time, began his service in the Air Force.
Gross’ brother Harold worked in the business alongside their father from 1950 until the early 70’s when H.E. Gross retired. Harold became president of the company and Don, who had also been working in the business after his service time in the Air Force was complete, continued operating the store. The two brothers were joined by Harold’s wife Geraldine and Don’s wife Ruth, a native of Rising Fawn.
In 1979, Harold passed away and Don and Ruth took over the business in August of 1981.
In all, four generations of the Gross family have been involved in the furniture store in one way or another including Harold and Geraldine’s daughters Cindy Robertson and Diane Meeks, Don and Ruth’s sons, Gary and Stan, and their grandsons Kyle and Reed.
What is it about the furniture store that the Gross family enjoys the most? Don and Ruth both say they enjoy dealing with the public and meeting new people. When asked about the number of customers they have had over the years, Ruth said that she had “no idea how many customers we’ve had, but we appreciate the business we have gotten.”
“We appreciate all the people of Dade County, Jackson and DeKalb counties in Alabama Tennessee, Sand Mountain, Lookout Mountain, north Georgia . . . and all the business they have given us through the years,” Don said.
In honor of their anniversary, Gross Furniture is having a half price sale for the month of July and is giving away a 42” high definition television.
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