Local store closing after nearly a century
Sibyl Sharp Ream, one of the owners of Sharp’s Furniture on Route 19 in South Strabane Township, stands in what is left of the showroom as the store gets ready to close its doors after 98 years in business.
Sharp’s Furniture on Route 19 in South Strabane Township will close its doors after 98 years in business.
Sharp’s Furniture on Route 19 in South Strabane Township will close its doors after 98 years in business.
For nearly a century, the owners have proudly proclaimed, Sharp has been more than the name of their store. It’s been the look of their product, the measure of their mindset.
“We have always emphasized personal service while selling higher-quality furniture,” Sibyl Sharp Ream explained.
The family is still selling, still satisfying customers, still open for business. But not for long.
Ream, the president, and her husband, David, the vice president, have decided to shutter Sharp’s Furniture after nearly 99 years of operation. Their iconic enterprise, on Route 19 in South Strabane Township, has been as durable as many of the pieces that three generations of Sharps have sold since 1917.
One of Sibyl and Dave’s quandaries is that the streak will end at three.
“The truth is, there’s not a member of the fourth generation that has an interest in retail furniture,” she lamented Monday afternoon, inside the massive showroom where all items are 60 percent off. The Reams have not established a shutdown date, but have sold their 3.5-acre property to a developer, declining to name that entity or the sale price.
They also would not reveal their ages, with Sibyl saying simply, “We’re retirement age. We’re closing on our terms in our time frame. That feels good.”
The couple, however, did admit the door to reopening elsewhere is ever so slightly ajar.
“We’ve sold the property, not the business,” Sibyl said. “If we could find another location, I would consider that. But it would have to be smaller.”
Sharp’s has a showroom the size of some villages, a 27,000-square-foot space that appears even larger with stock having been sold down. There is a 10,000-square-foot warehouse out back, on a tract situated below the Trinity Point retail complex.
It has been a big player locally since Sibyl’s grandfather, Charles L. Sharp, opened the store in 1917. He did so at 110 W. Chestnut St. in downtown Washington, across from Immaculate Conception Church and where the Jefferson Court Plaza complex now stands. His brother, Boyd, joined him a few years later and the two built a bigger store in 1925.
Sharp’s was merely one of five family-owned furniture stores that would locate on West Chestnut, along with Freeman’s, Weber, Reichart and Home.
Charles’ sons, William and Charles, joined the firm after World War II and eventually assumed control of the business after their father died in 1973. Sharp’s Furniture had moved to Route 19 by then, opening its new facility in 1969, a few years after the Washington County Redevelopment Authority had taken the West Chestnut property.
“West Penn Power and Route 19 Bowl were the only other things out here back then,” Sibyl said, chuckling.
William, Sibyl’s father, took over in 1982, after Charles Jr. retired. William ran the business until his death in 2002, leaving it for his daughters, Sue Patnesky and Sibyl. Sue then became ill and died in May 2003, prompting a pivotal decision.
“David and I had been living in Texas for 20 years,” Sibyl said. “After my father and sister passed, we had to determine whether to come back and keep the business going or sell it.”
They came back, and the business is still going. But it is a different dynamic from the one Sibyl grew up with.
“All of our upholstery and bedding are made in the United States,” she said. “That’s really important to us. The biggest difference in the industry is so many goods are imported.
“But times are changing. Young people today don’t value quality as much. They have no problem buying at a minimal price because they’ll get rid of (a piece) in two or three years. Our lifestyle has become so disposable. But that hasn’t made it hard for us, because people who value quality often are longtime customers.”
The Reams, of East Washington, said they, in turn, value their customers and the people who work for them. “Being family-run and operated extends to our employees,” said David, a Washington & Jefferson College grad who retired as an attorney with Chevron Corp.
Dave Patnesky of Canonsburg, the Reams’ brother-in-law, is one of nine full-time employees. He is the general manager and has been on the payroll for almost 30 years.
“Retail is long hours and tiring, but I will miss the business and the people more if we go that route,” he said. “Hopefully, we can find a smaller place and continue.”
Jeff Caldwell, the shop foreman, has been there longer – 36 years. “I had just graduated from high school and stepped onto my porch,” he said. “A guy hollered, ‘Are you looking for work?’ It was only going to be a summer job.”
Caldwell, of Washington, joked that he “flunked wood shop. I hated wood and liked metal,” but is well into his fourth decade at a furniture venue. He said he was “moving on,” without specifying.
Sibyl and Dave plan to travel – a lot. They have six grandsons, and their children live in Colorado and Atlanta. Sibyl also is a genealogy devotee.
That is … if they don’t find that smaller business space.
In the interim, the couple plan to keep on keeping on.
“Our logo is, ‘We are a store of personal service,’ and has been since my grandfather started this,” Sibyl said. “That’s how we want to leave.”