Suffield's Furniture closes after 111 years

DAYTON–What is as striking as the longevity of a 111-year-old local business operated by three generations of one family is the fact that Suffield Furniture endured not only the Great Depression and not one, but two devastating fires over its lifespan, and each time bounced back to continue serving the residents of Dayton and Columbia County with their furniture, household and appliance needs.

Al and Carolyn Suffield locked the doors to Suffield Furniture for the last time in late July after closing on a real estate transaction that will soon see the Dayton First Christian Church occupying the building at 362 East Main Street.

Al is circumspect about being the last Suffield in a 111-year line. "My dad told me not to go into the furniture business," Al remembered last week. Both he and wife of 52 years, Carolyn, advised their children to pursue other careers while they continued operating Suffield's, and Carolyn's Café, which operated for a few years until 2020 and the coronavirus shuttered it.

"It's just not the same as when people shopped in town," Al said of the business climate nowadays. "It's a different time, and you can't blame people. You've just got to accept it and move on."

"It's [Suffield's 111-year run] is only because Dayton supported us," Carolyn said, "and we really appreciate it."

To close and sell the building was a business decision, not forced by any circumstances such as health. "It was just time," Carolyn said. Al, 73, added that his brothers, David, 70, and Richard, 66, and other peers are retired.

Suffield's started in 1913 as a second-hand furniture store by Al Suffield's grandfather C.E. "Earl" Suffield, in a building known as the Moe Building, presently the Moose Creek Bakery and Café, or the bakery's parking lot, other sources indicate. He and wife Audrey Bess (Hill) Suffield arrived in Dayton from Kansas, first working at Samuel & Bailey Furniture Store in Waitsburg, according to family lore.

Al's grandmother Suffield grew up on a farm, in a house with a dirt floor, and pledged that she wouldn't accept that in her life. C.E. Suffield did well enough in later decades to obtain farm land on Robinette Mountain and North Touchet, according to archived information.

Around 1918, the end of World War I, Suffield's moved to its present location at 3rd and Main, formerly the Alta Hotel. There Suffield launched into the competitive Dayton retail market, purveying furniture, bedding, baby furniture and items, flooring, appliances and the like until early August of this year. Street-level space was rented to Pacific Power and Light and, later, a bakery.

When C. E. Suffield started in business, there were five furniture stores in Dayton. If that competition wasn't enough to cope with, there were two serious fires along the way, and a third during Al's tenure. The first was in 1945, when an alley-side part of the building caught fire and damage, compared to the one five years later, was relatively minor. According to a Chronicle-Dispatch story about the 1950 fire, a wood pile owned by the C-D caught fire, causing about $20,000 in damage.

In January, 1950, a fire of unknown origin started at around 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, January 19. Fire destroyed the entire building, unstable walls were pulled down and by the following Monday, Mr. Suffield and his crew began the labor of clearing out the wreckage. According to the January 26, 1950, Chronicle story, Suffield pledged to be back in business out of the rear part of the building, which had been rebuilt with concrete walls five years earlier, within 60 days. Losses of the building were estimated at $50,000-$60,000 while contents were valued at $75,000. Thankfully, insurance covered some of the losses.

Though some insurance covered the losses, Al's father and grandfather salvaged lumber from an old wooden grain elevator to come up with materials for the rebuilding of the store, he said.

The last fire, in 1989, was also serious, Al remembers, but not as extensive. It is believed to be started by the neon sign's transformer, and it charred the roof joists but didn't damage the roof. By then Al was running the show and renting the building from his father, Clifton H. Suffield, who opted to sign the building over to Al three days after the fire.

The ceiling in the show room needed replacing, and a trio of community-minded men, Ray Zastrow, Roland Schirman and a third Al can't recall, showed up and voluntarily replaced the ceiling.

One recent incident in 2018 eerily spared the Suffield Building from what could have been significant, devastating damage.

"I'll never forget that call from Dispatch," Carolyn remembers. "'Carolyn, I hate to have to tell you this, but a trailer has gone through your front window, and I hate to tell you, but there's a bull in your show room.'"

A stock trailer containing a bull had come off the hitch at the intersection of 4th and Main, and free of its safety chains, had coasted unguided the block to 3rd Street, angling slightly so as to center punch, exactly, the Suffield's window facing 3rd. It was as if the fates had intervened and said "enough! No serious damage to this building!" Inches either way, literally, would have compromised the wall structure, Al said.

The hitch broke through the glass and the foundation brought the trailer to an abrupt halt, propelling the 1,300-lb. bull through the front of the trailer into the store, where it waited patiently among the recliners and mattresses until removed.

Al remembers going on deliveries at around 10 years of age, and helped at the store in those formative years, as well as working part time for Pat O'Neil at the Chronicle, next door at 358 E. Main. After graduating in the Class of 1969, Al took business classes at WWCC and then started as manager in the early Seventies.

After a few years, Al purchased aunt Marjorie M. (Suffield) Sinkbeil's interest in 1975 and partnered with his dad, Clifton. Al's and Carolyn's stewardship of the family company continued through the ups and downs of the economy of the 1970s until today.

Cliff Suffield followed in C.E.'s footsteps, and served in the Army in World War II. Al's grandfather C.E. passed away in 1968, and grandmother Audrey Suffield died in 1979. His father died in 1994 at age 75, and his mother, Edna M. (Reinemer) Suffield, in 2012.

Al and Carolyn are breathing a sigh of relief after the "mad dash" to clear out of the building. "It takes time to get 111 years out of the store," he said.

A side business is Boxcar Storage, which the couple co-owns with daughter Meranda and son-in-law Wes Davis. Eldest son Jonathan, 46, is a mechanic with Fire District No. 9 in Medical Lake, and middle son Corey, 44, lives in Cheney and works at Amazon. Wes and Meranda have four sons: Barrett, Landen, Kylen and Rowan.