Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 15, 2007 issue
Moody’s Furniture: Furniture With History, A History of Making Furniture
Story by Sam Calhoun
Blowing Rock has changed dramatically over the past 80 years. Businesses have come and gone, home development has increased, and many generations of people and their families have left, stayed and come.
But there has been one constant. Located at the top of Sunset Drive just before the intersection with Main Street, Moody’s Furniture has hugged both sides of the road for 85 years.
For almost a century, four generations of Moodys have manufactured and sold high-quality solid wood furniture in the heart of Blowing Rock and current owners Larry Moody, 65, and his mother Jewel, 86, know more about Blowing Rock and its times than practically anyone in the town.
Moody’s Furniture consists of a showroom and a workshop. Over the years, thousands of pieces of solid, handmade wood furniture have been constructed at the workshop at 125 Sunset Drive. From end tables to chairs, from beds to coffee tables, from hat racks to display cases, Moody’s has crafted all types of furniture, using local woods such as oak, maple, walnut, cherry, mahogany and wormy chestnut.
Across the street in a two-story showroom at 140 Sunset Drive, customers from all over the country and world have purchased the handcrafted early American style pieces of furniture of such quality that the pieces soon become family heirlooms and centerpieces of people’s homes. In addition to its handcrafted furniture, Moody’s also sells other solid wood furniture that is made primarily in America. Only 5 percent comes from overseas.
The Moody tradition of excellence began in 1922 when Larry’s great-grandfather Charlie W. Moody, a Boone local who built houses in the region, decided to take his team of men over to Blowing Rock to build and open a shop that made fine furniture. Charlie was 60 at the time.
Charlie Moody built the shop at 125 Sunset Drive, began making mission-style furniture from locally collected oak and maple and then subsequently built the showroom across the street. Business was good.
In the 1930s, Larry’s grandfather Ben Moody bought his father Charlie out and started making early American style furniture in addition to the mission-style furniture that Charlie loved so much. In 1946, Ben’s son Max bought the store. The third generation owner Max Moody updated the store and workshop’s offerings yet again, introducing different patterns of solid wood furniture and using new woods such as walnut, cherry, mahogany and wormy chestnut. Max served in World War II under General Patton and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
“He was one of the lucky ones who got back,” said Jewel.
Max Moody’s ownership continued until last March when he passed away and left the store to his wife, Jewel, and his son, Larry.
Today, Larry and Jewel are the store’s only employees. They work together six days per week. Larry has worked at the shop since 1960 when he graduated from Blowing Rock High School and remembers learning how to make fine furniture from his father and grandfather.
“I just grew up in it,” said Larry. “And I haven’t really stopped making furniture. I’m just trying to get everything straightened out [following the passing of my father] so I can make some new furniture.”
And when he makes that new furniture, you can bet that people will line up to buy it.
According to Larry and Jewel, their main customer base has been coming back for years—and it’s not just locals.
“They just come from everywhere,” said Jewel, adding that Moody’s Furniture also ships a lot of their goods to locations far and wide.
Larry attributes a lot of the repeat customers to word of mouth.
“It’s because we take care of everybody—the local people and the visitors that come in,” said Larry, adding that his solid wood furniture is hard to find in today’s traditional furniture stores. But he said not to worry; he and his mother aren’t going away or closing “for a while anyhow.”
Larry hopes to operate Moody’s Furniture for as long as he’s able, realizing that the Moody ownership will stop after the fourth generation because he has no children.
“I’m the last one,” he said.
Moody’s Furniture is located at 140 Sunset Drive in Blowing Rock, with the furniture workshop located across the street at 125 Sunset Drive. The store is open in the summer from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and in the winter from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 828-295-3275.