Founded 1902 to 1906
Charles Edward Gerken and John R. Galpin became partners and founded Galpin & Gerken, an upholstery company specializing in repairing and reupholstering furniture. The company was located on Washington Street in Toledo, Ohio.
Charles Edward Gerken and John R. Galpin became partners and founded Galpin & Gerken, an upholstery company specializing in repairing and reupholstering furniture. The company was located on Washington Street in Toledo, Ohio.
In 1906, the company was reorganized, after several years of surviving a deflated economy and modest company profits, and changed its name to the Maumee Uphostering Company. In 1917, the company moved to Grand Rapids, Ohio in order to tap a new pool of laborers.
In 1919, the company moved to a small building in Norwalk. The partnership between Edward Gerken and John Galpin dissolved. Edward incorporated the company and renamed it the Norwalk Upholstering Company.
In 1925, Edward’s son, Ray, worked with his father and eventually became a furniture salesman.
Caption: Norwalk Upholstering Company Employees in 1929. Ray Gerken and his father, Charles, are in the top row, seventh and inth from the left, respectively.
Ray Gerken assumed leadership of the business upon his father’s death in 1934.
Ray Gerken contributed to the WWII effort by converting the family business into a producer of war materials. Government contracts for products such as jungle hammocks, foot locker boxes and grenade boxes assisted the company to successfully reemerge from the war and return to making upholstered furniture.
The last chair built before converting to WWII defense production.
In 1936 the operation was moved into a rented space in the A.B. Chase Piano Company building on Newton Street in Norwalk, Ohio. A year later the corporation bought the building.
The Norwalk Upholstering Company’s delivery truck of the 1960s.
Norwalk Furniture featured in Furniture Design & Manufacturing Magazine in 1962 for the utilization of componentized construction.
In 1965, Norwalk Upholstering Company became Norwalk Furniture Corporation. In 1969 Ray Gerken stepped aside as president and his sons, Jack and Ned Gerken, became president and vice president respectively.
In 1970, Norwalk Furniture built a new $2 million, 225, 000-square-foot manufacturing facility on forty acres along State Route 18 in Norwalk.
In 1984, the corporation launched a retail franchise operation that granted franchise agreements to operate under the name Fine Designs Sofa Gallery. In 1992, the retail franchise operation’s name was changed to Norwalk - The Furniture Idea.
Edward James Gerken, Jr. and James Ethan Gerken, sons of Jack and Ned respectively and fourth generation of Gerkens were the company presidents during 1997-2008.
Norwalk Furniture suffered from the economic swoon during 2008 and the company got into difficulty. Twelve local families banded together at the height of the 2008 recession and would not let Norwalk Furniture fail. These families are still the present owners of the company, which is now named Norwalk Custom Order Furniture, dba Norwalk Furniture.
In January 2012, Norwalk Furniture debut a "Factory Showroom" that hosts furniture retailers from around the globe.
