Landmark Furniture Store to Close Doors After Sluggish Year : Business: Taylor’s once had a virtual monopoly on the Valley market for elaborate European furniture.
After more than a half century on the same Van Nuys Boulevard corner, Eric Woythaler, whose ornate and expensive furnishings decorate the living rooms of thousands of San Fernando Valley residents with baroque tastes, is closing his store, Taylor’s Furniture.
“This is it,” said Ben Woythaler as he walked around his father’s store Wednesday, scanning the blank walls where elaborate tapestries and heavily carved and gilded mirror frames once hung.
A sluggish year and increasing costs persuaded the elder Woythaler, 80, to retire and shut the doors of his shop, one of the longest-established on the boulevard. Ben Woythaler, 30, said he has been helping out since his father suffered a stroke four years ago, but has never wanted to be in the furniture business.
For years, Taylor’s had a virtual monopoly on the Valley market for elaborate European furniture, but within the past decade import stores became more common and challenged Woythaler’s position. And Van Nuys Boulevard, once the Valley’s premiere shopping street, was displaced by Ventura Boulevard, forcing Woythaler to spend more on advertising to compete with new shops there and on the Westside.
“It’s a sign of the times,” said Hank Miller, president of the Van Nuys Chamber of Commerce. Boulevard stores continue changing to less-expensive merchandise and Taylor’s is simply the latest longtime store to quit, he said. “We wish him well.”
When Woythaler went into business with a couple of partners in 1940, Hamlin Street marked the end of Van Nuys Boulevard. North of there, the pavement ended and the commercial strip turned into a country dirt road through orange and walnut groves.
The business actually opened in the building next door, now occupied by a blood bank. Its current building was once a Studebaker showroom, and the old mechanics’ pits are still there, covered by boards and carpeted over.
It was called Van Nuys Furniture Mart then, and Woythaler, who bought out his partners in 1941, later changed the name to Taylor’s Furniture. There is no Taylor and never was. Ben Woythaler said that when his father, a German Jew who immigrated to the United States in 1938, named the store he wanted an English name for the business.
The son said his father briefly considered changing his name to match, but his father’s mother was sternly opposed.
In the 1940s Woythaler sold used dining tables and bedroom sets to Midwestern families in search of a better life in California. A complete five-room set of furniture was $125.
Now it would be difficult to find a single accessory in the store for that price--even with the current sale markdowns.
Since the mid-1960s, the store has built a reputation as a showcase of expensive and ornate European pieces. A rosewood parquet dresser in the style of Louis XV, with a marble top and brass fittings in the shape of a woman’s head and torso, and two matching night stands, originally sold for $8,999. Now it’s reduced to $5,399. Other typical furnishings include hand-painted dressers, cut velvet upholsteries and heavily carved overstuffed sofas with brocade cushions.
The style might not be to everyone’s taste, but those who wanted their living rooms to resemble a mini-Versailles flocked to Taylor’s over the years. A grape grower from Fowler, Calif., and his wife recently drove four hours to the store to buy about $50,000 in merchandise.
“Their house must look like a castle,” said Ben Woythaler.
He attributed the longevity of the store to his father’s knack for turning a bad situation into a business opportunity. When Van Nuys Boulevard flooded in 1952, for example, Woythaler held a flood sale to get rid of damaged merchandise. All the water-damaged goods sold out. So to keep the customers flowing, his father took unspoiled furniture, “slapped a little mud and water on it” and sold it at a discount, Woythaler said.
Even the store’s trademark inventory was an accident. The family was vacationing in Europe in the summer of 1966 when two children became ill, forcing the Woythalers to stay put for a couple of months.
Restless, Eric Woythaler took a side trip to the Italian furniture marts and ordered a load of accessories for his store. “They sold like that,” Ben Woythaler said, snapping his fingers, and within 10 years the store’s domestic lines had been replaced by European goods.
