Document text
Provost to close after sale on Friday Ashland store name goes back to 1888 By TONY BOOM ASHLAND - Provost Home Furnishings' final "unofficial" sales day will be Friday. The official final day was June 10. The store at 357 East Main St. will open one last time from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to allow customers to pick up prior purchases and to make last-minute buys before other stores take the merchandise, said owner Kent Provost. Plans for the site are uncertain. "There's nothing definite yet, but I hope very shortly there's someone in there," said Dom Provost, Kent's father, who owns the building. The store has 10,000 square feet of retail space. Kent purchased the business from his father 14 years ago. "I don't think it's going to hit me until later," said Dom Provost. He has been around a business with the Provost name for more than 60 years. But the name has been around much longer than that. It first appeared as a general store called Kinney and Provost, which opened in a flour mill building near the Plaza in 1888. In 1904, Sylvan Provost opened Provost Brothers, a hardware, plumbing and sporting goods store, at the current site of the Ashland Bakery Cafe. Dom Sr., Dom's father, added furniture when he moved the business to its present location in 1937. In the 1950s, the business began to sell furniture exclusively. Dom purchased the company in 1958 with his wife, Joyce. After the store closes, Kent Provost will pursue a master's degree in conflict resolution through Portland State University. He also will represent a Portland furniture manufacturer in Northern California and Southern Oregon and continue work at the Winchester Inn. "I'm really looking forward to doing mediation work on the corporate or business level," said Provost. He has a degree in corporate management from Lewis and Clark College. He will continue to serve on Ashland's school board. He has two years remaining on his term. The closure leaves Ashland with only one large furniture store, the Furniture Depot on Oak Street. "I don't know if there's a market to support (another furniture) store," said Kent Provost. Earlier, Provost said cheaper imported furniture and rising energy costs had reduced profit margins. He also said spending on personal computers had cut into furniture sales. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.