When Ralph Jordan said he was retiring from business a few years ago, the Colonial House Furniture patriarch literally meant he was retiring from the business side of the operation. He is still very much still in The Business of making furniture.
A couple of weeks ago, the octogenarian shipped out a huge reproduction bed that he could not possibility have had the time to work on had he continued to
fill orders for furniture in the Colonial House catalogue.
“When we bought these two acres and built this shop in 1972, we refinished antiques and made furniture to order,” he said while standing in what was for
many years the company's showroom on East Main Street in Auburn. “By 1981, our business had gotten so big that our furniture had become standardized. I
could make 20 of those standard pieces in the same time it took to produce one made-to-order.”
Over the years, his son Larry, who had been a successful basketball coach at Auburn High School, gave up teaching to lead the manufacturing segment of the
business with his wife Jeannie helping build the furniture. Ralph and Claudia's daughter Carolyn came home from operating a branch Colonial House had
opened in Oklahoma. She and her husband, Paul Zimmerman, manage the business side, including the large showroom the Jordans built not too far from their
manufacturing center. The impressive facility is located at the corner of four-laned U.S. 68-80 and Quarry Road. All of this has allowed Ralph to return to
filling special orders.
When a long-time customer from Hopkinsville approached him three years ago about building a larger version of an 1870-1880 era antique bed he owns, Jordan
gave him a price. It was steep enough that the customer said he wanted to check his options first.
Almost three years later, the customer came back and said he was ready to make the commitment for Colonial House Furniture (Jordan) to build a king size
bed. He wanted it just like his full size antique bed which isn't big enough for him and his wife to sleep on comfortably.
Planning the bed's construction took almost as much time as the actual building process itself. The bed is made of Walnut Russian Veneer and is of the
Victorian Lincoln style. All of the lumber had to be ordered. Jordan uses Kentucky lumber whenever possible, much of it coming from Appalachia. A king size
bed is almost square—78 inches wide and 80 inches long. The headboard is almost nine feet tall. Jordan says that many antiques are too big to go into
people's homes, so the bed is constructed so that it can be taken apart.
The work was very intricate, requiring 53 little turnings. “Whoever made that original bed sat around at night and thought of more to do on it,” Jordan
laughs. The final product took two and a half months to complete, not counting all the planning that went into it.
Ralph Jordan has been working on furniture in the Auburn area for 60 years. He and his wife Claudia came to Logan County for him to work at Auburn Hosiery
Mill in 1952 after Ralph had attended the Bowling Green Vocational School following World War II. They lived in the house that is now Auburn Banking
Company on Main Street, and Ralph refinished furniture at night.
Next came a shop at South Union in a former blacksmith shop at the intersection of KY 73 and the old U.S. 68. That property belonged to Oscar Bond, who had
purchased much of the Shakertown property. The Jordans then moved to the historic large house on Main Street which is now the Federal Grove Bed &
Breakfast They lived and made furniture there for 13 years.
Remembering when he and Claudia opened the Main Street shop, Ralph said, “I had the equipment but not the skills. Over the years I've learned more and
more.” Ralph says he learned how to make antique furniture by taking it apart and seeing how it was made. He then did the same kind of work himself.
The thousands of families who own creations of Colonial House Furniture believe he learned his lessons well. And that couple in Hopkinsville can now sleep
comfortably on a bed that is identical to the antique they have treasured for many years, except bigger, all because Ralph Jordan retired from business,
but not The Business.