Whitley Furniture owners and staff in mid 1950s on steps inside store, Photo courtesy of Whitley Furniture Galleries
R.J. “Jeff” Whitley was the founder and manager of Zebulon Supply Co, formed in 1909. Photo from the Edythe Tippett Collection, Olivia Raney Library.
Whitley Galleries Closing Doors
By MaryBeth Carpenter
After 113 years in Zebulon, Whitley Furniture Galleries will soon shut its doors. With a planned final closing in May 2022, owners Charles Whitley Estes and Nelle Estes Carroll are liquidating all furniture and also selling all of its real estate, 65,463 square feet stretching across eight buildings on West Vance Street.
Charles and Nell are the fourth generation of the Whitley family members to run the business. “We’re selling the business for retirement,” reported Charles Estes.
Charles Estes is R.J. Whitley’s great grandson, and he began working at Whitley Furniture Galleries in 1977, and Nelle (R.J. Whitley’s great grand daughter) joined the family business in 1992. “We are tremendously proud of have earned our place in the hearts of this community as well as in its history,” Charles said. “We’re deeply grateful to the customers, friends and staff who’ve supported Whitely for over 100 years,” Nelle added. They plan to fill and deliver all current orders before the May closing.
R.J. Whitley founded Zebulon Supply Company as a general mercantile store in 1909 at the SW corner of Vance Street and Arendell Avenue. In 1916 his son C.V. Whitley began to work there, and became its manager in 1924 upon the death of his father. In 1959, C.V. Whitley’s daughter, Nancy, and her husband Amos Estes owned and ran the business until they retired in 1993. Their children, Charles Whitley Estes and Nelle Carroll are the current owners and managers.
R.J. Whitley is one of 10 children of Francis and Bren Michael Whitley. Francis was a widow when she sold 49 acres of the once-extensive family farm to Edgar Barbee of the Zebulon Company in 1906 thus setting the way for the Town of Zebulon to be established and incorporated in 1907. The other half of the Town’s land was bought from Martha Horton.
Begun as a general store in a small building on Vance Street, Zebulon Supply Company erected the two-story structure at the corner of Vance and Arendell Avenue in 1919. The general and feed store operated out of the bottom half of the building, while the furniture offerings, and a casket maker, undertaker, and funeral operating existed in the top half of the structure. In 1963, Whitley expanded to the building directly behind it, and over the next 30 years continued to expand until the store stretched across eight buildings and an entire city block.
The business survived a fire in 1982 reportedly started by a coffee pot left on after hours, and a fire sale of smoke damaged merchandise. Charles recalls another misfortune in 1995 when a pair of deer charged through the front glass doors of Whitley Galleries. The two bucks ran to the back of the store near freight elevators and were unable to escape. They were soon shot by police and later presented as a venison steak feast to all employees.
Nelle fondly recalls growing up and playing in her parents’ store. “We’d run around and hide behind boxes. There was a fountain and we’d toss in pennies,” she reports. “We loved seeing the latest furniture offerings and bringing the latest fashions here. We are proud to be the only NC furniture company with a whole city block of offerings. We’ve had a focus on American made offerings in recent years, and from the 1990s onward we had a lot of Amish made furniture. Our staff have been wonderful and some have been with us for 30 to 50 years.”
With its final closing of a store spanning a city block and four generations over 113 years, Zebulon is losing a legacy from one of its founding families and a commercial draw for customers from across the state. The Whitley family is selling the store real estate and we hope the new owners will embrace the town’s history and commemorate this family’s contributions to the fabric of Zebulon.
c. 2022 MaryBeth Carpenter is Executive Director of Preservation Zebulon Inc.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR HISTORIC HOUSE TOURS
Preservation Zebulon is planning to launch its Historic House Tours event on April 9. We are seeking volunteers to help as docents, to staff the house tours, and to assist with registration and marketing.
For more information, please contact info@preservationzebulon.org with your name, email address and phone number. Volunteers will be asked to attend a training session about 10 days before the event and to help for a shift during the April 9 tours.
Thanks in advance for helping us show off our beautiful historic homes in Zebulon!