ARTISANS
Clore Furniture A Second Chance at Quality BY PETE PAZMINO, PHOTOS BY CAMDEN LITTLETON
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or Madison, Virginia’s E. A. Clore and Sons, a local business operated by a family whose ancestors had been hand-crafting furniture in the area for nearly 200 years, 2016 was almost the end. Clore president Troy Coppage, who traces his connection to the Clore family through his grandmother, speaks frankly about what went wrong on the morning we meet in his office at the Clore compound, a white sprawl of low buildings tucked into a small valley. We are there with his wife, Karen, who now works as Clore’s Marketing Director. “A variety of things led up to it over a fairly long period of time,” Troy says. “Things had been in somewhat of a decline. It seemed like nothing was
helping.” Then he gets to the heart of it. “I think tastes had changed.” All of which led to their devastating announcement that the business would be closing for good. It was a devastating end to a storied history. The original Clores arrived in the Madison area in 1717, and by 1830 Moses Clore had started making tables and chairs. It was his grandson, E. A. Clore, who in 1921 built a workshop at the business’s current location. That workshop burned in 1927, was rebuilt, then burned again in 1930. In 1946, E. A. sold the business to four of his 12 sons. That same year, with the two fires still fresh in their minds, the Clore family played a key role in founding the Madison County Volunteer Fire Department. Two things have been true
Left: Child and Youth Chairs. Right: Billy and Troy Coppage along with Sara Utz in the shop. Billy has been with Clore for over 50 years, Troy has been at Clore almost 35 years and Sara, 33 years.
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