In Berryville, barn wore many hats over 75 years

BERRYVILLE — When fire destroyed a 75-year-old building in Berryville on Dec. 28, it felled a piece of history for many in the city of 5,356 people.

Known as the Brashears Barn, the three-story, 22,000-square-foot building at 111 E. Carl Ave. was the first location of Brashears Furniture, which has stores in Berryville, Springdale and Branson.

“It’s such a shame to see this building go down,” said Marty Strough, 54, of Berryville, who worked in the store as a high-school student. “There are just so many people who have memories of different things there. Every time I pass by and look that direction, it just doesn’t seem right that it’s not there.”

Many knew the building as a mid-20th century general store. For kids, it was a cavernous place to play, Susan Brashears said. She and her husband, Doug Brashears, have operated Brashears Furniture since the 1990s.

“It was all these different kinds of levels with staircases,” she said. “You could get lost in there.”

Strough said he was occasionally sent to find customers who appeared to have vanished in the store.

Vol Brashears Jr., who turned 90 on Friday, remembers when his family moved from Combs to Berryville in 1934 or ’35. His father built the barn about three years later to serve as a lumber mill. It was open in the middle so trucks could drive through.

Susan Brashears said the lumber mill made wagon parts, baseball bats and bowling pins.

The Brashears family members were salesmen and entrepreneurs, she said. During the Great Depression, they survived by selling bullfrogs they caught in local ponds. They even had an advertisement for bullfrogs in Field & Stream magazine.

Vol Brashears Jr. said the business shifted from lumber to furniture in 1955, and the open parts of the building were enclosed. If his father thought another room was needed, he’d just add it on, Vol Brashears said.

At first, the family bought furniture that had been damaged during rail shipment and sold it in the store. Later, the family began selling undamaged furniture. Vol Brashears Jr. ran the business from 1970 until the 1990s.

Before that, his mother, Ida Nell Brashears, began stocking a variety of odds and ends.

“She liked the general stuff,” Vol Brashears Jr. said.“So she had one room where she put all kinds of general merchandise. This was before Wal-Mart. She liked to deal in just about anything. She’d buy clothing items and house shoes from wholesale houses in Springfield [Mo.]”

In 1995, the Brashears Barn became a clearance center, and the family shifted to selling new furniture at a store on U.S. 62 in Berryville.

For the past year and four months, the building served as the Doggie Thrift Store, where used furniture and other items were sold to benefit the Good Shepherd Humane Society. The organization, which is the only animal shelter in Carroll County, also has a store in Eureka Springs.

The shelter is a no-kill facility that normally houses about 145 dogs and cats said Tracellen Kelly, manager of the thrift stores.

She’s been looking for a new Berryville location. The fire destroyed about $30,000 worth of donated items in the building as well as $5,000 to $10,000 worth of items the organization stored there, Kelly said.

The Berryville store brought in about $300 a day, so the humane society will be losing that revenue until another location can be found, Kelly said. The Brashears family charged very affordable rent, she said.

The thrift store occupied the first floor of the Berryville building, and the top two floors were vacant. Kelly said the building was perfect for the organization because it often receives donated furniture, and there was floor space to show it.

Donations to the humane society can be made through its website at goodshepherdhs.org.