In 1982, a computer programmer and his wife purchased an assortment of solid oak roll top desks from a manufacturer in California and began selling them through the classifieds in The Daily Progress. Encouraged by their success, Robert and Jill Cox soon opened a showroom in the basement of The Hardware Store on The Downtown Mall. The space was shared with a friend offering log homes and the product line was expanded to include dining and bedroom furniture from a small company in Berkeley Springs West Virginia. The name Tomorrow’s Antiques was chosen as an expression of the inherent quality of the furnishings. A year later, the store was moved to a location just north of the city behind the Flaming Wok and the product offerings were expanded again to include upholstery. Robert’s parents, James and Bernadette Cox, moved from Arizona to Virginia to help run the business. In these days, Robert and Jill’s three children could be found doing homework in one of the back rooms, climbing in the willow tree that stood in the center of the gravel parking lot, or perhaps doing some dusting with their grandma.

In 1988, a new chapter was begun in a brand new building just across the highway from the previous location. This much larger space allowed for the addition of more product lines and an increase in the variety of solid wood American made furnishings offered. Shortly after this move, the name Tomorrow’s Antiques was retired and the business became known as Classic Furniture to give an updated sense of the product offerings and to mitigate the confusion experienced by the occasional passerby who only saw “Antiques” on the sign. Robert and Jill’s children, Sarah, Arthur, and Zeke became increasingly involved in the day to day operations over the next few years. Sarah kept the showroom looking its best with her eye for design, Arthur was involved in running deliveries and receiving shipments of new product, and Zeke focused on helping with sales in the showroom.

The year 2000 saw the introduction of our Mattress Gallery, a beautiful space designed to help our clients find the ideal comfort for their sleeping needs. Concurrently, we reopened our old location behind the Flaming Wok as The Clearance Center where customers could find amazing deals on quality pieces. During this time, James and Burnadette operated The Clearance Center while Sarah stepped back to focus on her growing family.

2005 brought yet another expansion as we added Stickley and Brown Jordan to our offerings and began plans for construction of a new building off Greenbrier Drive containing a mix of showroom and warehousing space. When the building was completed in, 2007 we opened our Essentials store and the new warehouse, increasing our display areas to over 14,000 square feet.

The success of our Essentials store prompted us to open the warehouse as additional showroom in 2016 and gave us the space we needed to add a Stressless Gallery to our location on Premier Circle.
Currently with over 20,000 square feet of beautiful showroom filled with primarily American made home furnishings, we are continuing to grow to meet the needs of our wonderful community. Plans in 2021 include the expansion of our Stressless Gallery at our Premier Circle showroom and a beautiful new upholstery display in our Essentials location.
Robert and Jill remain closely involved in the day to day operations, but now enjoy a bit more freedom with the support of Zeke and Arthur, and the daily contributions of a wonderful staff who embody the values of their original vision established four decades ago. We are so grateful for the support of our community that has sustained us and guided us throughout these many years. It has been our great honor to work with so many of you to create the spaces you have envisioned for your homes. We look forward to many more years providing our friends and neighbors with the finest quality furnishings for every budget.