Hendricks Home Furnishings, a Family Business for the Community!

By Cindy Ladage

Hendricks Home Furnishings has been a mainstay for years on Route 66/Route 4.  Customers come to Virden to shop at Hendricks for quality furniture that is mostly American made. They find flooring, rugs, home accents, bedding and more!  Best of all, when you shop at Hendricks you are usually dealing with a member of the Hendricks family.  Currently Jeff Sr. and his sons, Jeff Jr. and Clayton and daughter Carley and other valuable long-term employees as well all work at the Hendricks store.  Jim Hendricks daughter Amy runs the Hendricks Outlet store.  The Hendricks family has been in business in Virden since 1949!

The Beginning!

Joseph Hendricks and his wife Eleanor moved to Virden in early 1949.  Jeff Hendricks Jr. explained.  “Grandpa moved down here to own his own Gambles store from Chicago. They opened in March of 1949.”

They moved to Virden with three children, Jim, Joe, and Judy (MacMurdo).  Later they would have Jeff. Soon they were in business operating Gambles.  The store was located where the Hendricks Outlet store is currently located on the Virden Square. “They sold hardware, appliances and everything, carpet, guns and furniture,” Jeff Hendricks added.

While the store began as a Gambles all in one building, in 1952, Joseph divided the stores up and expanded into the current Hendricks building which has quite a bit of history before ever being a furniture store.  At one time it was a gas station and an Allis Chalmers dealership as well as a GMC truck dealership under the ownership of the Hulcher family.  Clayton Hendricks said, “Hulcher also owned the bean mill across tracks where the grain elevators are now.”

Joseph moved the furniture business to the current location.  “In this building appliances, drapery and carpeting were moved and clothing and hardware were still at the Gambles building, then hardware was moved to the Wallace and Alderson building on the south side of the square,” Jeff said.

The Wallace and Alderson Building had been a John Deere dealership before it became a hardware store.  The Hendricks family was diversifying.  They started a clothing store they called “The Underground” at the Gambles store location.  “It was the “Underground” until 1996,” Jeff remembers because he recalls working on converting it over to become the new Outlet store was a summer project that year. 

Hendricks Outlet

While the business is called Hendricks Outlet, Clayton said that the name is a bit of a misnomer. The outlet is not discounted or overstocked goods, they just offer less expensive, but still new, good quality furniture and bedding. 

Hendricks!

There are many advantages to shopping in a smaller community like Virden.  One is the cheaper sales tax rate and the affordable prices.  “We are affordable,” Jeff said when comparing prices to quality Springfield and other nearby furniture and flooring stores.

Besides knowing who you are dealing with, Hendricks also offers free local delivery and assembles the furniture for you!  They work with name brand American Companies like La-Z-Boy, Smith Brothers, Craftmaster, Winesburg, and the Canadian company Canadal.  “We have furniture in all makes and models.  Most are American made and customizable that is what we specialize in this includes a couple Amish made as well,” Jeff said.

During COVID-19 ordering furniture in stock has been a huge business.  Everyone wants it yesterday with a new emphasis on living space people are taking new looks at their home and taking time to invest in the rooms that they kept on the back burner and never took the time for in the past.  Special orders are also big sellers.  With a huge array of fabrics there are endless ways to specialize a look for the home. “You can pick the fabric and special order, in fact, most of our business is special order,” Clayton added.

Besides furnishings, flooring selections, rugs and home accents can finish off the home.  Hendricks offers services not only to residential customers but to commercial as well.  They work with several schools and churches and offices.

Family Pride

It is a special thing for family to be able to work together.  Brothers and sisters, fathers, and uncles and so on!  Jeff pointed out that he thinks it is noteworthy to mention, “Grandpa Joseph died unexpectedly at 50. He left Jim and Joe to run the businesses and help grandma.  Jim was here consistently for 62 years, that’s more than a lifetime.”

Pride in his grandmother for being able to keep the family together is easy to read.  “Grandma was probably the strongest woman I knew.  She never got rattled.  She handled accounts collectibles and receivables. She was born in 1914 and was almost 101 when she died. She went to college and had a degree when women didn’t do that.  She was bullet proof.”

Community Pride

The Hendricks family has been involved in many phases of the Virden community from racing to business!  “Virden is one of the small towns with people still in the downtown during the day,” Jeff Jr. said.

“It is independent of the rest of the world,” Clayton added sharing how the town has so much to offer.

For more information about Hendricks Home Furnishings, log onto their website at Furniture, Mattresses Store in Springfield, Virden and Carlinville IL - Hendricks Home Furnishings.