ORANGE PARK – Elmer James is greeted with a quiet emptiness every morning when he steps into the Orange Park Furniture showroom.

All that’s remaining are a few loose tables, mattresses, assorted chairs and blank floor space streaked by sun peering through the blank windows at the once-bustling store.

James could be heartsick, especially since the family-owned business has been around for 51 years – 41 at the same location in the heart of town. James, however, insists he is at peace with his decision.

“We had a beginning, and now it's time,” he said.

At the close of business on Wednesday, April 30, Orange Park Furniture will shut its doors for good at 1329 Park Ave. Five generations of family members who have been a part of the storied furniture business will then move to the next chapters of their lives.

“A lot of people think I should have emotion, but I don't,” James said. “I'm 91 years old, very active, and I'll be active in the community. But we're ready. We're ready to, like Ecclesiastes said, there's a time for everything, and it's time for us to go. We're going out on top. You know, we are right now at our pinnacle. We made a profit, but it’s not like it used to be.”

There were other factors, according to store President Olen Markum.

“We've got some people that have reached retirement age coinciding with a lease on the building coming up,” Markum said.

Markum said there wasn’t any consideration to passing the business to a sixth generation.

“There wasn't enough level of interest to carry it on,” Markum said.

While Markum is ready to explore new avenues, he doesn’t share the same sentiments as his father-in-law.

“You can't take emotion out of this, but we all made our peace with the decision,” he said. “Knowing this was approaching, we met as a family, discussed it – and as a family, as a group, we were all at peace. We could have passed it on, but the drive and the heart weren’t there.”

While the store will be gone, the family decided to leave an indelible gift to the town as a reminder of their presence.

The Town Council voted on April 15 to accept the donation of an 8-foot-long antique train locomotive and tender that has been the iconic focal point in the 16,000-square-foot store for 22 years.

Elmer and Faye James and their friends, Agnes and Dan Landrum, opened Furniture King on April 1, 1974, to establish a small-scale furniture business. They eventually changed the name to Orange Park Discount Furniture.

Agnes Landrum worked with the James family for more than 40 years before dying in 2022.

“It stayed Orange Park Discount Furniture a little while, until we decided we had to change because people looked at ‘discount’ as cheap,” James said, “so we just changed it to Orange Park Furniture.”

The company posted a closing statement on their website expressing gratitude to Northeast Florida, particularly “the Clay County community,” for their longtime success.

In part, it read, “We are so very grateful for the support of the thousands of customers through the years, many who evolved into multi-generational supporters of our business. Thank you for allowing us into your homes and intrinsically becoming a part of your everyday lives through your furniture and bedding purchases. So many of you have become our dear friends, and our frequent interactions with you will be sorely missed.

"We are extremely grateful to our many valued employees, both past and present, for the long hours, hard work and dedicated spirit you showed in serving our customers with the utmost honesty and integrity.”

And now it’s over... without regrets or second thoughts.

“This was a deliberate decision, not one forced because of hard economic times or other factors,” James said. “This was on our terms. It was time.”