Munford's sold a variety of products for home improvement. Click to enlarge.
According to comedian Robin Williams, “Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!”
The season of spring arrived for 2009 on March 20. Like many Americans, this time of year makes me think about renewal and making things look better. Today, my family and I planted trees and worked in the yard.
Spring also makes me recall some home improvement projects undertaken when I was growing up. There was what seemed to be the annual repainting of every room in the house, usually carried out by mother. There was also the time that my father crafted a bedroom from the upstairs attic.
Vernal vocations usually require a trip to a store that caters to the do-it-yourselfers. Seeking floor covering, lumber, paint, tools, you-name-it, the do-it-yourselfers venture out into the spring pollen each year.
For many years, Munford Do-It-Yourself Stores served those Americans who declined to pay someone else to do their work; those who wanted to raise a paint brush or hammer and say, “I did it myself.”
Dillard Munford was born in Cartersville, Georgia. As a young man, he studied mechanical engineering and graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in nearby Atlanta. In an era when attics of homes were filled with rock wool insulation, Mr. Munford incorporated under his own name and provided rock wool insulation to Sears, Roebuck & Company.
In the early 1950’s, Dillard Munford observed the growing number of home owners throughout the country, and saw a need for retail stores to serve the home improvement market. In 1952, he opened the first Munford Do-It-Yourself Store.
A couple of hours to the north of Mr. Munford up U.S. Route 41, Oran E. Culpepper, Sr. was winding down an eighteen-year sales career with Sears, Roebuck & Company. In 1954, Mr. Culpepper and his wife, Sarah Kate Culpepper, opened a Munford’s Install UR Own store in the former ABC Food Store building at 1418 McCallie Avenue. The city directory listed the Munford store’s primary product as floor covering.
By 1956, Oran and Sarah Culpepper relocated their Munford’s store to the growing suburb of East Ridge. Its address was 3514 Ringgold Road at Germantown Road, next to the A&M Toy Store whose sign counted down the days until Christmas. Munford’s could have had a sign that counted down the days until spring.
Munford’s sold a variety of products for various home projects. As noted in the advertisement which accompanies this article, Munford’s even offered a termite treatment product to be applied by the do-it-yourselfer.
Munford’s had brief stays in the Hixson area with stores that do not appear to be connected to the Culpeppers, based on city directory entries. In 1960, W. Carey Crouch managed a new Munford’s store at 3837 Hixson Pike near the nascent Highland Plaza Shopping Center. The 1980 directory lists another Hixson Munford’s at 4812 Hixson Pike, with Tom B. Chamberlain and Steve M. Cathell as proprietors.
Over the years since Munford’s opened in our area, there were competitors who sought the home improvement customers. The following are just a few of those who competed with Munford’s in the era before Home Depot and Lowe’s rose to claim a large percentage of sales.
MOORE-HANDLEY
This company originated in Birmingham in 1882 as Moore, Moore, & Handley, named for founders James D. Moore, Benjamin F. Moore, and W. A. Handley. The hardware wholesaler occupied several locations in downtown Chattanooga before relocating in 1965 to 2225 Polymer Drive near Shallowford Road. It later changed its name to Homecrafters. After a series of corporate and marketing changes, Moore-Handley remains in business as a national wholesale hardware distributor.
MOORE’S
This home improvement center featured an orange and black fox with an overlaid "M" in its advertising. “Look for the sign of the fox.” was its slogan. Its store at 2030 Polymer Drive is now the local Comcast office.
HANDY CITY
This retailer was headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and was a division of W.R. Grace. In 1979, Handy City opened in a shopping center developed on a former farm in Hixson. When it opened, Handy City joined thirty-eight stores operating in twenty-eight cities, “offering do-it-yourselfers one-stop home improvement” in twelve departments.
Handy City closed after a short stint, and the Old America Store took its place. The building is today a storage center.
MR. HOW
This home center was a division of Service Merchandise, and had a brief stay at a new shopping center on Lee Highway at Highway 153. The building was later occupied by Home Depot.
MUNFORD’S – AN EPILOGUE
Still serving customers loyal to his store through the years, Oran E. Culpepper remained in business at his East Ridge Munford’s until 1989. He passed away two years later.
The site of the East Ridge Munford's and A&M Toy Store is now a Walgreen's Drug Store.
In 1993, Dillard Munford passed away in Atlanta at the age of seventy-five. His business career, which he documented in the 1974 book “Munford, Inc. a Brief History,” evolved to be much more than his Munford’s Do-It-Yourself stores. Munford also headed the Majik Market convenience stores, the World Bazaar, and Lee Ward’s Creative Crafts.
Mr. Munford also wrote editorial columns which were syndicated, and, through his work with the Freedom Forum, assisted minority journalism students. He was very active in Atlanta politics and civic endeavors.
If you have memories of Munford’s Do-It-Yourself stores or the others mentioned in this article, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.