*When siblings Jonathan and Cynthia Tuff heard a local retail institution was closing, they acted quickly!*
A few hours after the "Going out of Business" signs were hung in the front window, brother and sister Jonathan and Cynthia Tuff had the signs removed and began making plans to save the 73-year-old downtown business.
Garber's Interior Design, which opened in 1935, has been renamed Garber's Interior Design and the signs announcing an impending closure have been replaced by placards heralding a new future for the store.
Sitting behind a folding table being used as a desk, Cynthia Tuff talked of returning some of the hallmarks on which Garber's built its reputation.
The selection of paint and wallpaper will remain while the Tuffs plan to bring in a full line of flooring and carpeting as well as revitalize the custom drapery department. As part of her career in residential and commercial real estate, Tuff recalled standing in the most modest of homes and seeing custom draperies made by the store at 224 S. Main St.
"As long as I've known Garber's Tuff said, "Garber's had something for everybody."
The paint department is still in the back of the store and the wallpaper books are tucked into the shelves lining the wall but the front of the store is now mostly empty with just a few small pieces of furniture and some decorative items sitting about.
His plans for using this space to display a changing selection of home accessories are what Jonathan Tuff hopes will make Garber's a destination store. He wants even the most casual trip downtown, like meeting friends for lunch, to include a stop at Garber's.
Over the next year, the Tuffs have plans to introduce other departments such as framing, silk florals and an art collection possibly featuring local artists.
"We want to bring it back to the glory days," Cynthia Tuff said.
The opportunity to buy the decorating shop came unexpectedly during a Thursday evening conversation when Patrick Hopman, owner of the Garber building, told Cynthia Tuff the longtime business was closing. The borther and sister team already was busing preparing for the launch of its new home staging business. Consider-It-Sold, but the history and the memories kept weighing on Cynthia Tuff's mind.
"I was kind of shocked," she said. "My first instinct was 'Boy, I hate to hear that.' I just couldn't fathom it."
In the same year that baseball legend Babe Ruth retired, Samuel and Florence Garber opened their namesake business in Elkhart. The pair had been operating a sign shop when a paint salesman convinced them to open a paint store.
Working up to 12 hours a day six days a week, the Garbers expanded their business into home interior design after Florence Garber completed a correspondence course in home decorating.
For paint, draperies, wallpaper, carpet and such, Garber's became among the top places to shop in the area. That reputation inspired Cynthis Tuff, immediately after she hear the news from Hopman, to talk to her brother about another business possibility.
The following morning, the blessing of their father, developer and entrepreneur Jack Tuff, the duo walked into Garber's and asked that the "Going out of Business" signs be taken out of the window. In addition to Cynthia Tuff's background and Jonathen Tuff's experience in interior and exterior design as well as landscaping, the borther and sister know about running a downtown retail business.
From 1989 to about 1996 Jonathan Tuff owner and operated along with his sister, the former J.B Brent & Co. clothing store at 215 S. Main St. There he created an upscale atmosphere that included offering his own private-label clothing and cologne as well as pressing, refolding and wrapping all purchases in tissue paper. The business, grew, Cynthia Tuff said, to the point where the pair had to decide to either move to a larger location or close. Not wanting to open in a strip mall, the Tuffs closed the store and pursued their other interests. Jonathan Tuff went to Chicago where he designed the Ralph Lauren store on Michigan Avenue and eventually started his own company, Jonathan Tuff Design Associates.
Cynthia Tuff turned to real estate and property development as a part of the family business, Tuff Properties. Ironcially, her work encompasssed bring big-box stores to Elkhart County, the like of which Garber's competes against.
"Where we're going to blow everybody away is service," Cynthia Tuff said of her plan to draw traffic from the larger stores. "If you buy the product from us, there are no charges for our services."
The attitude mirrors that of longtime owners Lynn and Judy DeFries, who bought Garber's from Florence Garber in 1971 and oversaw its growth for the next 26 years.
"Absolutely no question," Lynn DeFries said -- service, service, service, along with knowledge and teaching customers how to use the products, were the keys to the store's success. Decorating a home take a lot of research, DeFries said, so his employees would narrow the choices of colors and patterns to 10 or 12 and then let the customer make the final decision.
"That's what we tried to do," DeFries said, "Is make decorating fun."
Tuff Properties will continue as usual with its corporate office and accounting operations remaining at 2805 Old U.S. 20 W., alothough Cynthia Tuff plans to move her office to Garber's. Then, like the DeFrieses, she and Jonathan will talk colors, patterns, texture and possibilities with those who come in the front door and the back.
"It's just a fun place to be," Cynthia Tuff said, "and we want people to have fun too."
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