by Seasoned staff, stalwart suppliers power the high-end furniture retailer
DENVER — The incredible story of Howard Lorton Furniture & Design, a high-end, design-oriented furniture retailer in the heart of downtown Denver, almost ended just as the first chapter was being written.
Just two years into what is now almost a century-old, five-generation furniture business, an order came in for two large rugs. It was 1929, which is to say, the early days of what would become the Great Depression. Before the expensive floor coverings could be delivered, one was stolen right off the delivery truck at the store at Sixth and Speer.
The customer chose to simply absorb the loss, releasing Howard Lorton from what would have been a devastating financial obligation.
“It could have ruined the business right there, right then,” said Margot Cook, vice president of operations at Howard Lorton and a member of the family-owned business’ fourth generation. She teared up telling the story, acutely aware of the many crises the store has survived.
Will Cook, Margot’s husband, is Howard Lorton’s great-grandson. Margot’s and Will’s daughter, Maggie, is in college and is currently on track to become the fifth generation in the family business.
A recent trip for a college media convention afforded me the opportunity to stop in at Howard Lorton in downtown Denver, and it is one of the more breathtaking retail furniture showrooms I’ve ever had the privilege of seeing. A three-level, 65,000-square-foot former automotive showroom, the historic building now features massive timber beams and fully accessorized, fully furnished room vignettes covering traditional, transitional and casual contemporary stylings.
Riots in Denver
Cook said that after surviving that Depression, two world wars, oil and gas shortages, and, most recently, Covid-19 and tariffs, nothing much fazes the company. Surprisingly, the one crisis that brought the business closest to despair had little to do with global cataclysm and everything to do with geography.
Just prior to the pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests roiled several cities across the country, including Denver. After one particularly violent weekend, Cook and her team arrived at the store to broken glass and widespread collateral damage in the Golden Triangle district that the store helps to anchor, what once was “Automotive Row.” Howard Lorton alone suffered $25,000 in damage.
Though the protests started a trophic cascade of ruin, after seeing how business owners and those in the Golden Triangle came together, “I knew we were going to be OK,” she said, once again wiping a tear from her eyes. “People showed up. They brought this area of the city together.”
None of this is to say that now it’s easy, she said. The furniture business is not for the weak of heart, and downtown Denver is a difficult place to make a go of it in retail. She’s not wrong. To get to the store, we walked through the Capitol Hill district that houses Colorado’s state government buildings, and we encountered more than a few of the city’s homeless, as well as a discarded syringe or two, and the detritus of a homeless population constantly on the move.
Howard Lorton mitigates the geographical challenges by offering free in-home design services and with a large protected, private parking area inside the store complex. A walking bridge connects the main building with an adjunct showroom specializing in outdoor and patio furniture.
“We’ve survived the ups and downs because we have a good, loyal client base and because we have a great staff,” Cook said. “But it is hard right now to make any sort of profit. I feel for the manufacturers who have so many challenges, from the tariffs to supply chain issues.”
Home as retreat
Fortunately, as the pandemic underlined, home has become more closely linked to mental health, she said, “so people are putting more and more into their homes.”
The store’s seasoned staff includes several who have been with the business for decades: designer Susie Dohman, 20 years; designer Rob Osgaard, 30 years; a warehouse manager, 20 years; and the Cooks, Margot and her husband, Will, since the 1990s.
With 80% of sales generated by special orders, most of that as part of interior design projects, Howard Lorton doesn’t stock much, relying instead on close collaborations with its suppliers. The store sells Century, Sherrill, Hancock & Moore, Jessica Charles, Lexington, Durham and Massoud, among others. The store also has an Ekornes Stressless design studio.
“People want their homes to be unique,” Cook said. “This is why we buy showstopper pieces.”
She said the Denver market tends toward muted tones with pops of color, more casual stylings than, say, New York City, and much more of a focus on the outdoors.
“It’s not uncommon here for the bike on the car to cost more than the car,” she said. “This area loves its sports, and they spend a great deal on outdoor gear.”
We saw this for ourselves. The downtown hotels filled with Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos fans for the game that weekend, and the REI co-op alongside the Platte River, a cathedral of outdoor gear and provisions, was teeming with customers and enthusiasts on a postcard-pretty Saturday afternoon.
Industry partnerships
Denver’s population is growing, so Howard Lorton relies on its suppliers and service providers to get the message out. The store looks to MicroD to power its website. Stressless creates posts for the store’s social media. And manufacturers supply the high-res images needed for all of its media, especially for a catalog Cook started up soon after coming to Howard Lorton from a job in corporate training in 2019.
“The catalog was a response to the fact that people don’t often know the brands of our industry, however strong those brands are within the industry,” she said. “So, we promote the brands we carry through the catalog.”
The current catalog marks 97 years in business, and the cover stars a Stressless leather recliner.
Howard Lorton also benefits from its more than four decades at its current location and almost a century in the downtown neighborhood.
“People know our store,” Cook said. “They know it’s the holiday season when the huge wreath goes up on the front of the store.”
After doing so many furniture stories from the cockpit of my home office, relying on databases and online research, it was such a delight to reconnect with what makes our industry so vibrant and vital, which are families like the Cooks who are helping customers build out the homes and interiors of their dreams and partnering with the great names of our industry to do it. I left Howard Lorton inspired, encouraged, even hopeful, which is no small thing in the dumpster fire that is the current political moment.
Will Cook has often said that his parents gave him a great opportunity, Margot Cook said. “We want to pass that on. It’s the family legacy that keeps us going.”
I couldn’t meet with Will Cook; he was at the High Point furniture market meeting with vendors. Some of the showroom pieces at Hancock & Moore will soon make their way to East 12th Avenue and Broadway in Denver.
Famous firsts
Before we part, one more piece of Howard Lorton lore. The family transitioned into furniture after Howard’s father-in-law, William Felker, died when his tire exploded during an automotive endurance race on Labor Day in 1907. The 50-mile race was held at Overland Park not far from where Howard Lorton sits today. Coming around a turn at the 38-mile mark in his Stevens Duryea Big Six automobile, a tire blew, sending the car and Felker into a post. He died on impact, but lives on as a member of the Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Felker’s daughter, Wilma, who was there that fateful day, is believed to be the first woman in the state of Colorado to get a driver’s license. She married Howard Lorton; together they turned Felker’s cyclery business into a furniture emporium at Sixth and Speer.
The automotive industry’s loss was a big win for the home furnishings industry, and it’s been a magic carpet ride ever since.
