Roark Furs is an ‘Extraordinarily Unique Place’

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By: Kathy McDermott Goodman

MiltonNews DAILY Correspondent

Printed in the Weekly Record Herald on April 29, 2011

Harold Spitler began Spitler Furs in 1929 in the tobacco strip shed on his farm, located on the edge of Laura, Ohio. According to his grandson, Gale Honeyman, Spitler was somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades. Among other things, he dabbled in taxidermy and cut hair during The Great Depression. One day a Colonel doing work at Wright Field, the predecessor of Wright Patterson Air Force Base, asked Spitler if he could make his wife a fur coat from the muskrats he had trapped. Although he had no experience doing such work, Spitler said he could and ended up making two coats for the Colonel’s wife.

Spitler had a vision and believed that “Women were going to wear furs regardless of whether there was food on their table. And,” says Honeyman, “that belief was dead on.”

Spitler moved the store into a rented building in town in 1933 and then bought the current building, located at 2 North Main Street in Laura, in 1936 at an estate auction for the sum of $1,000. According to The History of Laura, Ohio (©1977) by Gale Honeyman, “A 1944 newspaper in Dayton called this operation the largest in the nation for the size of the village.”

On a Saturday night in March 1945, while they were out selling fur coats, Hobart and Thelma Roark stopped at Spitler Furs. They had a few items left over and since it was the end of the season, Roark went into the store and asked Spitler if they could storage the leftover coats. Spitler told Roark they did not have the room, but if he would buy the business then he (Roark) would have plenty of room. The business changed hands that night, and Roark Furs was born.

Thelma Roark had a much different vision for the store. While Spitler had wanted people to see how the furs were made, Thelma wanted a showroom, which was created over time. The business also ended up as more than just a fur shop, it became Roark Furs and Furniture Store. A total of four buildings made up the store at that time. The business helped to bring people from all over to Laura to shop and eat at the Laura Inn. Wealthy people from Dayton bought their furs from Roark and many brought their furs for storage in the big vault.

The furniture store was eventually sold to an employee, Dick Fourman. He continued the business in the original 4 buildings which were on both sides of Main Street. Hobart sold Roark Furs to Clarence and Dottie Goldberg of New York City. They wound up retiring to Florida after selling the business to James Darrah in 1967. Through all of these changes, the Roark name remained.

Linda Long and Larry Day bought the business from Darrah in 1996 and have kept it going strong. They were employees at that time and when they found out the business would close without new ownership, they decided to take a chance and buy it. “We basically ran the store at that point anyway,” says Long. Roark Furs is still a full-service furrier to this day. All fur repairs, restyling and storage are still done on the premises. Long is a second-generation furrier; her mother was a furrier for the Goldbergs as well as Mr. Darrah. She came out of retirement to train Long as a fur cutter.

All of the fur cleaning is also done on the premises; Day is their fur cleaning specialist. The store also offers an extensive line of new furs and leathers purchased directly from the manufacturer. “We are the only fur service specialist left in the Dayton area,” says Long. “We still get a lot of repeat business.”

During the time the store was owned by Spitler, all garments were made on the premises from fur pelts. Hobart Roark and his successors have all bought furs made ready to sell. The only exception to this is the teddy bears that Linda makes. “Bear Hugs” are a favorite of hundreds of their customers. These are custom-made teddy bears created from a used coat or stole, transforming an old garment into a treasured family keepsake. They can also create teddy bears from their own inventory of recycled fur. You can learn more about the store or contact them by visiting www.roarkfurs.com.

Though the Roark name has lasted for over 65 years, the Spitler name is still set in stone on the front of the building. “It’s pretty amazing that a fur business could exist for 82 years in such a small hamlet,” says Honeyman. “It is extraordinarily unique and by far the oldest business in this town.”

Roark Furs buildng, showing the Spitler name above the sign
North side of the building

Linda Long, co-owner of Roark Furs
Linda Long, co-owner of Roark Furs

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