Our History

Our story in the Church Furniture industry starts with church pew upholstery in 1958 when my grandfather and grandmother decided to venture out and launch a chair manufacturing business. The years prior, my grandfather had worked in Louisville, Kentucky at a furniture factory that made household furnishings. My grandfather was in the upholstery department and picked up that craft rather quickly. As you will see below this start in the upholstery department of a furniture factory paired with my grandfather’s ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit led to the creation of  whole new market in church pew upholstery.

Business was pretty simple then. They leased a space in what had been a strawberry processing facility in Adairville, Kentucky and opened Jones Manufacturing. They began production of chairs like the ones he had worked on in Louisville. He would simply build several and then load them up on his truck with cattle racks on the side and head out to furniture stores. He would come home once he had the truck empty. Somewhere along the way in this process, they also began to take in work doing upholstery for locals and my grandmother became an expert commercial seamstress.

Somewhere around the mid-sixties my grandfather was approached by a local pastor and asked if he thought he could upholster a church pew. The congregation was tired of being uncomfortable and the only other alternative was to have pew cushions made that laid in the seats. About that same time, church pew manufacturers began to upholster their pews’ seats and backs at the factory. Prior to this time, church pews were simply wooden benches. After market church pew upholstery would get its start here.

Well, they figured it out and used techniques on that first job that we still use today in church pew upholstery. As word got around that they could do this job, churches started calling and the chair business was put on the back burner. Church after church gained comfort through permanent  church pew upholstery.

Sometime after  the beginning of 1965 my grandfather was approached by John Graham of Graham Manufacturing in Auburn, Kentucky. Graham created some of the finest solid oak church furniture ever made. They had a great facility, a great product, and a great reputation, but they were beginning to get beat by companies that were offering upholstered pews. Upholstered pews could be manufactured for much less than making the entire pew body from oak.

They created a partnership where Jones Manufacturing would produce the upholstered seat and back portion of the pews while Graham continued to make all of the finished parts of the pews. Business boomed and this relationship sparked relationships with salesmen across the country. Before long their crews were upholstering seats for new pews in Adairville, while another crew was travelling and upholstering pews on site. Jones now had a network of salesmen in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Alabama while my granddad and word of mouth kept the local market thriving.

The relationship with Graham thrived and expanded into chairs and all types of projects through the years while Jones Manufacturing became a strong player in commercial upholstery. In addition to church pew upholstery, they expanded to hospitals, theaters, synagogues, school buses, etc. You name it, they upholstered it.

In 1972, I came into the world. From the age of 4 or 5 I remember being at my granddad’s shop. Whether I was asking Nanny to sew something for me or trying to get Pappaw to help me build something, I was always inquisitive. How do you do this? Why do you do it that way? Is it time to go home yet? Can I walk to the store and get a candy bar? Man they must have gotten tired of having me around, but it never showed. Looking back I should have known that church pew upholstery was going to be with me for a long time!

As a child I spent every minute I could with them in that shop, and as a teenager I began to really learn the trade and actually become helpful. Through the summers I would travel with the crew all over to upholster church pews. My granddad seemed proud to have me helping, so he would take the time to really show me the how’s and why’s. While teaching about upholstery, he also taught me a lot about business. He taught me how to treat customers, show up on time, do a great job, the very best you can and leave proud, knowing that the job was well done. He always took pride in using the best foam, something we still do today, and using techniques that not only lasted, but looked good.

There are so many memories I have of those summers. Mostly awesome memories of sightseeing in new cities, eating pizzas in hotel rooms, my first trips to see oceans and great lakes, but also some memories of truly hard days, like when our box truck broke down and we had it loaded down with theater seats headed back from a synagogue in Columbus, Ohio. We had to unload the entire truck and reload it onto a U-Haul. That stunk. I also remember in 1990 when my grandfather had a heart attack right in the middle of another huge synagogue job we were doing. My dad, uncle, and I had to pitch in and finish the job while he recovered. Honestly, a lot of life was lived in those years.

I am not sure which year exactly, but while I was in college, my Granddad told me that Graham had closed their doors. They had changed ownership a few times and mis-management had taken its toll. “It’s not the company John Graham built,” he used to tell me. This opened another opportunity for Jones Manufacturing, because people from all around new Glindell Jones to be the guy for pews. He bought equipment and began a small pew manufacturing operation and split time between that and travelling and upholstering churches.

When I got out of college in 1996, I went back to work for them. This time in a much bigger role, as my uncle had stepped away, my grandfather was older, etc. We revived the business together and were quickly able to sell more than we could produce. This was not a fun time, but looking back on it I learned a lot of valuable lessons.

About 1998 my dad and I opened WoodsWorks Church Furniture and started manufacturing stackable chairs while looking for a pew company that could produce the quality of pews that we were willing to put our name behind, and continue to do what we did best church pew upholstery. I interviewed several pew companies and of course they interviewed me as well. Honestly, I was an anomaly. I was so young that few people would listen to me, but I already had more experience with church furniture than most sales reps twice my age.

In 1999 we formed a relationship with Sam and Ken Stanton of Stanton Church Furniture in Chipley, Florida and began to sell pews for them while doing any upholstery orders they had for us. Later that year we added J & H Custom Furniture of Pindall, Arkansas to our portfolio. While Stanton produced a fine pew, they would only do upholstered seats and backs. With the addition of J & H we added customization beyond belief. J and H had a bigger production facility and I quickly came to like the owner Jerry Willis.

We soon began selling pews faster than our manufacturers could make them. We have installations from Boston to Miami, From Dallas to Manhattan. I simply love working with churches, and I shows in the pure volume of work we have been a part of.

Much of our work over the years has been subcontracted for pew companies, sales organizations, and other various companies. We have taken the same pride in workmanship for each and every job and look forward to serving more churches. My name is Chris Woods, our company is Woods Church Interiors and we have a rich family history in church furniture, making our company the exact right choice for your furnishings.