In July of 1987, Jerry and Paula Beckman purchased the assets of the Furniture Outlet Center, Inc., a Rockford, IL based company, with the intent to give consumers in the stateline area a locally owned and operated option of obtaining quality home furnishings at pricing found in much larger markets.
That first location was one block east of Monroe's downtown square in the building that previously housed Gibson's Discount Store, Disch Furniture & Appliance Store and Furniture Outlet Center, Inc. The building now houses The Monroe Professional Center. Monroe Furniture Center ran its operation out of that building from July 1987 until March 31, 1994. During that time, MFC re-merchandised and began re-marketing the operation.
On April 1, 1994, Monroe Furniture Center moved its operation 3 blocks away to the former home of McClellan's Dime Store, 1 block north of Monroe's downtown square. While in that location, Monroe Furniture Center expanded its operation with the addition of many of the furniture industry's largest suppliers, such as: Lane, Flexsteel, Broyhill and others. Also in in that location, MFC opened the first leather furniture gallery in the stateline area. A 4,000 square ft. showroom dedicated entirely to quality leather furniture.
As MFC continued its pattern of growth in the 1990's, an opportunity presented itself to once again expand its operation. In August of 1997, MFC purchased the assets of Jim's Furniture and Pool Tables on Hwy 11 in downtown Brodhead, WI. Jim Tearman had run his store in Brodhead for over 20 years and had been in the furniture business for more than 40 years. This now gave MFC an opportunity to expand its operation to the east and better serve consumers in Rock County, WI and Winnebago County, IL. The move to Brodhead proved to be a good one for MFC. Customers in the Janesville, Beloit, Rockton, Roscoe and South Beloit areas received the way MFC ran its operation very well. Through the end of the 1990's, both MFC locations continued to grow at a rate that was out of the ordinary for most stores in the furniture industry. As the new millennium progressed, it became obvious that in order to continue to give consumers in the stateline area the quality products and service that they had come to expect from MFC, another expansion had become necessary.
Early in 2004, MFC broke ground on a new facility on Monroe's west side. In late November of 2004 MFC moved into it new facility. The new facility in Monroe is state-of-the-art; the first in the stateline area to offer furniture galleries from some of the largest manufacturers in the industry today. MFC offers a 7,000 sq. ft. Lane gallery, a 7,500 sq. ft. Broyhill gallery, a 4,000 sq. ft. Flexsteel gallery and a 40 bed mattress gallery. The overall facility exceeds 40,000 sq. ft. MFC is constantly trying to improve its operations to better serve the furniture consumers of the stateline area. That said, in the fall of 2006, MFC changed its Brodhead operation into the largest furniture clearance center in the stateline area, now offering customers value pricing on close-out and one-of-a-kind merchandise. Monroe Furniture Center has had a long and successfully history, but is always looking to the future for ways to better serve its customers in the stateline area.