Gordon's Fireplace Shop and Home Furnishings To Close
After 61 years, Gordon Malafouris's eponymous Portland store — its red sign visible from Interstate 84 — is closing.

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Gordon Malafouris, seen standing in his Fairview home, started his eponymous store in 1955.
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Located on the corner of NE 33rd Street and Broadway, the building Gordon's Fireplace Shop calls home was once an airplane parts factory.
Laurie Isola / OPB

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Malafouris is closing the store after being unable to find someone to buy it. Three floors' worth of inventory must go.
Laurie Isola / OPB

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The age of the small, local, independently owned furniture store is all but over.
Laurie Isola / OPB

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Gordon's not only carries chandeliers, furniture and, of course, fireplaces, it also specializes in grandfather clocks. The store is scheduled to close on July 25.
Laurie Isola / OPB

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Gordon's Fireplace Shop has made it 61 years. Pretty good considering about half of all new small businesses survive just five years, according to the federal government.
Laurie Isola / OPB

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Gordon's has made a name for itself as a repository of the eclectic.
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The style at Gordon's has always been a little glitzy, a little baroque.
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Laurie Isola / OPB

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Pay Malafouris a visit at his Fairview home, and he might turn on his player piano for a tune or two.
Laurie Isola / OPB

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Malafouris's living room wall is covered with photos of famous people he says he has met or worked with. Not only was he in the furniture business, Malafouris was also in show business.
Laurie Isola / OPB

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Malafouris is seen in a photo from his days in the entertainment business.
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Malafouris holds a photo of himself from his show business days. He retires this year from the furniture business he has owned, Gordon's Fireplace Shop, for 61 years.
Laurie Isola / OPB

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Signs of his show business part are everywhere in Malafouris's lakeside home in Fairview.
Laurie Isola / OPB