Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 22, 1994                   TAG: 9402220226
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

CHURCH FURNITURE MUSEUM'S FOUNDERS HAVE BIG PLANS

But Don Beverly, president of Virginia Church Furniture, and Tim Thompson, vice president, decided that was not ambitious enough.

Now they also plan eventual performances by gospel singing groups along with country-cooked meals in connection with the museum to draw more visitors ``like a small PTL, really,'' Beverly said, referring to the Praise the Lord Club, Jim and Tammy Baker's once-famous Christian entertainment show.

``There's not that many places that Christian people can go and have a good time'' as a family in a wholesome environment, Thompson said. ``It's kind of like an untapped market, really.''

``It'd be dynamic, I think,'' Beverly said. ``Pulaski could wind up being a little Bible Belt town with this atmosphere to it.''

The two men, who had both worked in other Pulaski furniture industries, started Virginia Church Furniture 10 years ago.

``We both went the management route,'' Thompson said. ``Don had the idea of starting a church furniture company business and lassoed me into it.''

The company has nearly doubled in size, now employing some 40 workers with about 50 more at Virginia Wood Products and Indian Ridge Woodcraft. Those two companies were spun off from Virginia Church furniture to provide material to their parent company, which does about $2 million in business annually and serves about 250 churches, Beverly said.

``We sell in all states east of the Mississippi,'' Beverly said.

``You take an empty building, we can turn it into a church,'' Thompson added.

Many of the salespeople are ministers selling part time to supplement their incomes. It was one of them, the Rev. Fred Dillon, 75, of West Virginia, who first suggested the museum idea.

``We let it hatch about a year,'' Beverly said. ``It's going to take time and money to do it.''

But they already have some prospective museum pieces, given to them by churches where they have placed new furnishings. Among the growing collection: a 100-year-old pew of hand-carved oak from a church in Indiana and a 60- to 80-year-old pulpit.

``We have a few artifacts and I think that, within this year, we can fill the whole place up,'' Beverly said. They are now housed in the company's 100-year-old-plus showroom that once was Pulaski's opera house.

It also was the meeting place Dec. 11, 1893, of an estimated 300 citizens seeking support for a bond issue to build a courthouse in Pulaski and move the county seat from Newbern. The former county courthouse there had just been destroyed by fire.

Beverly and Thompson are seeking donations of old furniture from other churches to become part of an interdenominational museum - ``anything from pictures to furniture,'' Beverly said.

Thompson said people are welcome to visit the showroom and see what pieces have already been assembled.

``It's kind of like a little minidream here to create something, and we've always been collecting, so why not open it to the public?'' he said.

They hope to complete the first phase of their dream, opening the museum in the old opera house, before the end of the year.

The next step would be to buy some surrounding property for a bigger, permanent museum and, finally, to expand into more buildings with the entertainment and food ``to go big-time with it,'' Beverly said.

He foresees all three operations eventually housed under one roof. ``It depends on the financing, how big it'll be.''

Thompson said old furniture donations from other churches could get the project started. ``We're just beginning it and getting things going but, with a little help, we can have something great.''