Charlotte Hall Furniture Restoration Business Finds Its Workmanship in Demand Across the Region

Bill Schoenbauer’s family has been in the business of restoring furniture for a long, long time. He represents the fourth generation of Schoenbauers to work in furniture restoration. “My great-grandfather was a cabinet builder who came over to the states and got into the furniture restoration business,” Schoenbauer stated recently. “Slowly that evolved into claims handling business. A lot of what we do is generated through insurance companies, moving and storage companies, repairing transit damage.” Schoenbauer apprenticed with his father, F.W. Schoenbauer, on a time-release program while a student at Chopticon High School. Following 13 years with his dad, the younger Schoenbauer started out on his own with Schoenbauer Furniture Service. “My dad got me started,” he stated. “He turned over one of his accounts to me. Now 5o percent of what we do is generated through the moving and storage industry.” Schoenbauer added that their business is easing its way into the home-owners insurance damage – fire and water damage claims. The rest of his business is made up of private individuals – antique restoration and a lot of “on-site” work which Schoenbauer conducts both commercially and residentially. This offshoot of his business offers a unique feature, where Schoenbauer or his employees will go right into the business or home to touch up and repair damaged pieces. “I always knew this was what I wanted to do,” he says. “I’d been around it as a child, the smell [of the finishes] and watching my dad work in the garage…after working with him for 13 years I was ready for some new responsibilities and a challenge.” Schoenbauer realized pretty quickly that he couldn’t do what he wanted to do by himself. “I really owe a debt of gratitude to my wife, Debbie,” he said. “She’s really helped a lot with the business. Without her, I wouldn’t have gotten this far.” Schoenbauer Furniture Service started out as a home-based business and grew to a warehouse in Waldorf. At that point, his business office was still located in his home in northern St. Mary’s County while the actual business was 20 miles away. “We knew that the warehouse based in Waldorf was going to be a temporary arrangement, but there was nothing available in the northern St. Mary’s County area at that time,” he noted. Since then, the business has relocated to a warehouse behind True Value in Charlotte Hall, and has grown from Bill’s one-man show to 10 employees, including his brother and one nephew, proving that for Schoenbauer Furniture Service, the business truly runs in the family.

The Schoenbauers are celebrating 25 years of sawdust and the smells of turpentine, stains and varnishes this year. The St. Mary’s family business, Schoenbauer Furniture Service in Charlotte Hall, is celebrating its silver anniversary, though the family’s involvement with wood furniture goes back further than that. Carl Schoenbauer brought his cabinet making skills with him from Germany when he immigrated to the United States in 1896. He passed those woodworking skills down to his son, William Francis Schoenbauer, and those skills are still being passed down today to still more generations. “He really wasn’t a furniture restorer, but a cabinet builder,” Bill (William Francis III) Schoenbauer said of his great-grandfather. “His son, my grandfather — he died when I was 2 — really started with the furniture restoration and that’s what my dad did. That’s what we’re doing now.” Bill Schoenbauer started the current furniture restoration business with his wife, Debbie, in 1991 — she died a year and a half ago — after apprenticing under his father, Francis William Schoenbauer Jr., for more than 13 years. That business was F.W. Schoenbauer Repair, which continued until 2000 when the elder Schoenbauer decided to close up shop and work for his son, leaving him more time to spend with his wife, Pauline, who also began helping in the son’s office until Alzheimer’s made it impossible. He died in 2013 at the age of 81, and Pauline followed him a year later. “He was working full time up until about two weeks before he passed away. We had to drag him out of here to the hospital,” his granddaughter, Katie Morgan, said. She’s been working in the business for 10 years, taking over office and bookkeeping duties when her mother died. She also handles commercial accounts and whatever else comes along. Bill Schoenbauer, recounting a story that captured his dad’s work ethic, said that three years before his death he had cut off part of three fingers — the first such injury in all his years — on a table saw but couldn’t stay away from work, even at the age of 78. “He was literally back to work the next day. He had this huge mitt [of gauze] on his hand and it was all completely covered in [wood] stain. I think he even caught it on fire once,” he said with a laugh, fondly remembering his father. “He was definitely from that [older] generation. He was a hard worker and, really, so dedicated to the business. He was great for these young guys to see as an example. He could do anything — he got all the hard jobs. We certainly miss him.” The current business includes Georgetown Refinishing and Antique Restoration of Washington, D.C., which was purchased in 2007 and was brought to the Charlotte Hall shop. “Most of their work was in Northwest Washington [D.C.], Arlington [Va.] and Bethesda,” Schoenbauer said. “They had a really nice reputation for their upholstery work. They worked with a lot of decorators

It began as a little repair shop with one account in the garage of Bill Schoenbauer III’s Waldorf home in 1990 and has grown into one of the preeminent furniture restoration facilities in the world. Now employing more than 30 skilled craftsmen and their apprentices in-house and 676 specialized subcontractors throughout the region, the name Schoenbauer Furniture Services, Inc. has come to stand for excellence. It is a success story as old as America itself, based on timeless principles of hard work, self reliance and customer satisfaction. It is also a company imbued in the traditions of craftsmen who have built on skills that have taken generations to learn. Heirlooms and antiques from Senator’s offices, Washington, D.C. embassies and furniture from as far away as South Africa have passed through the Schoenbauer’s Charlotte Hall workplace. Each of those pieces were treated with the same loving care as the furniture and artwork of everyday people who simply want to take care of what they have. The beginnings of this family oriented business extend back more than a century to a german immigrant named carl Schoenbauer who came to America and became a carpenter in 1896. Carl taught wood working to his son Frank who became a cabinet maker and later a furniture repairman. Frank had a son named Francis who learned cabinet making with his father. After World War II, Francis saw the need for a company that could take care of damage caused to furniture by shipping. With a lifetime of working with wood behind him, he started a company providing service to Southern Transfer and Storage. Soon, other firms sought out his expertise. Insurance companies and private individuals also came to the Schoenbauer’s for their furniture repair, restoration and refinishing needs. His son, Francis William (Bill) Schoenbauer III, continued the family tradition. He apprenticed with his father before starting the company that employs them today. “I started repairing furniture when I was 16 years old. I’m 70 now,” Bill Schoenbauer Jr. said. The Schoenbauer’s have all earned the art and craft of working with wood and other forms of furniture well. Frank Robinson of Serenity Farm in Benedict is one of the companies satisfied customers. Nearly a year ago, several large antique pieces of Robinson’s were severely water damaged. “I didn’t think they were salvageable,” Robinson said. “The extent of the damage done to them was great. They did a great job doing the repairs.” Whether it’s water damage, scratching, neglect or any number of other causes at least one member of the family or company has experience with that specific repair. Where most of us see ruins, Schoenbauer and the people who work for him, see the challenge. “What I enjoy most is the creative part of the business, actually doing the repairs,” Bill Schoenbauer II said. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of watching what the other guys do. too.” One of those guys, is his younger brother Mike Schoenbauer. “Probably what I enjoy most is