Chris Munson

Staff Photo by D. Patrick Harding
Designer Jimmy Adams, left, and his associate Christina Queen look through the selection of rugs at the Persian Rug Company as they shop for a client.

Chris Munson’s family has been in the Persian rug business for 80 years. Most of those years were spent in a dimly lit, cinderblock building on Main Street in the Southside neighborhood.

Today, the family-owned Persian Rug Co. displays its hundreds of brightly colored hand-made rugs of all shapes and sizes in a space that allows them to be truly appreciated, said Jessica Munson Ellis, Chris Munson’s daughter and the fourth generation of the family to run the business.

“It’s like a whole new world,” said Mrs. Ellis, an interior designer who joined her dad in the business a month ago. “The old space was small and dark, with no showroom — and now we have windows.”

The new building at 917 E. 16th St. is a block from the old location, which was on 818 Main. The new site is not just brighter, but is bigger, too. With more than 7,500 square feet of warehouse space the business was able to have a showroom for the first time, where it now displays most of its inventory, including several hand-made rugs that are more than 100 years old and valued at up to $18,000. Many of the rugs in the gallery can take from several months up to two years to complete by hand.

Chris Munson said the family wanted to stay in the Main Street area, and he felt fortunate they were able relocate so close by. They paid $200,000 for the blue building last summer. They refinished the oak flooring, added new lighting and installed equipment to allow the rugs to hang.

The old Main Street location had just become depressing, Chris Munson said. The state took the front of the building for a road project in the 1980s, after which his uncle put in narrow windows that didn’t allow much light in, and it was never the same.

In the back of the new building, the company continues to do the rug cleaning work that Chris Munson said the business became known for over the years.

While the company plans to continue the profitable rug cleaning portion of the business, the store now has shifted its focus to selling rugs, which come from all over the world including China, India, Pakistan and Persia.

Designer Jimmy Adams visited the showroom for the first time this week. Mr. Adams, who owns Nell’s Home Furnishings on Gunbarrel Road, shopped for rugs for a client.

“Everyone knew them as rug cleaners before, so this is great,” Mr. Adams said as he looked around the showroom.

Mrs. Ellis’ great-grandparents founded the Persian Rug Co. in the 1920s cleaning rugs and selling dry goods. Her great-grandfather, J.A. Munson, a Lebanese immigrant, and her great-grandmother, Najebe Munson, a local woman descended from Lebanese immigrants, established the business and finally passed it to their youngest son.

Chris Munson fell into the business when his uncle Fred Munson became sick in the 1990s. Fred Munson operated the Persian Rug Co. until he died in 2007. Chris Munson was building houses at the time but kept finding himself sitting at the rug business.

“Every time my uncle went into the hospital, I’d have to come in,” Chris Munson said.

His uncle would tell him he was going in for tests, then stay in the hospital for a week, he said.

“I did that for 15 years,” he said.