SoCo Magazine - May 2008 - (Page 76) Life’s a Beach at Paine’s Patio of Cape Cod By J. Alexander | Photography by Bodil Perkins I t’s rare enough these days for parents to pass their business on to a son or daughter, but in the case of sixthgeneration furniture owner Douglas Shearer, owner of Paine’s Patio Furniture on Cape Cod, typical went out the window long ago. Douglas and Kristin Shearer opened their Pocasset Village “Fine Casual and Outdoor Furnishings” store on Route 28 in the spring of 2003, in a 2,500-square-foot former ski shop. As business boomed, they went on to add another 2,500 square feet a year later, then an additional 2,000 square feet before taking over a former bike shop last year to add yet another 1,500 square feet to the building. “We were originally going to build a store in Falmouth,” says Doug, a Falmouth native, “but we ended up in a three-year battle with Conservation. Halfway into it, we saw this place.” Pocasset is not so far from where Shearer’s great-great-great grandfather started his first furniture business back in 1835. Leonard Shearer, a 27-year-old cabinet maker in the budding city of Boston, which then had a population of just 75,000 residents, decided to create his own furniture store at a time when new residents were arriving in the city by the hundreds, looking to settle down and in need of new home furnishings. His first shop opened on Blackstone Street, and by 1843, Shearer met his future business partner, a 22-year-old apprentice named John S. Paine. The two would go on to found Paine Furniture Company. By 1872, the first block-sized Paine store was constructed on Canal Street and stood for the next 44 years, although the last Paine involved in the business left by 1890. In 1914, the store moved to a massive ten-story showroom and manufactory on Arlington Street in Park Square, where it stood for more than seven decades before just recently closing its doors for good. Growing up around a furniture business family, Doug saw his grandfather and 76 | s o comagazi ne . i nfo | M ay 2 0 0 8 http://socomagazine.info
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