In 1972, Larry Mark, opened Furniture Warehouse on Carteret Street with the help of his parents, Ernest Mark (1917-1987) and Rose Yospe Mark (died 2014), who purchased the store’s initial inventory and helped pay the rent. Furniture Warehouse prospered as it catered to both local families and Marines, who preferred to buy local furniture to save money on shipping costs and used their reenlistment bonuses to purchase new furniture. Larry Mark’s brother, Michael, joined the business after he graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1985. In 2000, as downtown Beaufort became busier, Larry Mark relocated the business to a new 60,000 square foot sales warehouse on Robert Smalls Parkway and changed its name to Furniture Warehouse Design Gallery.