Hugo’s Interiors is celebrating its centennial this year, and its still owned and operated by the family who launched it in 1921.
The American-made business has built a reputation for offering North Florida’s largest selection of fine furnishings and accessories. And the Hugo family and their more than 55 artisan craftspeople take pride in continuing the tradition of quality and style started by Albert Hugo 100 years ago.
Many think of Hugo’s as a furniture store, but its much more than that. In fact, the 18,000-square-foot furniture gallery is part of a 43,000-square-foot facility located at 3139 Philips Highway North in Jacksonville. Its clientele include homeowners and businesses.
Hugo’s offers expertly tailored custom upholstery, re-upholstery, custom window treatments and linens and bedding. It provides custom millwork, including cabinets, countertops and banquettes for amenity centers and restaurants. Hugo’s design center has interior decorators on staff.
In addition, delivery and installation is carried out on the customer’s schedule. Hugo’s also offers furniture storage in its climate-controlled warehouse.
How it all began
In the wake of World War I, Albert Hugo emigrated from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. A German-trained decorator skilled at paper hanging, cabinet making, upholstery and other crafts, he arrived by train in Florida.
Visiting Plant City, he saw a young woman through a window sewing hats and introduced himself. The couple soon married and Albert and Euna Hugo set up shop in 1921 in the dock house of Arthur and Ninah Cummer’s English Tudor Revival mansion on Riverside Avenue in Jacksonville. They divided up the responsibilities: Albert could upholster and sell, and Euna could sew.
Albert Hugo and Associates’ reputation grew to include internationally known families such as that of Alfred I. duPont and his wife, Jessie Ball duPont. In fact, Hugo’s Interiors continues to meet the duPonts’ furnishings and fabric needs inside their 58-acre estate, Epping Forest, now home of Epping Forest Yacht & Country Club.
In the years after the Hugos launched their business, sons George, Edward and Charles also worked there.
The business moved to its current location in the 1940s.
Hugo’s Interiors today
Richard Hugo, grandson of Albert and Euna Hugo, currently stands at the head of the business. He is trained in furniture styles, periods and the use of color and textiles. He and his wife have four children, Mathew, Jennie, John and Paul. Three of them now work in the business.
Asked to what he attributes the longtime success of Hugo’s Interiors, Richard Hugo cited a legacy of quality and service.
“We’re customer-driven,” he said. “And I think the people who come here, hopefully they have a good experience and appreciate what we do and come back many, many times.”
The Hugo family also gives back to the community with volunteer participation in The American Cancer Society, The Women’s Board of Wolfson Children’s Hospital, The Rotary Club, Community Hospice and Palliative Care and other organizations.
