Gump's

Web site
San Francisco
Revenue: About $20 million
Employees: 108 full-time

Brothers Solomon and Gustav Gump founded their San Francisco store in 1861 to sell luxury décor and artwork to the newly wealthy Gold Rushers who had flocked to the Bay Area. Following the 1906 earthquake, the Gump family retooled the business to focus on Asian artwork, and a Buddha statue from a Chinese palace still stands in the store. Today the Union Square retailer still focuses on luxury, with 17,000 square feet of art, antiques, jewelry, décor, and furniture, though the company has left the Gump family's hands—private equity owners now control the brand.