Garwood Linton and Leigh Wooton

Red Tree

Red Tree opened its doors in December 2002 in the heart of the East Market Street Arts District in downtown Louisville.  Red Tree introduced a unique retail concept to the area by using non-traditional merchandising and display techniques, as well as, offering a high end line of furniture at wholesale prices.  Garwood Linton started Red Tree after devoting twenty-four years to the wholesale industry as a manufacturer of silk floral designs and later, plaster architectural accessories for the home and garden.  Linton’s primary creative responsibilities with these companies included product design and development, as well as, designing and displaying showrooms at most major U.S. home furnishing markets.  He continues to design a unique lighting category for a line he created and sold in 2004, La Candela.  He currently designs lines for the manufacturer of Red Tree furniture and a line of candles, C’est Bon, with a partner in China.

Leigh Wooton is the sales, marketing and merchandising manager at Red Tree and shares the responsibility of product selection and visual merchandising with Linton.  Her diverse professional background includes retail, sales, marketing, politics, administration, visual merchandising and display, interior design and fashion consulting.  Wooton draws her creative influences from many of her past experiences and a strong sense of business and competitive marketing from others.  She credits her unique eye and appreciation for design detail in part to her mother, Virginia Wooton.  As a long time active member of the local performing arts community, her mother instilled in her an early and deep appreciation for the many elements of design in both the performing and visual arts.       

Red Tree Downtown and Middletown have enjoyed the distinguished honor of being voted Best Furniture Store several times by the community, receiving awards from Louisville Magazine and LEO.  Red Tree’s success and DinnerWorks participation would not be possible without the skills and talents of Jennifer Tanselle, CFO and Manager, Pete Thompson, Sue Hobgood and Drew Sellers.  This is their first DinnerWorks event.