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Keeping Chair City
A-L-I-V-E
By Marilyn Haynes
Gardner will keep its nickname
of "Chair City" for a long time if
the owners of S. Bent Brothers
Inc. and Nichols and Stone
Company have any say in the matter.
The two furniture companies in
Gardner each make about 2,100 chairs a
week in much the same way as they
were made more than 100 years ago
when the companies first started.
People remember Heywood-Wakefield
Furniture Company as the prominent chair manufacturer and the one
responsible for the nickname, "Chair
City of the World." When the company
closed down in 1979, some no longer
associated Gardner with chairs.
But with the opening of Heritage
State Park Visitors' Center, the city was
reminded of its heritage and the skilled
craftsmen who worKed in the furniture
factories which made Gardner famous.
People began to take pride in the city
again. The downtown section was remodeled. The big chair in Iront of Helen
Mae Sauter School on Elm Street was
sanded and refinished. And the remaining
furniture factories began trying to
improve their image, expanding work
areas and introducing some modern
technology to their businesses.
Nichols and Stone is making sure
Gardner's chairs are known outside the
United States. Recently the company
began exporting chairs to Japan.
John Thomas, manufacturing systems
engineer, said Carlton 'Tuck' Nichols Jr.,
and Ron Kirwood, vice-president in
charge of sales and marketing, got together with Japanese buyers last year
and now each month a shipping container from Chair City goes to Japan.
Thomas said American-style furniture
is popular there. "A large percentage of
Shaker-style furniture -very simple
clean lines-is going there."
The Shaker-style chair has a webbed
seat hand-woven by Phyllis Gilbert of
Gardner. She makes the job look easy.
"If you know how to weave potholders,
this is the same thing," she said. "You
have to like working with your hands to
do this."
Gilbert said she has been weaving
chairs for the company for about two
years. Before that she was a stitcher and
upholsterer.
Pete Jensen said the company began
making the Shaker chairs with the web
seats about five or six years ago when
this type of furniture became popular.
He said fiber seats, first made at the firm
75 years ago, are still in demand.
Tuck Nichols is the fifth generation
Nichols at the firm, which
was started in 1857. His lather
is semi-retired, but drops by the
business each day lor a few hours.
Thomas said the company was started in
Westminster by the Nichols and Stone
families. A generation ago, the Stone
family was bought out.
Recently a new building was added to
the main building on Shennan Street.
Thomas said the company broke ground
for the new building Dec. 1, 1987
and moved in July 1, 1988. The table
and case goods division, the Brewster
Division formerly located in tbe old
Heywood-Wakefield building, moved there.
The company makes mostly dining
room furniture and a few rocking chairs.
Thomas said, "We make about 100
different styles of chairs.
We have 30 different tables and 30 different buffets
and hutches." Wood used in the
products, which comes from allover
New England and parts of Canada, is
mostly ash or birch, he said.
The "college chair" makes
10 to 15 percent of the business. Thomas
said over 2,000 universities, banks,
hospitals, professional associations,
Rotary Clubs and others order these
chairs which have a silk-screened logo
applied by hand to the back of the chair.
"They make great retirement or
graduation gifts," Thomas said.
Harvard University has its own version of the chair, which is not the same
design as the other college chairs,Thomas said. They have different logos
for each of their schools -law,business,medical.
Doug Delay, sales manager at s. Bent Brothers said most
furniture factories in Gardner came from Heywood-Wakefield
Company. S. Bent's was started in 1867 by Samuel Bent, who worked at
Heywood's before going out on his own. His brother George started a separate
company,Delay said.
The business has always been located
A-L-I-V-E
By Marilyn Haynes
Gardner will keep its nickname
of "Chair City" for a long time if
the owners of S. Bent Brothers
Inc. and Nichols and Stone
Company have any say in the matter.
The two furniture companies in
Gardner each make about 2,100 chairs a
week in much the same way as they
were made more than 100 years ago
when the companies first started.
People remember Heywood-Wakefield
Furniture Company as the prominent chair manufacturer and the one
responsible for the nickname, "Chair
City of the World." When the company
closed down in 1979, some no longer
associated Gardner with chairs.
But with the opening of Heritage
State Park Visitors' Center, the city was
reminded of its heritage and the skilled
craftsmen who worKed in the furniture
factories which made Gardner famous.
People began to take pride in the city
again. The downtown section was remodeled. The big chair in Iront of Helen
Mae Sauter School on Elm Street was
sanded and refinished. And the remaining
furniture factories began trying to
improve their image, expanding work
areas and introducing some modern
technology to their businesses.
Nichols and Stone is making sure
Gardner's chairs are known outside the
United States. Recently the company
began exporting chairs to Japan.
John Thomas, manufacturing systems
engineer, said Carlton 'Tuck' Nichols Jr.,
and Ron Kirwood, vice-president in
charge of sales and marketing, got together with Japanese buyers last year
and now each month a shipping container from Chair City goes to Japan.
Thomas said American-style furniture
is popular there. "A large percentage of
Shaker-style furniture -very simple
clean lines-is going there."
The Shaker-style chair has a webbed
seat hand-woven by Phyllis Gilbert of
Gardner. She makes the job look easy.
"If you know how to weave potholders,
this is the same thing," she said. "You
have to like working with your hands to
do this."
Gilbert said she has been weaving
chairs for the company for about two
years. Before that she was a stitcher and
upholsterer.
Pete Jensen said the company began
making the Shaker chairs with the web
seats about five or six years ago when
this type of furniture became popular.
He said fiber seats, first made at the firm
75 years ago, are still in demand.
Tuck Nichols is the fifth generation
Nichols at the firm, which
was started in 1857. His lather
is semi-retired, but drops by the
business each day lor a few hours.
Thomas said the company was started in
Westminster by the Nichols and Stone
families. A generation ago, the Stone
family was bought out.
Recently a new building was added to
the main building on Shennan Street.
Thomas said the company broke ground
for the new building Dec. 1, 1987
and moved in July 1, 1988. The table
and case goods division, the Brewster
Division formerly located in tbe old
Heywood-Wakefield building, moved there.
The company makes mostly dining
room furniture and a few rocking chairs.
Thomas said, "We make about 100
different styles of chairs.
We have 30 different tables and 30 different buffets
and hutches." Wood used in the
products, which comes from allover
New England and parts of Canada, is
mostly ash or birch, he said.
The "college chair" makes
10 to 15 percent of the business. Thomas
said over 2,000 universities, banks,
hospitals, professional associations,
Rotary Clubs and others order these
chairs which have a silk-screened logo
applied by hand to the back of the chair.
"They make great retirement or
graduation gifts," Thomas said.
Harvard University has its own version of the chair, which is not the same
design as the other college chairs,Thomas said. They have different logos
for each of their schools -law,business,medical.
Doug Delay, sales manager at s. Bent Brothers said most
furniture factories in Gardner came from Heywood-Wakefield
Company. S. Bent's was started in 1867 by Samuel Bent, who worked at
Heywood's before going out on his own. His brother George started a separate
company,Delay said.
The business has always been located
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“Page 1,” Digital Commonwealth , accessed May 25, 2013, http://digitalcommonwealth.org/items/show/860.
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