On the shores of Lake Champlain
near the Adirondack Mountains of New York is a small town named
Westport. The very first Adirondack chair, appropriately named
at that time, the Westport chair was invented.
Blue Mountain Lake New York hosts the Adirondack Museum where
the history of the interesting and comfortable furniture is
displayed for those who are interested.
Thomas Lee, a Westport resident, loved the outdoors and spending
time there with a large family. The home they lived in called
Stoney Sides had a vast shortage of lawn furniture. As a result,
on the lawn in front of his home in 1903, Mr. Lee created a new
contraption of nailed together boards to try out as new chairs
for the 22 members of his family to sit in and comment on. With
all of the family participating, Lee purportedly created the
innovative chair we see today complete with slanted back and
arms and wider rests for the forearm.
Mr. Lee was acquainted with a carpenter named Harry; so the
story goes, the carpenter owned a small shop in Westport. Mr.
Lee wanted several of the chairs made so that he had enough for
the entire family to use while they were outside talking
together. The result was a bit more than he might have asked for
and certainly more than he bargained for.
Harry Bunnell concluded that the visitors and full time
residents to the town would appreciate Mr. Lee’s prototype chair
and that he should make a few more chairs. To sell to them. He
saw the potential for a fairly nice profit from the sales of the
chair and without Mr. Lee’s knowledge, he took a patent on the
chair which was in the process of becoming one of the best known
furniture pieces in history, surpassing even very famous antique
names.
Mr. Bunnell’s chair became more than widely popular and he
experimented on some new versions and variations. Over time the
chair became known for the region of its invention rather than
the towns and the name evolved into the Adirondack chair. They
sold extremely well and made a very nice profit for Mr. Bunnell
during his lifetime.
They sold at the time for about four dollars a chair. Today
those first chairs built fetch a fairly tidy sum of about 1200
to 1500 dollars each for the original builds.
The Adirondack chair will remain well known and well used due to
a simple fact of life that although its not the most attractive
design you can't beat it for comfort Generally, a chair will
remain popular as long as people can sit comfortably, and with
an Adirondack your legs rest better and more comfortably for the
slanted seat and the arms have more room to balance your books
and a drink on. The Adirondack chair is the epitome of this
comfort factor; its popularity and use indicate the comforts
offered by it. And over 100 years later its still going strong. |
