Keeping Chair City Alive, Gardner Today News and Entertainment Weekly, May 10, 1989

Keeping Chair City Alive, Gardner Today News and Entertainment Weekly, May 10, 1989

Furniture industry and trade--Massachusetts--Gardner; Heywood-Wakefield Company; S. Bent & Brothers, Inc.; Gardner (Mass.)--History; Nichols and Stone Company; Gardner Today

The article "Keeping Chair City Alive" by Marilyn Haynes published in the May 10, 1989 Gardner Today News and Entertainment Weekly. The article talks about the S. Bent & Brothers Inc. and Nichols and Stone Company, two furniture manufacturing companies in Gardner, Massachusetts, that were keeping the rich tradition of furniture and chair manufacturing alive in Gardner. Gardner once had the nickname "Chair City" due to many furniture companies that made their home in Gardner, including Heywood-Wakefield Company which at one point was the largest furniture manufacturing company in America. The article talks about the companies, their attention to quality and the dedication to their workers and the tradition of quality furniture. Nichols and Stone Company started its operations in Gardner in 1857, but has roots going all the way back to 1767 with the Nichols Brothers Chair Manufactory in Westminster, Massachusetts. Today it is the oldest furniture manufacturing company in America and still has its main operations still in Gardner. S. Bent & Brothers, Inc. was started in 1867 and made colonial chairs, rockers, children's chairs, breakfast sets and institutional furniture. S. Bent & Brothers, Inc. closed in 2001.

Haynes, Marilyn

Image is of the article "Keeping Chair City Alive" by Marilyn Haynes, pages four and five, in the May 10, 1989 Gardner Today News and Entertainment Weekly. Published by the Worcester Newspapers, Inc. Text and images published courtesy of and with permission from the author, Marilyn Haynes.

C/WMARS http://www.cwmars.org/

1989-05-10

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Is part of the W. Joseph Carr Collection, LaChance Library, Mount Wachusett Community College, Gardner, Massachusetts, http://www.mwcc.edu/Html/Library/index.html. For further information, see the Greater Gardner Furniture History Documentary Project website, http://www.mwcc.edu/gardnerfurniture/default.html.

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