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Grand Rapids Chair: 1908

Circa 1908. "Grand Rapids Chair Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Circa 1908. "Grand Rapids Chair Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

No Affiliation

... with Grand Rapids Fence & Shack.

It looked run-down even hhen

I can't imagine what it might look like today! It reminds me of the "haunted factories" and stuff you see around Halloween.

Scared Sitless

Odd that there aren't any factory seconds, prototypes, test models, returned merchandise, demos, floor models, displays or even a lonely stool on which to sit.

Originators not Imitators

"While its first products were caned chairs, the Grand Rapids Chair Company turned its full production to parlor, living and dining suites by the 1920s. Beginning in the 1950s, the company produced a line of modular residential units named the "Cross Country" line. Grand Rapids Chair operated as a subsidiary of Sligh Furniture from 1945 to 1957 and subsequently was fully integrated into Baker Furniture in 1973." (http://www.daads.org/modern/1801/article10.htm)

Today this building still sits on the Grand River just north of downtown Grand Rapids, with the Baker Furniture name on the side, but they moved most of their operations to North Carolina in 2006.

Still there

Travis Street and Monroe Avenue NW. A fifth story was added later.


View Larger Map

Yeeesh

My first thought when I saw the headline and building was "electric chair."

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