The History of the Adirondack Chair: From Early 1900s to Present Day

While the moose is the most iconic animal in the Adirondacks, the Adirondack chair is the region's most recognizable object. Although there are all kinds of variations today, ranging from colorful plastic chairs to two-person benches, the original design for the Adirondack chair was created back in the early 1900s and lives on in today's popular Adirondack chair designs.  

Thomas Lee & the Westport Chair

The history of the Adirondack chair begins in the Town of Westport, NY with the inventor of the Westport chair - Massachusetts native Thomas Lee. Lee's family owned a house in Westport, and he spent many of his summers there around the early 20th century.

In an interview between the Sun Community News and Thomas Lee's great-great nephew, it was revealed that Lee came from a wealthy family, was a Harvard graduate, but then dropped out of law school because he preferred to work in nature and felt at home in the Adirondacks.

As the story goes, during one summer in Westport, Lee felt a desire to create a chair that could handle the rugged terrain of the Adirondacks. This chair would have to be sturdy, balanced, and comfortable on everything from sandy ground to a small hill.

From 1900-1903, Lee worked on making this new chair. In order to perfect it, he had his family members test out each prototype before moving on to the next. Eventually, Lee came up with what he considered the perfect chair: wide armrests, a high back, and a slanted seat (the seat and back were made from single pieces of wood).

The Rise of the Adirondack Chair

Soon after Lee finalized the design of his Westport chair, he met up with his hunting friend Harry Bunnell, who owned a carpentry shop in the town. Bunnell was worried about the upcoming winter because of a lack of resources that year, so to help him out, Lee gave him the chair's design.

Bunnell began to build and sell these chairs to the surrounding community, and he soon noticed how popular they were. After modifying the design to make the chair a little narrower, Bunnell patented his Westport chair design in April 1904.

While some stories depict Bunnell in a negative light for patenting the chair, Lee's great-great nephew noted in the Sun Community News story that Lee was already wealthy, so he wasn't interested in starting a chair-making business. Indeed, Lee was more focused on bottling and delivering mountain spring water from the Adirondacks.

Over the next 20+ years, Bunnell developed a successful Westport chair-making business, and he left his signature on each one. The Westport chair grew in popularity because of its durability and high comfort level, but as the years passed, the design began to change into the modern Adirondack chair.

The Tuberculosis Connection

According to Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green, the Adirondack chair was invented for tuberculosis patients, "allowing them to rest outdoors without needing their beds wheeled outside."

While the Adirondack chair may not have been directly created with the intention of TB patients using it, there is a significant correlation.

A key part of treatment for many TB patients was exposure to mountain air offered in the Adirondacks, which is why the region was once home to several TB sanitariums.

At one time, patients would sit outside taking in that healthful air on collapsible steamer chairs or rockers, or two stationary chairs that were pulled together; this was not comfortable.

They transitioned from this to a "cure chair," which was more of a lounge-type recliner. Meanwhile, the Adirondack chair was being developed to enjoy the view of Lake Champlain. There was a distinct correlation between the cure chair and the Adirondack chair, and the makers of the cure chairs were looking to broaden their customer base; there was a bit of a marriage between the two.

As a Smithsonian Magazine article puts it, "While cure chairs were specifically designed for TB sufferers. . .the frequency with which tuberculosis patients come in and out of remission blurred the line between who was ill and who was not." People would sleep out on their porches in the chairs, even if they weren't sick.

Photo: Osprey Point

The Modern Adirondack Chair

The best explanation for the design change is the difficulty in mass-producing chairs made from a single, knot-free plank. To make construction easier and sell their own chairs, different carpenters began to innovate the Westport chair design.

Both the Westport chair and the newer Adirondack chair feature extra-wide armrests, high backs, and slanted seats. However, the seat and back of the Adirondack chair are made out of multiple slats of wood lined up; the Westport chair was built from whole pieces of wood cut from a single, knot-free plank, which made the design harder to construct.

The popularity of this updated design spread, and because the chair originated in the Adirondacks, it was widely-known as the Adirondack chair. The exception is in Canada, where the chair is called the Muskoka chair, likely due to its popularity in the Muskoka region.

In 1938, Irving Wolpin of New Jersey acquired a patent for another design change. Described as a "lawn-chair," Wolpin's chair had the slanted seat and wide armrests of the Westport chair, was constructed out of smaller slats, but also featured a rounded back and contoured seat. Wolpin's design is the most commonly replicated Adirondack chair today.

Today, the Adirondack chair is one of the most popular and iconic lawn and beach chairs. Although it exists in many forms, each one is still inspired by the original Westport chair.

Sources:

• http://www.suncommunitynews.com/articles/ncl-magazine/adirondack-icon/
• http://www.clarksoutdoorchairs.com/adirondack_chair_history.html
• http://adirondackchairsexpert.com/adirondack-chair-vs-muskoka-chair-whats-the-difference-and-which-is-better/
• http://www.orvis.com/s/adirondack-chair-story-the-history-of-the-adirondack-chair/2978
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-adirondack-chair-became-feel-good-recliner-cures-what-ails-you-180978322/
• Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green

Patent Sources:

• https://www.google.com/patents/US794777
• https://www.google.com/patents/USD109239