Birth of the Adirondack Reclining Chair
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
Birth of the Adirondack Reclining Chair
Article by Tonya Kerniva
On a warm spring day there’s nothing like enjoying the outdoors on your Adirondack chair. In cooler climes, bundling up indoors on your La-Z-Boy is about as good as it gets. Why not combine your two favorite things with a comfortable Adirondack reclining chair? But wait, before you get too comfortable, find out how such a relaxing piece of furniture came to be.
The Adirondack Chair
The Adirondack reclining chair has a relatively short history, whose birth came about just over a century ago, right here in the United States. Created by a creative man by the name of Thomas Lee, who had been vacationing in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York with his family, Lee found the his seating room lacking. Originally intended for private use, one of Lee’s acquaintances, another carpenter named Harry Bunnell patented Lee’s idea and sold it successfully under his brand for the next few decades. After having perfected and selling the classic form with its signature wide armrests and long back, Bunnell began experimenting with design, and eventually the Adirondack reclining chair came into existence.
The Reclining Chair
Though these plush seats seem relocated to modern times, actually the basic idea of the reclining chair dates back much further, to the Napoleonic era some 200 years ago. Back in the 18th century, the basic design was surprisingly similar to a modern Adirondack reclining chair, i.e., allowing the user to sit straight up or back at an angle, with one’s feet suspended above the ground. Original prototypes of the chair were modeled closely after the chaise lounge, a popular piece of furniture of the times. Each had a side armrest with long, bench-like seat upon which the user can fully stretch his legs.
In the mid-nineteenth century, French innovators came out with a reclining camp bed for use by Napoleon III. This seat was similar in form to a daybed and could act as a chair, a bed or a chaise, as desired. Like most chaise lounges of the day, the camp bed was upholstered with padding on the seat and armrest and attached to a frame, this one in particular made of steel. But unlike many chaises, it was also meant to be portable and folded out into a bed.
After a few decades, intricate design of more moveable chairs emerged that were made from wood and also padded. Ironically they were kept in homes more as conversation pieces than actual functioning pieces of furniture.
What we consider the first recognizable form of the recliner can in fact be credited to American innovation. Cousins Shoemaker and Knabush patented a rough model for a wooden recliner in 1928. That in itself was no major feat, as the chair mostly resembled a reclining beach chair. However, this patent led to the beginnings of the iconic La-Z-Boy, and in 1930, the cousins went on to patent an upholstered chair with a mechanical movement device. And yet, it wasn’t for almost two more decade, in 1947, that the standard foot rests were added by a rival company.
Though the Adirondack reclining chair does not share this trait, many of today’s recliners are full motorized. Some of the power lift chairs are specifically designed to aid individuals with mobility problems while the bells and whistles of other models simply serve to make life that much easier for the everyman.
About the Author
Tonya Kerniva is an experienced research and free lance writing professional. She writes actively about Garden Bench and Garden Benches.
