Adirondack/Muskoka chair is an enduring symbol of cottage country
by Rick on Jun.27, 2010, under Uncategorized
You’ve on your dock, with an ice cold beer in your mitt. The faraway whine of an outboard engine, the cry of a loon, a cool late afternoon breeze on your face as the sun begins dipping behind the trees. And you’re sitting uncomfortably in a green plastic molded chair you bought at the supermarket.
What’s wrong with this picture of cottage bliss? Of course – you’ve gotta have an Muskoka chair.
How can something crafted of wood be so darn comfortable hour after hour? That is the secret of the Muskoka or our friend down south call Adirondack which was invented almost exactly a century ago near the shores of Lake Champlain in upstate New York. In fact, according to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y., they were originally known as Westport chairs, named for a nearby town. A man named Thomas Lee, vacationing in the Adirondacks, designed the chair through a process of trial and error. Each one was constructed from a single pine board, with his relatives placing their posteriors on numerous prototypes before he came up with the winner.
Lee was a terrific designer but he was no entrepreneur. When his buddy Harry Bunnell, a carpenter, was badly in need of a winter project to make ends meet, Lee helpfully provided the plans for his marvelous chair. Soon Bunnell could hardly keep up with demand.
Bunnell was a terrific carpenter but he was a little short on gratitude. Without his pal’s blessing, he filed for a patent on the so-called Westport chair in 1904 and got his papers from Uncle Sam the following year. On the patent description he wrote: “The object of this invention is a chair of the bungalow type adapted for use on porches, lawns and at camps and also adapted to be converted into an invalid’s chair.”
The application outlined each of the 11 pieces of wood required for the chair and he concluded, “From the above description, it is thought that the advantages of this construction wilt be obvious.”
They certainly were. Over the next two generations the chair’s popularity spread across the Adirondack region, evolving through the years with slats replacing the solid planks. The “Westport” became the “Adirondack” chair, so-called by tuberculosis patients who were sent in those days to sanatoriums in upstate New York, sitting outdoors for hours in the comfortable chairs as part of their “wilderness cure.”
Bunnell continued building chairs well into the 1920s, all individually signed and made of hemlock, and you could buy them in green or medium dark brown. Inevitably, these original chairs transcended function to become collectibles and objets d’art. Chairs that cost four bucks back in the Roaring ‘20s can today, in pristine condition, fetch up to US$1,250!
The next leap in popularity came with mass production and mail order. During World War II you could order an Adirondack chair kit, with untalented all-thumbs fathers across the country assembling their own cottage chairs.
Here in Ontario’s cottage country, the Muskokas, especially the Big Three lakes which were the playground of the very well-off, and owning one was a bit of a status symbol. Here they became known as Muskoka chairs, even though the design is a dead ringer for the Adirondack, and it’s still considered a necessity by those who insist on the traditional accoutrements of the cottage experience.
So if you require an authentic Adirondack/Muskoka? Call a craftsman.
Every professional craftsmen in cottage country has 
in one time or another build these functional exterior fixtures. Having started as a trim carpenter, I would always be asked by customers to build them there personal throne. We have now expanded our repertoire to include the famed Muskoka chair. Using a pattern we obtained form my great grandfathers business partner we have been creating Muskoka chairs for years.
“Here is one just finished and it’s wasn’t too long before cars start slowing down, to check them out.”
Of course, one of the benefits of buying a chair from a woodworker is our ability to custom-build them to there specific specifications
“We’ll get a call from a wife who’ll tell us her husband is a little on the ‘robust side’. “But that’s no problem – we can make them a little wider or deeper.”
Of course the orignal design has grown to include love seats and swings. And, naturally, he can equip those broad arm paddles with a drink holder so your beer or pop won’t go for tumble if they’re bumped. And colour?
“We’ve have even seen people paint each board the full spectrum of the rainbow or in glow in the dark pastels,”. “People are using them as a canvas for art.”
How can something crafted of wood be so darn comfortable hour after hour? That is the secret of the Muskoka or our friend down south call Adirondack which was invented almost exactly a century ago near the shores of Lake Champlain in upstate New York. In fact, according to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y., they were originally known as Westport chairs, named for a nearby town. A man named Thomas Lee, vacationing in the Adirondacks, designed the chair through a process of trial and error. Each one was constructed from a single pine board, with his relatives placing their posteriors on numerous prototypes before he came up with the winner.
Lee was a terrific designer but he was no entrepreneur. When his buddy Harry Bunnell, a carpenter, was badly in need of a winter project to make ends meet, Lee helpfully provided the plans for his marvelous chair. Soon Bunnell could hardly keep up with demand.
Bunnell was a terrific carpenter but he was a little short on gratitude. Without his pal’s blessing, he filed for a patent on the so-called Westport chair in 1904 and got his papers from Uncle Sam the following year. On the patent description he wrote: “The object of this invention is a chair of the bungalow type adapted for use on porches, lawns and at camps and also adapted to be converted into an invalid’s chair.”
The application outlined each of the 11 pieces of wood required for the chair and he concluded, “From the above description, it is thought that the advantages of this construction wilt be obvious.”
They certainly were. Over the next two generations the chair’s popularity spread across the Adirondack region, evolving through the years with slats replacing the solid planks. The “Westport” became the “Adirondack” chair, so-called by tuberculosis patients who were sent in those days to sanatoriums in upstate New York, sitting outdoors for hours in the comfortable chairs as part of their “wilderness cure.”
Bunnell continued building chairs well into the 1920s, all individually signed and made of hemlock, and you could buy them in green or medium dark brown. Inevitably, these original chairs transcended function to become collectibles and objets d’art. Chairs that cost four bucks back in the Roaring ‘20s can today, in pristine condition, fetch up to US$1,250!
The next leap in popularity came with mass production and mail order. During World War II you could order an Adirondack chair kit, with untalented all-thumbs fathers across the country assembling their own cottage chairs.
Here in Ontario’s cottage country, the Muskokas, especially the Big Three lakes which were the playground of the very well-off, and owning one was a bit of a status symbol. Here they became known as Muskoka chairs, even though the design is a dead ringer for the Adirondack, and it’s still considered a necessity by those who insist on the traditional accoutrements of the cottage experience.
So if you require an authentic Adirondack/Muskoka? Call a craftsman.
Every professional craftsmen in cottage country has 
in one time or another build these functional exterior fixtures. Having started as a trim carpenter, I would always be asked by customers to build them there personal throne. We have now expanded our repertoire to include the famed Muskoka chair. Using a pattern we obtained form my great grandfathers business partner we have been creating Muskoka chairs for years.
“Here is one just finished and it’s wasn’t too long before cars start slowing down, to check them out.”
Of course, one of the benefits of buying a chair from a woodworker is our ability to custom-build them to there specific specifications
“We’ll get a call from a wife who’ll tell us her husband is a little on the ‘robust side’. “But that’s no problem – we can make them a little wider or deeper.”
Of course the orignal design has grown to include love seats and swings. And, naturally, he can equip those broad arm paddles with a drink holder so your beer or pop won’t go for tumble if they’re bumped. And colour?
“We’ve have even seen people paint each board the full spectrum of the rainbow or in glow in the dark pastels,”. “People are using them as a canvas for art.”
