Chair City Journal

In its day, Gardner, Massachusetts was the “Chair City of the World.” Yours truly was born in Gardner. My paternal grandparents, immigrants from Finland, raised my father and uncle in a three-decker on Pine Street.  Gardner is a quirky city, population staying stubbornly around 20,000 for more than a century. The factories are mostly gone, downtown has more storefronts empty than open, and the train station is no more. You hear Spanish accents more than French, Finnish, Polish, or Italian. The Communists are beyond the memories of even the oldest residents.  This course is a story of a New England factory town that changes and yet doesn’t, who arrives and who goes, and where is home, anyway?

Course materials

Supplemental materials

About the craft of chair-making

Tracie Pouliot and others have interviewed key people involved in the history of chair-making in Gardner. Each of the videos is about 15 minutes long. Enjoy.

In and Around Gardner

Where to eat in Gardner

Gardner Day at Fenway Park – August 25, 1946

The video was made from the original 16 mm film shot by a Gardner man, Charles Dewey, (This film has no sound)

In 1935, Gardner erected a 16-ft-tall Colonial Hitchcock chair, made by the Heywood-Wakefield Company. It was the city’s 2nd “Big Chair.” (Visit the museum’s permanent exhibit of Gardner’s “Big Chairs”!) In 1946, it was transported to Fenway Park for the famed “GARDNER DAY AT FENWAY.”

On 8/25/1946, more than 2,000 Gardnerites gathered to cheer on the Red Sox as they played the Cleveland Indians in a Sunday doubleheader. Area manufacturers donated rockers, Morris chairs, tricycles, doll carriages and baby carriages to the players and their families at between-games ceremonies. The event was even highlighted in the pages of Life magazine.

On the Sunday morning of the doubleheader, 32 buses lined up at Pine and Central streets in Gardner, several with banners proclaiming local factory names. The total cost for the day (bus and game ticket) was $3.30.

You might have seen the famous photo of Ted Williams sitting on the “Big Chair” (a print is available in our gift shop!). After the event, it was transported back to Gardner’s Union Square where it stood until 1959. On Gardner Day at Fenway, Ted Williams was presented with the smaller Hitchcock chair visible in front of the “Big Chair.” Williams is holding a huge bat and an even bigger bat, “The Ted Williams Special,” is leaning on his right. They were both made by Andersson Woodturning Co. of Gardner. The “Ted Williams Special” is now displayed in The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. The huge baseball Ted Williams is sitting next to was made by Edwin Wiinikaninen from Heywood-Wakefield. The ball was signed by many of the fans from Gardner who attended the game.The Red Sox went on that year to capture their first pennant since 1918.

The following text is an excerpt from the Gardner News article by Mike Richard Aug 24, 2019,
“Chair City takes over Fenway Park for Gardner Day”

On Aug. 25, 1946., Chair City fans made the pilgrimage to Fenway Park for “Gardner Day.”
Boston was playing a doubleheader against Cleveland, and more than 2,000 Gardner fans along with the 40-piece Gardner High School band boarded some 30 buses for the 50-mile trip east to Fenway Park.
The lead bus carried a huge banner proclaiming “Gardner Day at Fenway Park.” Other buses carried the names of local factories such as Heywood-Wakefield Co., Hedstrom-Union Co. and Simplex Time Recorder, which sponsored transportation for their employees. Gardner fans packed into Section 23 behind the Cleveland dugout, 2,000 fans among the estimated crowd of 33,000 at the park that afternoon.

The highlight of the day was when the trademark 13-foot, 750-pound Heywood chair was carted onto the field by the Royal Rooters of Gardner between games of the doubleheader. The giant chair had been transported to Boston aboard a Heywood-Wakefield Co. flatbed truck.

Gardner men carried the big chair, as well as the gift chairs, to home plate. In addition, he had Gardner children pedal the tricycles toward the field.
Their plan was that Williams could be coerced into climbing atop the Heywood chair and have his picture snapped for what was hoped to be the cover photo for Life Magazine.

Initially, Williams refused to go near the chair and muttered that Doerr should have the honor since the second baseman had belted a pair of home runs for all the offense Boston needed in its 2-1 first game victory.
“Well, I sure don’t remember that,” said Doerr, when reminded of his two-homer game that day. “I just remember all the nice things the people of Gardner did for us that day.”

The Boston slugger finally came out of the dugout to eye the giant bat dubbed “The Ted Williams Special,” a 12-foot chunk of lumber crafted out of a telephone pole at the Andersson Woodturning Co.

With a little prodding, Williams was hoisted onto the chair, to the delight of the thousands of Gardner onlookers. He held an oversized six-foot bat in his hands, which was designed by Heywood-Wakefield employee Joe Carr.
A large baseball, made by fellow Heywood-Wakefield employee Dick Wells, a longtime Gardner area umpire, was placed next to Williams on the chair.

Gov. Maurice Tobin was positioned on one side of the chair for the picture, while the Andersson-turned bat was propped against the side of the chair.
Today, that giant bat has a place of honor, hanging over a descending escalator at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The Boston victory helped to mathematically eliminate the Chicago White Sox, the St. Louis Browns and the Philadelphia A’s for the pennant run. It wasn’t long before New York and Detroit also fell by the wayside.
And at the end of the day, the more than 2,000 Gardner fans made the trek back home to the Chair City, probably realizing that their support helped lead the Red Sox to the A.L. pennant and into the World Series that fall against the St. Louis Cardinals.”

Letonen Silversmith Shop


Lehtonen Silversmith Shop is a permanent exhibit in the basement of the Gardner Museum, featuring the tools of silversmith Ernest Lehtonen. The silver shop was re-created by Dr Paul Harasimowicz and Dorothy Tracy, and museum volunteers. Peter Erickson will demonstrate shaping a piece of silver into a spoon.

n.b.Ernie and his wife, Val, were family friends.