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The Adirondack chair has been an icon of summer for about one hundred years. Whether it is in a yard, on a front porch, or on the beach, the Adirondack chair’s recognizable form invites you to sit and relax. The first resemblance of the present day Adirondack chair was first made in a town just east of the Adirondack Mountains in Westport, New York. During the summer of 1903, Thomas Lee worked on several prototypes of the chair. Lee’s design using wide lumber planks was most likely influenced by the sanatorium chairs used to treat tuberculosis patients in nearby Saranac Lake, New York. Known as the “cure chair” these chairs had wide arms, a reclined back and sat low to the ground. In the fall of 1903, Lee suggested to a local carpenter named Harry Bunnel that he make some big chairs. In the spring of 1904, Bunnel applied for a patent for what he called “The Westport Plank Chair”. Bunnel continued to make these chairs until his death in 1930. As the wide planks needed to make these chairs grew harder to find, carpenters and handymen used narrower lumber and made variations to Bunnel's chair. Although, the original design has evolved and changed the classic form of the Adirondack chair remains.
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