Chair City

Gardner originally was nothing more than three roads connecting Ashburnham, Winchendon, Westminster, and Templeton in 1774. Passages on these roads during the winter months were unbearable. A petition to turn the land into a town was signed and granted in 1785. The town was named Gardner in memory of Colonel Thomas Gardner who fought and was fatally injured in the battle at Bunker Hill. One of the signers of the petition was Seth Heywood who fought alongside the Colonel.

Gardner soon becomes a small hub for industry, more importantly the production of chairs and other wooden furniture. Twelve furniture companies filled the town. Together these companies produced over 1.2 million chairs annually. This mass production of chairs earned Gardner the international title of “The Chair City of the World”. A 20’ chair stands in front of the Helen Ma Sauter School as a testimony to the title.

In 1888, Edward G. Watkins, an employee of the largest furniture producer in Gardner, Created a device to keep track of the hours worked by the employees. He named this invention “Simplex” because of how easy it was to use. The phrase “punching the clock” became a part of everyone’s lingo due to Watkins invention. In 1901, the Simplex Time Recorder Co. was opened and is now under the ownership of Tyco.

On January 1, 1923, Gardner officially became a city. Many of the furniture factories have all but disappeared but the city is still known as the “furniture capital of New England” due to its history and number of furniture retailers open within the city. One building in particular is being taken down to make way for a little league field for the community. As of 2000, Gardner has had 20,770 residents and is steadily growing to this day.



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(I wrote an explanation on why I did Gardner instead of Athol and another story for Gardner that was less than appropriate for the assignment.)