Today’s World Market ad featured colorful Adirondack Chairs. Flipping through the paper, I wondered if that is a proper name turned descriptive, like Kleenex for tissue or Xerox for copy. 

With just a little net research, it turns out that the original name was Westport Chair, after the town in New York where they were created.  A regular guy, Thomas Lee, designed them for his family vacation home.  The slated seat made sitting on hilly land more comfortable.  He showed his final chair to a local carpenter, Harry Bunnell, who promptly got a patent on it and made it famous.  With friends like that…

Classic Westport Chairs were only brown or green.  Their backs had only one slat.  In fact, the entire thing was made with only 11 pieces of wood.   I would love to see one of the originals. I imagine there are not many left.