Sparse, clean, oversimplified, organic and often based on geometric shapes many people, especially those who really do not understand or prefer Modern designs, would find it surprising how much of their lives are touched by contemporary Modern design or how much thinkers like William Morris, Louis Sullivan and others of their era, actually inspired the movement.

Morris engaged in the practice of warm and fuzzy, if not always practical, ideals and dreams for society. He felt it not just a wish but an essential of civilized society to insure that it provide its citizens, one and all, with aesthetically pleasing and functional things to look at and use. He however was convinced that the quality he sought could not be accomplished by machines but only by craftsmen and women by hand. He set his goal beyond reason, since the amount of artisans it would take to create the massive amounts needed to furnish the world’s homes was not possible – without machines, that is. Morris also developed this school of thought just as we were entering into the great Industrial Revolution and once entered in to there was no going back completely.

Early modern designers grasped the philosophy that the great orator Morris taught but felt that machines could be manipulated to be as artistic as any man and that mass production would accomplish Morris’ goals. Henri van de Velde was one of his peers who believed that the machines could be guided to create beauty.  They all agreed in the principles but not how to get there. They also agreed in the simplicity of design seen in the Arts and Crafts and Mission designs. The American architect Louis Sullivan, who once influenced the father of organic design, young Frank Lloyd Wright, believed that form indeed followed function and went so far as to suggest that we should purge ourselves of ornamentation for a few years so we could enjoy the structure in its original concept.

While it seems a stretch from the heavy oak Mission type Morris reclining chair to the Barcelona chair of the 1920’s once you trace the roots of both philosophy in design concepts, they are indeed closely related. Today the Amish present Modern contemporary furniture that represents these designers’ ideals as well as the elegantly designed home, in custom stained and conceived design collections like the Brookline, Caledonia, Escalade and Kenwood and more.

Heywood-Wakefield had over 100 illustrious years of creating top quality furniture before it introduced its “Heywood-Wakefield Modern” furniture line in the 1930’s. In about 1826, when John Quincy Adams was the nation’s president, a group of five brothers in Gardner, Massachusetts, Walter, Levi, Seth, William, and Benjamin Heywood began crafting simple, handmade, wood chairs in a small barn. Originally the majority of the brothers were store proprietors but helped Walter part-time in the wood shop. The boys did well and by the late 1800’s the Heywood Brothers Company was producing a much larger variety of furniture than seating.

Along the way the brothers absorbed its biggest acquisition, Cyrus Wakefield’s Wakefield Rattan Company. Initially they ran it as a joint operation, and the two firms became known as The Heywood Brothers and Wakefield. Fortunately they shortened that to Heywood-Wakefield Co.

Within five years, Levi Heywood moved to Boston. Here he established an outlet store for the family to sell the Heywood brother’s chairs. Benjamin and younger brother William stayed behind in Gardner to manufacture. Tragically, in 1834 a fire destroyed the Heywood’s chair shop, causing Levi’s return to Gardner a year later. The shop was never to be rebuilt. Initially comprised of Benjamin, Walter and William Heywood, Moses Wood and James W. Gates, a definitive partnership-B. F. Heywood & Company was formed in 1835. It was then that Levi Heywood persuaded the company to move to the shores of Crystal Lake in Gardner. The company factory would remain here until the business closed its doors more than 140 years later.

As the Industrial Revolution moved forward in the Victorian age, Levi’s insisted on the installation of new machinery, much to the dismay his wary partners. By 1844 a second partnership-Heywood & Wood had been formed, with Levi and Moses Wood only. By 1849 Wood’s name had disappeared from the company’s title. Then in 1851 Heywood Chair Manufacturing Company was born.

In contemporary times the furniture company became famous for its Modern Line. The company was able to partner with a stellar group of designers such as Russell Wright, Gilbert Rhode, W. Joseph Carr and Alexis J. Saknoffsky.  This progressive group of designers created modern furniture from what many misidentify as maple. Instead the company used solid birch that was steam bent and left blonde. The “The Heywood-Wakefield Modern Line,” with its 50’s blonde or modern blonde birch, was unprecedented. Various lines were introduced with names like “Sculptura”, “Crescendo” or “Kohinoor”.  These were aesthetically appealing, high quality and creativity.

At one time the company created and delivered items ranging from chairs, to baby furnishings, railroad car seating, rattan designs, and even toy vehicles. While the company did use many types of wood, the birch was its signature. Sadly it seems all good things must come to an end and the Heywood-Wakefield Company retired itself into the legend only a blonde could live up to in 1966.