Always Save your Re-Seat!
Old Chairs? Right? ohhhhhhh nooooooo
One of the details at the Railway that always bothers me is the white plastic chairs. No, I get that they are about the most rational choice for the space. Lightweight, can be easily cleaned yada yada.. and whatever. But the Railway is NOT about any rational thought.
Vibe killers
Getting there…. except for those plastic chairs
Everything there, including myself is obsolete and out of date. Hell the drill press which weighs around 5oo lbs, and ran off steam driven belts has been replaced by a 18 volt drill. So. Chairs.
Ratty, used old folding chairs
Paint, sc ratches.. Junk?
When I park my fat ass in these things will they bust?
See it yet?
My son found these in New Orleans. Now on the surface, I thought. mmmm okay, some cool folding chairs… OH, just wait.. I am saving the reveal for the end of the story. THANKS TO LOWTIMERS FOR THE FIND!
NOW DO YOU SEE IT? Includes the original receipt. 1945. HIGGINS CHAIRS!
There is a seat for every………
You can tell all your friends they were used on PT boats during WWII.
Just after the end of WWII.
I know a guy that has a cool chair….
YES YOU DO
Dang! Higgins folding chairs. Who would have guessed it?
Since you mention the drill press, Sandi and I went to a local watering hole last week only to find a phone stand/drill press that rivals yours. I’m not sure what one would drill with a dual press.
I think this was an early eye LASIK machine!
And they were bought using his employee discount! Beautiful!
So we’re the chairs MADE by Higgins or FOR Higgins? You need some stencils too.
Reading about Higgins on Wikipedia, these chairs were sold 7 days after Andrew Higgins liquidated the company due to labor issues.
Also, was the bill really for over $600? That’s like $60 a chair.
Am I reading that receipt right?
$612.59 seems like a LOT of $ for 11 chairs in 1945.
Anyone have a 1945 Higgins price list?
$9K in todays $$
How about vintage folding Teak? Forgotten in a corner of my shop….
5 bucks at Reedville Fisherman’s Museum boat show years ago.
One was rickety….so cut it up for other projects….
ditch the plastic.
John in Va.
Matt that is way cool!!!!
its 10 plus one other chair for 295, which would be around 25 bucks per chair, Which would be around 300 today????? Each. Good lord. I wish I knew the back story? Where these new? Or part of a clean out.
So are you saying it reads $6 / 259?
I don’t see 295 anywhere, but I get dyslexic a lot.
Wait, maybe it was 6 bucks a chair, which would translate to 88 bucks in today’s numbers? Dang, still kinda pricey. The HIGGINS stencle is the gold in my book
WOW.. I have four wooden chairs exactly like yours, and another with a slight seatback variation. I picked them up back in 1985 when I ran the Marina on the Navy Base in Seattle. They were used by the Navy Band there and were being tossed for metal folding chairs… They are a little rikitty (more so as Ive added lbs,) .. Ill have to check to see if they have the Higgins Stencil, or other markings. I think I got them out of a dumpster…
For RMR, maybe wooden directors chairs with canvas seat/back . Can be folded and the canvas sections are easily replacable… and are available in various nautical motifs,… Heck, even a RMR logo silkscreen applied to the backs would be cool (since you have so much “spare” time … LOL
Check out Paris Mfg. Corp They are located in Maine.
The Paris Manufacturing Company was founded in 1861 out of the home of Henry Morton and his wife, Lucilla Forbes. Their family business would grow to employ nearly 300 people in the early twentieth century producing wagons, Sleds, Chairs, and other furnishing goods. The company still produces sleds and winter products in South Paris today.
Im trying to find the cat so I can take a picture of him on the chair!
You have got to be buying them, for sure…
Matt, now you have a new quest: As I read the note on the last chair, it was “opera stained” – not what that means ( or is), but there is a story there somewhere… 😉 Cool find!
That’s an amazing find. If only my kids were as tuned into beating the bushes for these kinds of items with a link to boats as yours. Kudos to them.
Classic wooden chairs are cool! They are a great way to class up a man cave. I don’t know the name of mine. I couldn’t find a tag on them. I have been told they are Snyder’s. I do know that they came from a funeral home in the 40s. They are a good addition to my thinking/drinking table in the barn
I,m not so sure there is a price on the receipt,could that be consignee number 61259? Sold to an employee it looks like,I wouldn’t think they’d be more than a couple bucks a chair in 1945.Looks like oak?They could clean up real nice with a little effort.
GREAT chairs with a great story. I can’t believe how many of those cheap, faux Adirondacks I see in front of expensive cabins. They are as attractive as pontoon boats.
In Minneapolis there’s a guy that has been buying up cool wooden folding chairs for years and then rents them out for weddings. I think he must have made a million bucks already.
Finally, any chair you see on the Camp Wandewega instagram will probably fit the Railway aesthetic. I’m sure you’re a follower, Matt.
I made the Admirals chair in”Chug-A-Lug”.looks more comfy than those wooden ones.Made it from a leather sectional piece I found at the dump.
Besides wooden boats, I have to admit I hoard vintage chairs. Great find. Not many other people get it. Scored some 1920s folders from a church; I imagine they used them for tent revivials. We use them outdoors for summer dinner parties.