Big Chair's move uptown Friday part of larger effort
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer. A big chair soon to be located in uptown Martinsville will be the centerpiece of a grander plan aimed at redevelopment and showcasing the area's unique assets.
The chair, built of layers of solid ash and protected with a boat-like finish for Bassett Furniture's 100th anniversary in 2002, will be moved to Martinsville on Friday morning, with a ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony planned at 4 p.m. that day.
A documentary titled "With These Hands, The Story of An American Furniture Industry" will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Rives Theatre. Admission is free, but tickets are required because of limited seating. They are available at the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC).
The chair has not arrived yet, but it already is accomplishing part of its mission: creating a renewed focus uptown, according to Mark Heath, EDC president and CEO.
Previous reports stated the chair weighs nearly 5,000 pounds, is more than 20 feet high and spans more than 8 feet.
It is "a smaller part of a bigger effort to reinvigorate uptown," Heath said.
The chair is part of the "Deep Roots/Legacy" initiative, which is a promotional campaign aimed at highlighting "unique assets and rich legacies" in furniture as well as motorsports, outdoor recreation and cultural arts, according to Heath.
Furniture stores and manufacturers in both the city and county will be included in promotions of the furniture legacy, Heath said. Several located in the county already are being promoted on www.visitmartinsville.com.
"Why would you want to celebrate the past?" Heath said he has been asked by some.
The answer is two-fold, he said.
Many areas embrace their pasts as part of tourism efforts, Heath said, citing re-enactments and preservation efforts.
"You don't forget where you came from," he said. "Furniture was critical" to the area's history, Heath said. Secondly, it remains important today, he said.
A 2008 census showed that Henry County and Martinsville have a combined labor force of 27,600, Heath said. Of that total, 6,700, or 24.3 percent, worked in the manufacturing sector.
Nearly 3,000 people, or 44 percent, of that total were employed in furniture manufacturing, Heath said. He concluded, "Furniture still is important to this community."
Stanley Furniture is "still the largest manufacturing employer," Heath said. Hooker Furniture sells much of its products online but maintains administrative and other facilities here, and American of Martinsville recently expanded after joining forces with Barcalounger, he said. Bassett Furniture has facilities in the Patriot Centre industrial park and in Bassett.
Uptown is home to a number of furniture retailers that offer both outlet and first-quality pieces, and there are several retail furniture stores in Henry County as well, Heath said.
"So to say there's no basis to continue to build on our furniture legacy is not accurate," he said. "Furniture is still being made here today."
Although the manufacturing sector "may not look like it used to and it may be more specialty, we think it is as important or even more important now" to the economic climate, Heath said.
The big chair "is an icon of the roots effort," Heath said. "We don't expect it to bring thousands of people uptown."
What it will do, Heath said, is "show where we come from and what's important to us now."
