American Seating Company Factory, Grand Rapids Michigan

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Looking northwest at 1927 Building from Broadway Ave (2003)

The American Seating Company Factory Complex is the home of the American Seating Company, one of the world's largest manufacturers of seating products. Soon after the turn of the twentieth century, the company established an on-site research and testing laboratory, likely one of the country's earliest. From its founding, American Seating produced school desks, church furniture, and opera or theater seats. Stadium bleachers, folding chairs, transportation seating, and hospital and office furniture were later added to its list of products. American Seating developed many seating innovations commonly used today, including various models of school desks known to generations of American children; a compact folding chair, first of wood and later of steel, that was manufactured in the millions and can be found throughout the world; and the molded plastic seat, which replaced the traditional stadium seat made of steam-bent elm when Dutch Elm disease ended the availability of that material. It is likely that most Americans have sat on an American Seating product at some time in their lives.

Past projects the company has made seating for include the 1964 New York World's Fair, the 1966 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex in New York, the 1964 Los Angeles Music Center for the Performing Arts, and most major league baseball stadiums.

Even before its incorporation as a city in 1850, Grand Rapids had a small furniture industry, and beginning in the 1870s the manufacture of furniture dominated the city's economy. The buildings constructed to house this industry and its workers continue to define the city's landscape, demonstrating the long-term physical impact of the furniture industry on Grand Rapids.

When the first white settlers arrived, thick stands of walnut, oak, elm, maple, ash, cherry, and other hardwoods covered the valley and surrounding hillsides of the future site of the city of Grand Rapids. The line separating forests of hardwoods and softwoods approximately bisected Grand Rapids, making a variety of woods available. These abundant forests created a prosperous lumber industry; lumber mills propelled by waterpower soon lined the banks of the Grand River. Many of the city's first furniture factories began as sash and blind mills, which processed wood into architectural elements. Mill operators soon realized they could use some of the same machinery to satisfy a growing market for furniture resulting from the region's population increase.

A number of Grand Rapids' early settlers, largely from New England, had training as cabinetmakers. Since travel was difficult and transport of household goods expensive, a market for locally produced furniture developed as the population increased. It did not take long for entrepreneurs to see the possibilities. By 1849 Ebenezer M. Ball and William T. Powers were shipping lumber and chairs down the Grand River, then west across Lake Michigan and east through the Erie Canal into upstate New York. Theirs was likely the first Grand Rapids company to use power machinery to make furniture for sale in markets beyond the local area.

These natural and human factors, combined with access to outside markets, contributed to the development of Grand Rapids as one of the most important centers of furniture manufacturing in the world. By 1860 steam-driven machinery for relatively large-scale production was in use, Grand Rapids-made furniture was being sold to outside markets, transported by river and by rail, and the firms which became the leaders of the industry were established. The stream of immigrants to Grand Rapids following the Civil War provided furniture manufacturers with a large pool of unskilled or semi-skilled laborers who were willing to work long hours for low pay. Most of the men who would figure prominently in the development of the furniture industry were already involved in the business by this time. In 1857 Julius Berkey began manufacturing tables at his brother William's sash and blind factory. William Berkey later formed the Phoenix Furniture Company, while Julius partnered with George Gay to form Berkey & Gay. In 1870 James and Ezra Nelson, sawmill owners since the mid-1830s, joined Elias Matter to form Nelson, Matter & Company.

Although Grand Rapids furniture was sold regionally, it did not gain a national reputation until 1876, when the Berkey & Gay Company, Nelson, Matter & Company, and the Phoenix Furniture Company exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. All three companies won medals and their products were well received by the public. Prior to this time, machinery production had been limited to the manufacture of low to medium-quality furniture. The Grand Rapids manufacturers applied an advancing technology to mechanically produce high-quality furniture. This application of technologically advanced machine production, combined with a keen sense of business, an available pool of labor, accessible raw materials, and aggressive marketing of professionally designed furniture changed the industry.

Two years later, local manufacturers staged the first Grand Rapids Furniture Market, which became a fixture of the industry and was continued until 1964. Although other markets were held in New York and Chicago, the Grand Rapids market, held in January and July, was the earliest and, for a time, one of the largest.

The decade of the 1920s was a boom time for furniture manufacturers. Everyone felt prosperous and construction was on the rise, providing a market for both residential and commercial furniture. Many local furniture companies expanded their physical plants to meet increased demand. In 1928 over 6,000 buyers attended the Furniture Market to view the product offerings of more than four hundred manufacturers in eight exhibition buildings and several local factories. Unfortunately, the Furniture Market's peak year of 1928 was also the end the boom times for furniture manufacturers. Furniture was a non-essential purchase and with the coming of the Great Depression sales of residential furniture virtually halted. Many of Grand Rapids' great furniture manufacturers never recovered. By the end of World War II, Berkey & Gay, Luce, Phoenix, and other well-known companies had disappeared from the scene. Many of the remaining companies moved to the production of high-quality residential furniture.

While the residential furniture industry struggled with new competition and shifted toward smaller-scale production of expensive furniture, the business and institutional segment (known as the contract industry) remained healthy and continued to grow. As the loss of the hardwood forests was a factor in the movement of the residential furniture center to North Carolina in the 1960s, the growth of the plastic and metal technology that came out of World War II fueled the growth of local contract furniture manufacturers such as American Seating, the Metal Office Furniture Company (later Steelcase Corporation), and Herman Miller.

The technological innovation and invention that characterized the furniture industry in Grand Rapids generally played a crucial role in the founding of the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company, the forerunner of the American Seating Company. While serving on the Grand Rapids Board of Education, local businessman Gaius Perkins became interested in improving the design of school desks, as well as a means to make the manufacturing process more efficient and affordable. In late 1885, Perkins and partners William T. Hess and Seymour W. Peregrine organized the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company to manufacture school and office furniture and opera chairs. Peregrine held patents for an adjustable slant-top school desk and a self-folding opera seat, which the company began to produce in January 1886 in a small factory (demolished) located at Ionia and Prescott (now Logan) Streets. In May of the following year, the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company was incorporated as a stock company with a capitalization of $50,000.

With an initial force of fifty workers, the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company produced a school desk called the "Combination" that combined a desktop and book box for one pupil with seat and back for the pupil ahead with the innovation of an automatically folding seat. From this design came a series of improvements that would revolutionize school seating. The company's entrance into foreign markets began early in its history. The Michigan Tradesman noted in July 1887 that an order for school desks from the interior of Asiatic Turkey was being shipped in fifty-pound packages to facilitate transport on the backs of camels. Company promotional material featuring a map of the United States, highlighting sales per state, boasts a total of 68,225 school desks sold in 1888. Desks were sold in every state and territory in the union, except Delaware.

As successive waves of immigration increased the population of the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the resulting growth of the nation's student population created an enormous market for school furniture. Aggressive marketing of its products brought rapid growth to the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company. To accommodate its need for a larger factory, the company purchased seven acres of land on Broadway Avenue between Ninth and Tenth Streets in August of 1887 and immediately began construction of a new plant. This consisted of a two-story factory building, an engine and boiler room, a three-story warehouse, a kiln, a foundry, and an office building. Following the common practice of the time, the buildings were detached to reduce loss in case of fire. A siding from the nearby Chicago & Northwestern Railway was laid into the factory yard. Company growth was so rapid that a year after the completion of the plant, the factory building was expanded 244 feet east to Broadway Avenue, more than doubling its size.

In 1899, the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company merged with eighteen other school, church, and seating manufacturers in New York, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Wisconsin to form the American School Furniture Company with headquarters in New York City. Gaius Perkins served as president of the new company until 1900, when he was succeeded by Thomas M. Boyd. Under Boyd's leadership, the corporate offices were moved to Chicago in 1905, the name was changed to American Seating Company, and a program of consolidating all manufacturing operations to Grand Rapids began. The company had a large, relatively centralized plant with a skilled workforce, and a nationwide network of sales offices to promote its products. It soon became one of the largest employers in Grand Rapids, with nearly 400 employees.

The enormous company growth that took place in the early decades of the twentieth century brought a corresponding growth in its manufacturing plant that culminated in the construction in 1923 of the power plant and warehouse. The massive factory addition to the warehouse provided the necessary space to accommodate the consolidation of all American Seating manufacturing operations to Grand Rapids. Upon completion of this building in 1927, the woodcarving studio and finishing department for church furniture were housed here when the Church Furniture Division was moved from Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The company's Solid Wood Division, where architectural woodwork, school desk tops, chair seats and backs, and table tops were manufactured, was located in this building. Theater seating was upholstered and assembled here, as were the company's famous folding chairs. In late 1945, all transportation seat production was combined in a Transportation Seating Department that occupied the entire fourth floor of the 1927 building.

In 1899, the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company merged with eighteen other school, church, and seating manufacturers in New York, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Wisconsin to form the American School Furniture Company with headquarters in New York City. Gaius Perkins served as president of the new company until 1900 when he was succeeded by Thomas M. Boyd. Under Boyd's leadership, the corporate offices were moved to Chicago in 1905, the name was changed to American Seating Company, and a program of consolidating all manufacturing operations to Grand Rapids began. The company had a large, relatively centralized plant with a skilled workforce, and a nationwide network of sales offices to promote its products. It soon became one of the largest employers in Grand Rapids, with nearly 400 employees.

These buildings not only provided adequate space for expanded manufacturing operations, but were also an impressive symbol of American Seating's status as a national and international seating giant. A common company marketing device was to bring groups of its customers from churches and schools to visit the factory where its products were made. The Gothic-influenced buildings appropriately reflected the church and school furniture divisions housed within its walls.

An important corporate characteristic of American Seating has been the longevity of its early leadership and its workforce. Company newsletters over the years cite employees celebrating thirty, forty, and even fifty years of employment. Many father-and-son or father-and-daughter employees are noted, as well as numerous instances of multiple members of the same family.

Thomas Boyd led the company from 1900 until 1929. During Boyd's presidency employment was relatively stabilized through the development of a manufacturing plan that allowed for year-round production, a research and testing laboratory was established, and the company manufacturing operations were centralized in Grand Rapids. Boyd was succeeded by Harry M. Taliaferro (pronounced as Tolliver); who joined the company in 1911 as superintendent of the Metal Division. Three years later, he became superintendent of production, and in 1919 was named director of manufacturing. Taliaferro (1882-1968) served as company president from 1929 until 1958, when he was named Chairman of the Board of Directors and was succeeded as president by James VerMeulen. The early years of Taliaferro's presidency were challenging, but he successfully brought the company through the Depression of the 1930s, World War II, and through the boom years of the 1950s. He retired from the company in 1961.

In 1919, Taliaferro organized the American Seating Employee's Congress, an innovation intended to promote improvement in employee-management relations. Employee-elected representatives comprised the House and representatives of management comprised the Senate of this body. American Seating broke ranks with the Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers' Association during the great furniture strike of 1911, when it reached an agreement with its employees establishing the nine-hour day for ten hours pay. The American Seating Industrial Relations Division, the first of its kind in the city, was also established in 1919 under the management of Harry J. Kelley. Kelley remained in this position until his retirement in 1960. In addition to the usual employee-relations concerns, this department published a newsletter from 1919 until the early 1960s and ran the Suggestion Department (started in 1943). Employees were urged to suggest changes that would improve the safety and efficiency of the manufacturing process. Successful ideas brought a cash award, often a percentage of the money the company saved by implementing the suggested improvement.

With the onset of World War II, American Seating converted almost overnight to wartime production. Despite labor and material shortages, the company manufactured upholstered tank seats; a plywood and metal pilot seat with an inertia seat belt mechanism developed in cooperation with the Army Air Force; mortar shell boxes; a plywood packboard developed by American Seating; and wing and spar assemblies for bombers and gliders, as well as more than five million folding chairs for the armed forces at the rate of 10,000 a day.

For the Navy, the company manufactured bridge chairs made of non-magnetic brass and wood and metal cafeteria counters with attached seats for shipboard use. Working with the Navy, a unique training model of the 40-millimeter anti-aircraft gun made almost entirely of wood was developed. Actual guns could not be spared for training, but American Seating research engineers developed a finish capable of resisting warping and swelling and woodworkers produced precision parts resulting in a training gun that was used by Allied forces all over the world.

James VerMeulen (1905-1986), successor to Harry Taliaferro as president, came to the company in 1927 after graduating from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. Beginning as an inspector of box-spring seats in the Upholstery Department, he moved through various assignments covering virtually every operation of the company before being named its president. Under VerMeulen, American Seating's market share continued to expand. In 1969, the year he retired, company sales reached more than $32 million.

Under John W. Dwyer, who served as president from 1969 to 1985, American Seating was faced with changing economic and market conditions. During this period the company dropped hospital and laboratory furniture, which were produced off-site, from its line. It also discontinued making church furniture and folding chairs. In 1983 the American Seating line of classroom furniture was sold. Company focus turned to transportation, auditorium, and stadium seating, as well as to office systems. In 1983 American Seating became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fuqua Industries of Atlanta, Georgia.

American Seating president, Edward J. Clark, and his management team were the principals in a leveraged buyout of the company from Fuqua Industries in 1987, returning ownership to local management. Today, under Clark's direction, American Seating's three divisions; Transportation Products, Architectural Products, and Office Products; continue to provide high quality, innovative seating products.

American Seating Products

Since the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company began manufacturing school and church furniture and opera seats at this site in 1888, the product lines have changed and expanded. Following is a brief overview of the various lines that have been produced in this plant.

School Furniture

About 1911, the "101 Combination" school desk was introduced, improving the desktop-book box-seat arrangement of the original "Combination" by replacing the cast iron frame with a tubular steel frame. Subsequent models featured adjustable height, swivel seats, and bases that did not need to be bolted to the floor. All these features were combined into the 1921 "Universal" model, a scientifically designed desk that promoted good posture. The Universal stayed in production for decades. Flip-up desktops, study carrels, and other school products that were developed by American Seating in the 1950s featured new materials such as molded plywood, molded plastic, and plastic laminate.

Among the many important innovations that came from the American Seating Development Laboratory was the continuous improvement of the school desk. From the earliest days of the company, the association between its product and the beneficial effects of good student posture resulting from its design had been promoted. In the 1920s, Dr. Harry Bennet (1873-1941), an educator who was widely known for his studies of posture and its effect on the health of school children, became a research adviser. Dr. Bennet's ideas were incorporated into the design of the "Universal" desks and "Envoy" chairs introduced in 1940. Through a public education program, the company became a leading promoter of the link between good posture and student performance. Dr. Darell Boyd Harmon joined American Seating as a consultant in 1946. Under Dr. Harmon's direction American Seating was the first manufacturer of school desks to mass produce a light-colored birch desktop, a drastic change from the typical "school brown." In 1955, a high-pressure laminate called "Amerex" was introduced. Designed to avoid eye glare, it made an ideal surface for desk and table tops.

As the children of the baby boom reached school age, older school buildings were expanded or replaced by larger buildings and new buildings were constructed in the rapidly developing suburbs. American Seating was ready to step into the market with a new look. The "Vanguard Series" of school furniture incorporated revolutionary advancements in design, construction, and the use of color. Adjustable desks and three sizes of adjustable chairs that allowed enough size variation to accommodate first to twelfth-graders came in Diploma Blue and Class Day Coral.

In 1960, the company introduced an electronic system designed for group or individual instruction of pupils in foreign languages and for use in speech therapy. Called the electronic learning center, it combined classroom furniture and electronic equipment. The "Varsity" line of tables and chairs, designed for college classrooms, was also introduced the same year. A study cartel equipped with a laser, developed in conjunction with Grand Valley State College (now Grand Valley State University), made its appearance in 1965. The battery-operated beam in each carrel allowed students to dial a lesson from a control center, and then listen through a headset.

In 1983, the American Seating line of classroom furniture was sold.

Theater and Stadium Seating

In 1889, the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company entered the theater seating market by furnishing the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado. The company was the first to introduce a noiseless, automatic, self-folding seat and were manufacturing tilt-back opera seats and wood-slat folding chairs as early as 1893. These products soon provided seating in opera houses, community halls, churches, and lodge rooms around the world. In 1892 the company was promoting itself as having manufactured "the greatest number of chairs sold by any one company in the world," showing sales of more than 81,000.

J. P. Morgan made a trip to Grand Rapids in his private rail car to investigate the new company when he was shopping for seating for the Metropolitan Opera House. They got the job and developed a long-lasting relationship with the organization, seating the opera house in 1892, 1934, and 1954. When the Met moved to Lincoln Center in 1966, the custom-designed seating was produced by American Seating.

As a leading manufacturer of seating for live theater and opera houses, the company was well-placed when the movies were born and the market for seating in that venue exploded. As film became more sophisticated, so did its audience, and elaborately decorated picture palaces replaced the nickelodeon at the rear of the candy store. Wood and cast iron opera house seats with hat and umbrella racks previously manufactured by American Seating gave way to opulent, upholstered seats with elaborate Rococo detailing. More streamlined designs culminated in the "Bodiform" chair, introduced in 1938 - the result of two years of research and testing.

Hundreds of movie theaters, arenas, and auditoriums around the world, large and small, were seated by American Seating; many have been reseated two or three times. Notable American Seating installations include five theaters in the Radio City Music Hall, the theaters in Lincoln Center, as well as the Normandie, Lowe's, Palace, Astor, Winter Garden, Shubert, Music Box, Helen Hayes, and the New Amsterdam (former home of the Ziegfield Follies) in New York City. The United States Senate and House galleries in Washington D.C. also feature chairs by American Seating. Theater seating was not limited to use in theaters, creative promotion expanded the market to include shoe stores, bowling alleys, lodges, school and college auditoriums, and courthouses.

American Seating produced all the seating except the outside benches for the 1939 World's Fair in Chicago. The company also manufactured the bulk of the seats for the New York World's Fair in 1964. More than 19,000 seats in a variety of shapes, sizes, fabrics, and colors were produced for the transports that moved visitors around the fairgrounds. The company served as a consultant on seating arrangements for the "School of Tomorrow" in the Hall of Education. Seating was also provided for many of the fair's pavilions, including reclining bus seats in the auditorium of the Greyhound pavilion.

American Seating began providing stadium seating when the game of baseball was relatively new and this market continued to be strong. The refurbishing of existing stadiums and the construction of new stadiums across the country provided massive contracts for seating. Nearly every major league baseball stadium in the United States has been seated (and reseated) by American Seating, including Detroit's Tiger Stadium, the Houston Astrodome, Yankee Stadium in New York, Wrigley Field in Chicago, Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, the Los Angeles Coliseum, and Jacob's Field in Cleveland. The company was the first to develop seating that complied with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Folding 40s

An improved design for the folding chair resulted in an enormously successful line, known as the "Folding Forties," featuring a steel frame with a plywood seat (No. 44), an upholstered seat (No. 47), or all steel (No. 43). Introduced in 1930, the chairs immediately sold in the thousands; in October 1939 the company announced the sale of its millionth folding chair. During the late 1930s, company salesmen were urged to market its products, especially the Folding 40s, for use in PWA projects. When steel became unavailable for civilian production in 1942, a wood folding chair (the American All-Service Wood Folding Chair) was developed, which met government standards for the armed forces and was also offered to civilian customers. After the war, pent-up demand resulted in a backlog of orders. Manufacturing facilities were expanded and production soon reached 4,000 steel chairs per day in the late 1940s. Folding chairs were produced until the early 1980s.

Transportation Seating

In the period immediately following World War II, the transportation seating division became a primary focus to meet the demand for bus seating. From its introduction of the first all-tubular steel-framed seat for use in city buses in 1931, American Seating's Transportation Division expanded to claim 90% of the market, including seating for cross-country buses, subways, and mass-transit systems, as well as driver's seats for trucks and locomotives. The San Francisco Bay Transit System and the New York City Transit Authority are two of the company's larger clients.

In 1938, the Metal Office Furniture Company (now Steelcase Corporation) collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright on the production design of the furniture for use in the S.C. Johnson Company building in Racine, Wisconsin, subcontracting the seating to American Seating. The Transportation Seating Division engineered and manufactured 530 chairs to accompany the desks produced by Metal Office Furniture for this world-renowned building.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Research & Development Division of American Seating focused on plastics technology and improved methods of manufacturing its products. This research resulted in a wide range of new product offerings, as well as improvements to those currently in production. A process known as blow-molding was developed to manufacture the structural parts of the "Bodirest" all-purpose stacking chair. Techniques for molding foam cushions directly to springs were perfected. A new steel alloy was perfected and used to manufacture lighter bus seats.

Church Furniture

The Wood Division of American Seating manufactured pews and architectural woodwork for churches, as well as incidental furniture, carved statuary, plaques, altarpieces, memorials, and special commissions that were created in its wood carving studio. The studio was particularly known for its Last Supper altar pieces and wood statues. Well-known master carver Alois Lang headed the studio from 1902 until 1953, when he was succeeded his long-time associate, master carver Joseph F. Wolters.

Alois Lang (1871-1954) was born in the Bavarian village of Oberammergau, a noted woodcarving center as early as the eleventh century. At age fourteen Lang began training in the craft that had been followed by his family since the sixteenth century. He attended a wood carving school in Oberammergau from 1885 to 1890; then came to Boston where he found work carving elaborate mantelpieces for Back Bay families. In 1900, he returned to Europe to study under Fortunato Galli in Florence before returning to the United States to join American Seating in 1902 as head of its wood carving studio, then located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. When the church furniture manufacturing operations were transferred to Grand Rapids in 1928, Lang moved as well and continued to head the wood carving studio until his death.

Lang's associate and successor, Joseph F. Wolters (1893-1960), learned his craft in his native province of Westphalia, Germany, working with stone, marble, and wood. By the time he was sixteen, Wolters was carving statuary for the Cathedral at Hamm, Germany. After serving with the German army during World War I, he moved to The Netherlands where he worked under the Dutch carver J. P. Maas. Wolters came to Chicago in 1923 where he was hired by American Seating and began his long association with the company. Following the death of Alois Lang, Wolters succeeded him as head of the wood carving studio.

American Seating installations can be found in churches of every denomination across the country. For example, the October 1938 issue of the company newsletter, The Seater, listed orders from ninety-one churches in twenty-four states for architectural woodwork and furnishings from the company during that year. Grand Rapids examples of the work of this studio are the reredoes and other carvings in Park Congregational Church, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, and Klise Memorial Chapel at East Congregational Church. Other Michigan churches featuring American Seating work are Trinity Episcopal Church, Bay City; Memorial Church, Grosse Pointe; Krege Memorial Chapel in the Metropolitan Methodist Church of Detroit; St. Paul's Chapel, Cranbrook; St. Joseph's Episcopal Church, Detroit, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Ann Arbor. Notable national examples are the University of Chicago Chapel, Hyde Park, Illinois; the Episcopal Cathedral of Springfield, Illinois; the Church of the Resurrection, Kew Gardens, New York; and All Saints' Episcopal, Fr. Worth, Texas.

Building Description

The American Seating Company factory complex occupies approximately twenty acres and is comprised of sixteen buildings ranging in date from 1888 to 1978. Although the architectural styles exhibited do not readily fit into a particular stylistic category, they are typical of industrial buildings of the time in which they were constructed, from the Late Victorian style of the original plant to the streamlined modern design of the later expansions. The arched first-floor windows and the massive concrete-trimmed towers with arched openings give the 1920s buildings a somewhat Gothic appearance very much in keeping with the school and church furniture produced by American Seating.

The City of Grand Rapids, Michigan is divided by the Grand River, which runs north to south through the city center. Located on the west side of the river, the American Seating Company factory complex sets amid a mix of industrial, commercial, and residential properties. It is bounded by Broadway Avenue NW on the east; Seventh Street NW on the south; Seward Avenue NW on the west; and Eleventh Street NW on the north. Ninth Street NW (vacated in 1982) bisects the property from east to west into two roughly rectangular city blocks.

Like American Seating, many of the city's historic furniture plants are located on the West Side, surrounded by the frame houses once occupied by Polish, German, Irish, Armenian, Lithuanian, and Swedish immigrants that comprised the workforce of the furniture industry. Near this site is the Basilica of St. Adalbert, the city's first Polish parish, and St. Mary, built by German immigrants; the Irish founded St. James, the spire of which is visible to the southwest. The plants of the Widdicomb Furniture Company and the John Widdicomb Furniture Company can be seen two blocks to the south of American Seating along Seward Avenue. High-quality residential furniture is still produced by a few companies in their historic factories - Baker, Kindel, and Hekman. However, most of the plants have been converted to other small manufacturing or commercial uses; the former Berkey & Gay Furniture Company and Meuller & Slack Furniture Company buildings have been rehabilitated for mixed use; and the Stow-Davis and Phoenix Furniture plants have been demolished.

As noted above, Ninth Street divides the American Seating complex into two separate, roughly rectangular city blocks. The more northerly block contains a complex of buildings dating from 1888 to 1978 that resulted from several major building campaigns; in 1888-1889, 1908-1909, 1927-1928, and 1956 with numerous smaller accretions added at various times. The original 1888-1889 building along the south edge of the east end of the block and the 1956 building along much of the north edge of the block are sited with their long axes in an east-west direction in the east-two-third of the block. Some early additions, having been encompassed by later additions, no longer exist as individual buildings and are not treated as such here.

The original four-story cream brick factory (1888 and 1889) extends nearly 450 feet from Broadway Avenue NW west along Ninth Street NW (vacated) in rhythmic bays defined by brick piers rising to the parapet wall; each bay contains two segmental arch-head windows per floor. When viewed from the southeast, this building fills the horizon. Window sash patterns are variously one-over-one, two-over-two, or twelve-over-twelve. Rows of corbelling above the fourth-floor windows provide the only decoration. The Broadway Avenue (east) elevation is three bays wide; the central bay has segmental arch-head windows, while the outside bays have square-head windows. An L-shaped section of the building extends to the north, forming what once was an open-ended courtyard that has been filled in by a one-story addition. Along the east side of this section is a one-story enclosed loading dock (1960). A massive elevator/water tower stands where the L-shaped section meets the main building. In 1937, two towers that originally rose from the corners of the building at the main elevation on Broadway Avenue were removed. The first floor of the Broadway Avenue elevation was bricked over c.1982 and a new entrance to the executive offices was added at the south side. The interior space of the building is variously divided into offices or is open space showing its post and beam construction. Facing Ninth Street NW (vacated) at the west end of the 1888 building is a four-story reinforced concrete addition (Hauser Owen Ames, 1919) with large steel multi-paned windows.

Numerous interconnected buildings extended the original plant over the years. The visible additions are as follows: Moving north along Broadway Avenue NW is a two-story, flat-roofed concrete block addition (1908) used for packing and shipping with a loading dock along its south side. At the Broadway Avenue (east) elevation, its square window openings have twelve-pane fixed metal sash. All of the second-floor and all but six of the first-floor windows have been covered over; those windows left uncovered have been painted on the interior surface. The next addition to the north is a one-story brick, flat-roofed steel plant (1910), where steel furniture parts were fabricated; each of its five bays, defined by concrete-capped piers, contains a large multi-paned steel sash window with pivot vent, the top of which has been covered over and the bottom painted on the interior surface. The steel plant was enlarged to the north by an Osgood & Osgood-designed one-story, flat-roofed addition (1938), with a long, narrow glass block window (covered over) set high in its smooth brick wall. Another large one-story expansion (1956), designed by Giffels & Vallet, Inc., L. Rossetti of Detroit, set at the corner of Broadway Avenue and Eleventh Street. Stretching over 500 feet along Eleventh Street west from Broadway Avenue, it is the largest structure in the footprint area in the complex. The 1956 building's Broadway Avenue elevation echoes that of the 1938 addition; only a slightly different color brick distinguishes the later building. There is a glass wall entrance facing Eleventh Street NW (covered over above the entrance doors); the top one-third of the building displays a multi-paned fixed steel sash (covered over). This building was constructed as part of a general improvement program started in 1951 by American Seating, when the company decided not to move its plant outside the city. It provided much-needed manufacturing space to accommodate the enormous growth the company was experiencing by the mid-1950s. Facing Seward Avenue NW is a glass wall manufacturing plant (1927) designed by Smith, Hinchman & Grylls. To the south of this addition, the 1888 foundry building rises above small one-story concrete block additions (1978 and unknown date). The plant additions and the foundry interior spaces are open.

The more southerly block contains a massive brick and concrete warehouse, constructed in 1923, sited north to south at the western end of the block. A large brick manufacturing building constructed in 1927 is situated east to west along Seventh Street and is connected to the warehouse at the south end of the east side. A free-standing powerhouse (1923, expanded 1951) is located near the north end of the warehouse along Ninth Street. The soaring concrete smokestack of the power plant and the elevator tower of the manufacturing building are key visual landmarks of the West Side.

The warehouse, designed by Neiler, Rich & Company of Chicago, is a rectangular, four-story, flat-roofed, unpainted red brick structure. The timber-frame building has a concrete base and is twenty-two bays long and two bays wide; each bay is divided by piers that end at the top of the fourth-floor windows with a cast concrete cap and cross detail. The large steel, multi-paned windows contained within the bays have center-pivot vents and concrete sills. Three corners of the building are defined by bastion-like structures, the curved roof lines of which rise above the parapet wall. There is cast concrete detailing above and beside the fourth-floor windows. A primary architectural feature is the elevator and stair tower that rises six stories at the southeast corner, with round arch-head windows at the top story, which also features simple concrete detailing. A concrete stringcourse at the second-floor line divides the first floor from the upper floors around the parameter of the building; a second concrete stringcourse wraps around the north and south ends of the building, beginning and ending at the first window bay of each elevation and running along the top of the first-floor windows. A roofed wood and concrete platform along the length of the west elevation once facilitated loading and unloading the cars that ran on the rail spur that was located there. A truck loading dock (1942) is located at the east elevation near where it joins with the manufacturing addition. The interior has wood floors, square section wood columns, brick walls, and ceilings open to the joists.

Neiler, Rich 8& Company also designed the brick power plant (no longer in use), which rises one story from a concrete raised basement; its 184-foot concrete smokestack has been reduced in height by about ten feet. Like the warehouse, it has simple concrete trim and steel, multi-paned windows. This plant, described in the August 1923 issue of the company magazine, The Seater, as "an example in economy, a lesson in thrift," was powered by coal, as well as by wood waste and sawdust, which were blown to it from the Wood Plant. Exhaust steam was used for the generation of power, rather than being allowed to dissipate into the air. The boilers supplied heat for the buildings in winter and high-pressure superheated steam to power factory operations. The new power plant made possible the elimination of the belt drive and the institution of the motor drive for machines used in the manufacturing process. A 100 x 75-foot spray pond capable of condensing 20,000 pounds of steam per hour was located south of the power plant and east of the warehouse. It was covered over in the mid-1950s. By 1950, the capacity of the power plant was unable to meet the company's ever-expanding production needs. The north wall was razed and the building extended to Ninth Street (Owen, Ames, Kimball Construction Company) to accommodate new boilers, which doubled the plant's steam capacity. This expansion can be distinguished from the original building by its lack of detailing.

In 1927, the massive Smith, Hinchman & Grylls-designed manufacturing building was completed. Attached to the warehouse at the south end of the east side of the building, it stretches east more than 450 feet along Seventh Street NW. Designed to complement the warehouse, it is a rectangular, four-story, flat-roofed, reinforced concrete building with flat slab floor structure and face brick at the south and east elevations. On the south elevation, fourteen bays are defined by brick piers rising from the concrete string course at the second-floor line to the concrete-capped parapet. The rhythm of the bays is broken near the east and west ends by a three-bay wide stair and elevator tower projecting one bay from the plane of the building. The towers, which rise above the parapet wall, contain large freight elevators. The two large steel, multi-pane windows contained within each bay have center-pivot vents and concrete sills. At the first floor are massive segmental arch-head steel, multi-pane windows capped with a double row of voissoirs. A metal and glass entrance was added at the northeast corner (c. 1980s). The north elevation has large steel, multi-pane windows in bays separated by slim reinforced concrete piers. The installation of brick veneer was not completed on the remainder of this elevation. The interior space is open with round concrete mushroom columns and flat concrete slab ceilings, wood floors, and painted brick walls. A one-story, flat-roofed section of this building extends to the north; it has massive steel, multi-pane windows separated by slim reinforced concrete piers. The interior open space rises to a height of twenty-one feet with massive round concrete columns and concrete ceiling, floor, and walls.