GARDNER

A short history of Gardner

Named in honor of Thomas Gardner, the land was first settled by Europeans in 1764 and was officially incorporated as a town in 1785, after receiving land grants from the surrounding towns of Ashburnham, Templeton, Westminster, and Winchendon. In circa 1805, Gardner became a center for lumber and furniture industries, and is now known as "The Chair City" and "The Furniture Capital of New England", due to its long history of production in that industry. By 1910, there were twenty chair factories, which produced four million chairs per year. It was also noted for silversmithing. The Gardner State Hospital pioneered the use of cottage residences.

In 1922, the seal of Gardner was designed by the native-born illustrator Harrison Cady. According to city code, the seal portrays Thomas Gardner standing in front of Crystal Lake with Mount Monadnock in the distance. Within five smaller circles there is a chair, representing the importance of the furniture industry to city economy, as well as the letters W, W, A, and T, representing the surrounding towns of Westminster, Winchendon, Ashburnham, and Templeton, which all contributed land to the city at its founding. Gardner was incorporated as a city in 1923.

Gardner is the birthplace of the Heywood-Wakefield Company, dating from 1826 when the five Heywood brothers, Walter, Levi, Seth, Benjamin, and William, began to fashion wooden chairs and furniture in a barn near their family farm. In the early years, Walter fashioned chairs by hand, also using a foot lathe. He was soon joined by Levi and Benjamin on a part-time basis, while running a nearby country store. In 1831, Levi moved to Boston, where he established an outlet store to sell the chairs, while Benjamin and William remained in Gardner to manufacture them. A fire destroyed their chair shop in 1834. A year later, the partnership of B. F. Heywood and Company was formed, composed of Benjamin, Walter, and William, as well as Moses Wood and James Gates. Gardner was also the home of the Conant Ball Company. Nichols and Stone Chair Company traces their origin to 1762 in Westminster, Massachusetts. The company moved to Gardner at the turn of the twentieth century. As of July 2008, it was announced production would terminate. The name, intellectual property, and the design rights were purchased by L. and J.G. Stickley of Manlius, New York.

Gardner is also home to the first practical time clock. It was invented in 1894 by Edward G. Watkins, while he was an engineer at Heywood-Wakefield when he was asked to make a better time clock to keep track of employees. After recognizing growing nationwide need for a better time clock, Watkins opened Simplex Time Recorder. In 1958, Simplex bought the IBM Time Recorder Division, which also included the fire protection division. This purchase helped propel Simplex to become a leader in fire alarms and business systems. Simplex would be owned and operated under the Watkins family for over a century with family including son, Curt, from 1942 to 1967, and grandson, Chris, from 1967, until it was sold in 2000, to Tyco International.

In 2009, the Annual Chair Luge began and takes place on the last Saturday in September in downtown Gardner and features teams of two racing down the streets in homemade chairs on wheels. The city is also home of the largest American Cancer Society Relay For Life event in New England. Gardner has recently been dubbed the "Model City for America" for the accolades the city has received for progress in infrastructure, community development, 41% reduction in crime since 2020, and advances in education including successful partnerships with Mount Wachusett Community College and Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Gardner, Massachusetts, revision 1376593824 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.