Dominion Chair Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dominion Chair Company is the name commonly used to refer to the wooden furniture manufacturing company that operated from 1860 to 1989 in Bass River, Nova Scotia, Canada. The company still operates a general store.
The hand-crafted furniture produced at Dominion Chair (as it is locally known) was sold to retailers throughout Canada and the northeastern U.S.. The company employed between 40 and 70 from the local area at any one time from the late 19th century to its end. At the time of their founding the Maritime home furnishings retailer Bass River Chairs choice their company name because of their then retailing Dominion Chair furniture.
George Fulton and William Fulton, brothers and great-grandsons of the first settler of Bass River, "Judge" James Fulton, began by making wood furniture out of their home in 1860. (Hemeon, 1987) George continued by founding a "joint stock company" in 1875, naming it Union Furniture and Merchandise Company. (Ibid) The name Dominion Chair Company Limited was adopted in 1903. Operations continued despite at least five devastating fires, a severe explosion, a four-month long general strike of workers in the 1979, and a change in ownership that resulted in a further name change in 1985. A sixth fire in February 1989, completely destroying the plant's main building and facilities, did irreparable damage to company's ability to operate. Manufacturing was moved briefly to nearby Debert where operations ceased in the mid 1990s.
