An Adirondack chair (or in Canada, a Muskoka chair) is a type of chair used primarily in an outdoors setting. The precursor to today’s Adirondack chair was designed by Thomas Lee in 1903. He was on vacation in Westport, New York and he needed outdoor chairs for his summer home. He tested the first designs on his family.

The original Adirondack chair was made with eleven pieces of wood, cut from a single board. It had a straight back and seat, set at a slant to sit better on the steep mountain inclines of the area. It also featured wide armrests that have became a hallmark of the Adirondack Chair.

Today’s Adirondack chairs usually feature a rounded back and contoured seat. The style has also been translated to other pieces of furniture, from gliders to love seats. Many variations on the theme exist. We’re partial to ours.

After arriving at a final design for the “Westport plank chair,” Lee offered it to Harry Bunnell, a carpenter friend in Westport, who was in need of a winter income. Bunnell quickly realized the chair was the perfect item to sell to Westport’s summer residents and apparently without asking Lee’s permission, Bunnell filed for and received patent number 794,777 in 1905. Bunnell manufactured his plank chairs for the next twenty years. His ‘Westport Chairs’ were all signed and made of hemlock in colors of green or medium dark brown.

In Canada, they call them Muskoka Chairs after a popular cottaging and outdoor recreational region in southern Ontario north of Toronto.