A Little More American of Martinsville History

I've touched on the history of American of Martinsville a little when I was trying to track down what line our American of Martinsville bar is from. (Turns out it's from the Dania collection.)

For some reason it never occurred to me that Martinsville might actually be a city where they made all the American of Martinsville furniture. In modern copywriting and naming you'd never throw the name of the town you're from in your company's name because you never know when you're going to expand or move out of town. But I guess American of Martinsville planned to stick around, and stick around they did, for over 100 years.

And the city of Martinsville has a little history on their furniture making legacy, which includes American of Martinsville, Bassett Furniture and Hooker Furniture Company. The American of Martinsville portion of that history is:

In 1906, American Furniture Company was founded by two Martinsville tobacco men, Ancil Witten and Charles Keesee. With 12 other local business leaders, these men raised an original capitalization of $30,000. The company has grown substantially and first surpassed $100 million in sales in 1989. Today, the company specializes in producing furniture for the hotel and healthcare industries, and operates under the name American of Martinsville. Open a dresser drawer the next time you stay in a hotel and, chances are, you'll see an American of Martinsville logo.

Vintage Neon Sign for Sale

You may remember the Park Avenue Motel from the giant collect of mid-century American of Martinsville hotel furniture I wrote about. Some items have sold but Joe says there's still mid-century furniture available for those still interested.

As part of selling the estate, the Park Avenue Motel sign is now also for sale. It's big – 8' tall by 9' wide – so you're going to need to have some room for it, and a love of neon. But I don't know how you couldn't fall in love with the colors and that silhouette of a woman with a poodle.

Mid-Century American of Martinsville Hotel Furniture

About once a week or so, someone will email me a question about mid-century furniture. And more often than not it's about pricing mid-century furniture. But it's not every day someone emails and says, "I am dealing with the estate that owns the Park Avenue Motel in Herrin, IL. This is a 20+ room complex built in the late 50s and the all the rooms were furnished with American of Martinsville pieces. Is there a market for American of Martinsville hotel furniture?" But that's exactly what Joe emailed.

I told him that there's definitely a market for mid-century American of Matrinsville furniture, but I wasn't sure what qualified something specifically as American of Matrinsville hotel furniture. So I asked for photos in hopes to help, and because I was really curious what the pieces looked like.

Boy, did Joe provide.

If anyone out there is looking for anything like this, Joe is your man. He has 20+ rooms of it. You can email him at jviterisi950@comcast.net for details, etc.

And if anyone from Texas is thinking of making a trip up to Illinois with a big truck (I'm looking at you Mid2Mod and Uptown Modern), let me know because I'm calling dibs on one of the benches and that coffee table. And maybe a headboard. And maybe a desk or two. And maybe those lights. And maybe that mirror.

Mid-Century Ugly to Mid-Century Elegant

My better half did the website design for Spruce, a furniture redesign/upholstery shop here in Austin. And she recently took one of their BYOC (bring your own chair) classes.

We found this chair on craigslist for $25

And after the class it looks like this

A pretty sweet transformation. And it looks really nice living next to our American of Martinsville bar.

Mid Century Møbler Talks About Broyhill Sculptra

Haighteration has a must-read interview with the boys of Mid Century Møbler.

A while back Mid Century Møbler was kind enough to let me post their photos of a Broyhill Sculptra room divider. Some Broyhill Sculptra furniture also makes an appearance in the photos of the Haighteration piece.

Here's what Julian of Mid Century Møbler had to say of the Broyhill Premier Sculptra collection:

“It catered to a more sophisticated, growing American public, and more modern living,” says Julian. “Those cat eye pulls were actually taken directly from Danish pieces which we’ve come across before.”

The article also gives a solid end date to the Broyhill Sculptra line: 1965. I hadn't heard that before and it means that Sculptra furniture was only made for eight years, 1957 to 1965.

American of Martinsville Dania Bar

An amazing/anonymous reader/commenter pointed me in the direction of this brochure image for my American of Martinsville bar:


I looks like my mid-century bar is part of the American of Martinsville Dania collection. And it looks like I was right assuming that it was a piece that was intended to have many uses.

From the American of Martinsville brochure:

Just a few of the countless arrangements possible with Dania ... to make you a decorator ... with ease and originality! Mix 'em or match 'em for the drama of Dania.

American of Martinsville Sales Tag

While I was hunting down the history of our American of Martinsville bar I came across a few other interesting things. Like these mid-century sales tags:

One Mid-Century Bar, Many Uses

I'm still trying to find out what collection our American of Martinsville bar was part of, but after many hours on Google I might have to call this one done, without an answer.

I'm having such a hard time because it may have been part of multiple collections. It at least has many uses:

The second piece of a bench
The top of a buffet
The bottom of a book shelf
And it seems that in some cases it had legs, but in most it didn't - ours doesn't. That's one very versatile mid-century liquor cabinet.

More American of Martinsville Info

American of Martinsville has an extensive history and is still producing furniture today, but here's their streamlined story with the pertinent parts for a mid-century fan: Founded in 1906 by Virginia tobacco producers, American of Martinsville furniture line consisted of only bedroom furniture. In the early 1920s the company added dining room furniture and began to expand its offerings through a number of diverse styles. In the 1950s, as the company grew, so did American of Martinsville's reputation for styling and design leadership. With products in almost every design, the company continued to expand its offerings to cover the living room, in both wood and upholstered furniture.

The adjectives that are used to describe American of Martinsville's mid-century furniture the most are "Danish modern" and "high-quality" - at least from what I've found online. And the easiest way to spot their vintage stuff is either by these slats or these pulls and Xs Neither of which the mid-century bar I'm tracking down has, which is making it a little harder to pin down what collection it's from.

American of Martinsville Mid-Century Bar

Doing research on Broyhill furniture was pretty interesting, so I'm going to track down information on the other mid-century furniture pieces in our house. Up next, the bar we found on craigslist a few years ago.
It's an American of Martinsville bar.
In the top drawer it has a mechanized tray, with glass holders, that comes out when you open the door. Behind the tray is a mirror and a light to make your barware look swank.
Under that on the left is a cabinet with a drawer for silverware, swizzle sticks, etc. And on the right is a big cabinet to hold the booze.
I'll try to find out more about American of Martinsville and what line the bar might be from.