A Hitchcock chair can best be described as spare, yet ornate; functional, yet decorative. These characteristics have made the company’s furniture a hallmark of traditional New England décor for generations.

This distinctive style of furniture has been so popular that founder John Tarrant Kenney, the man who renewed the Hitchcock Chair Company after Cheshire native Lambert Hitchcock shut it down in the mid-1800s, wrote a book about the company titled “The Hitchcock Chair.”

The book depicts the rise and fall of the company, painting Kenney as a self-made man right out of New England Yankee tradition. With a can-do attitude, if you believe his story, Kenney continued the line of traditional furniture made popular by Lambert Hitchcock. “We will pursue our objectives, mindful that the old manufactory has been standing here for nearly a century and a half, with interest in it and its products, both the old and the new, increasing year after year,” Kenney wrote in 1971.

“We won’t run out of tomorrows.”

Kenney was wrong. Thirty-five years later, the Hitchcock Chair Co., which has four stores in Connecticut, is just about out of tomorrows. With the retirement of its longtime owner Robin Faccenda, the company will close its doors by the end of April.

The company’s first incarnation began with a lone man. Lambert Hitchcock was born on May 28, 1795, in Cheshire. He is believed to have lived in a 1730s red saltbox house at 289 S. Main St. His father John Lee, a Revolutionary War veteran who was lost at sea in 1811, was the patriarch of a prominent local family. “The Hitchcocks played an important role in the settlement and civic life of the town during its early days,” Kenney wrote.

Kenney believes Hitchcock probably served an apprenticeship to a chair or cabinetmaker in Cheshire, although no record of that service exists. In 1814 Hitchcock left Cheshire to serve as a journeyman with a prominent woodworker named Silas Cheney. He returned to the town for a year to attend the former Episcopal Academy of Connecticut at Cheshire, today known as Cheshire Academy, but the young man didn’t take to academic life.

After serving with Cheney, he started the factory in 1818 with two other Cheshire residents who had married into the Hitchcock clan. After selling the business and unsuccessfully investing in another business, Lambert Hitchcock died in 1852.

The old 40,000-square-foot factory sits on the edge of the Farmington River, a shallow, picturesque spot known for its excellent fishing. The continuous stream of water gives the town a calm, serene vibe.

Riverton, known as Hitchcocksville until 1821, settles along Route 20 and the river. An old church that is now a glassblowing shop, a general store, an antique shop and a bed and breakfast make up the center of town. “There are only about 200 or 300 people here. It has the small town flavor. It is pretty laid back. People here look out for one another,” said Dan Sylvermale, a volunteer firefighter in town.

Only a few cars passed down this stretch of Route 20 on a recent morning. Most stopped at the factory. Now that the closing sale has been announced, business has picked up. However, even during the good years, business at the store was primarily a weekend affair. “There will be some impact,” said Leslie DiMartino, owner of the Riverton General Store, which sits next door to Hitchcock.

The store’s employees made up a good portion of her lunch business, but she is confident the little hamlet will survive the closing. The streetscape will undergo a renovation, she said. The peaceful trails and pleasantly quiet scenery are also always a draw. But things will be assuredly different without the furniture store, she said. “There is a lot of history there, without a doubt,” DiMartino said. “If you are from around here, everyone has got something from Hitchcock.”

History for sale

“We sell these things worldwide,” said Carol Sterpka, manager of the store and a Hitchcock employee for 40 years. “This is furniture that lasts forever. It is not like most furniture today.”

Showrooms that were once gleaming examples of Federal-style décor are looking a bit unkempt now. Dining room sets once valued at close to $7,000 are going for almost half price. Everything has to be sold, Sterpka said, and she has no doubt this will happen well before the April 26 deadline. She believes that despite the cut-rate prices of places like Raymour and Flanagan, Bob’s Discount Furniture and IKEA, people really do want a well-made piece and are willing to pay more for it.

The furniture is handmade by artisans many of whom have spent their entire working lives in the Hitchcock factory in New Hartford. The hutches, tables and chairs are usually made of maple and cherry hardwoods. The chairs have traditionally painted back splats, and rush seats woven out of cattails grown in New York. “A lot of this is generally a lost art … These are proud people and they are proud of what they do,” Sterpka said of the people who have devoted their lives to making the furniture.

Along the backs of chairs with wooden seats is written the Hitchcock name, Hitchcocksville, Conn. Much of the furniture is stenciled with leaves and other designs.

Various groups have been through the factory and store and are considering buying the company. Although that is exactly what Sterpka wants — she doesn’t want to imagine a future without Hitchcock open — a change in ownership brings a whole host of other concerns. Will new ownership keep up the level of craftsmanship the company is known for? Will they continue to promote the family environment that has made Sterpka and other longtime employees so happy over the years? “This is what we don’t know,” she said.

Some local antique dealers believe that the closing of the factory could increase the value of some older Hitchcock pieces.

Bob Celentano, owner of the Plantsville Station Antique Shoppe in Southington, said he recently sold two early-1800s Hitchcock chairs for $400. People really seem to like the handcrafted feel — the slight imperfections, the imprint of human hands — of the early pieces. “It is a little piece of Americana,” Celentano said.

You don’t, however, see a lot of the older furniture circulating, particularly around the Meriden-Wallingford area. A lot of people look for newer antiques, like Hitchcock tables and chairs from the 1950s through 1970s. “Not everyone could afford it in those days,” Celentano said. “It would be a more well-to-do family or someone above average who could afford them.”

There is another reason you might not see a lot of the old furniture in local antique stores. “Tastes change. Things go in and out,” said Rita Picciafochi of Fair Weather Antiques in Meriden. “We don’t have as many 18th and 19th Century homes here as they do (in Litchfield County). If you look at our old houses, they are all Victorians. Hitchcock furniture doesn’t go in a Victorian home. It is beautiful, but it just doesn’t fit.”

Hitchcock isn’t just selling furniture, Sterpka said. The company is selling nostalgia, a longing for a long-lost New England past. The company sells history — the pieces are passed from generation to generation. People come in every year to get the new Christmas chair. Elderly couples talk about the dining room set they bought when they got married and still have decades later.

The America the company is selling doesn’t exist anymore.

Source: record-journal.com

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 6:13 am and is filed under Furniture. Tags: America, Antique, Area, Bob Celentano, Carol Sterpka, Century, Cherry, Cheshire Academy, Christmas, Connecticut, Dan Sylvermale, Design, Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, Ergo, Farmington River, Ford, Furniture, Furniture Store, Furniture Today, Hartford, Hitchcock Chair Company, Hitchcocksville, IKEA, John Lee, John Tarrant Kenney, Lambert Hitchcock, Leslie DiMartino, Litchfield County, New England, New York, paint, Plantsville Station Antique, Price, products, Rita Picciafochi, Riverton, Riverton General Store, Robin Faccenda, Set, Silas Cheney, Small, South, Table, The Furniture Store, The Hitchcock Chair Co., Today, Victoria, Victorian, Y. Although, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.