The present Big Chair was completed in January 1951 near the site of the first Big Chair. The first Big chair was constructed in September 1922. The original chair was 13 feet 6 inches tall. At the time, Pathe News produced a newsreel of its construction which was shown in movie houses across the nation. This chair made the cover of the New York Times Magazine with a picture of 1920s evangelist, Billy Sunday, standing on the seat. Unfortunately, this original chair was constructed of materials which deteriorated over time. The wood was heart of pine while the seat cover was made from the hide of a huge Swiss steer . By 1936 the chair had been dismantled as an eyesore.
Thomasville, "The Chair City," remained "Chairless" until Thomasville Chair Company, now known as Thomasville Furniture Industries, sponsored with the City of Thomasville and the Thomasville Chamber of Commerce, the building of the present Big Chair. Thomas Johnson and C. L. White, Jr. designed this reproduction of a Duncan Phyfe dining room chair. Salem Steel of Winston-Salem put together the steel framework and Thomasville artist, James Harvey, crafted and fitted sections of wire mesh over the framework to produce the shape of the chair. Harvey used a teaspoon to apply a coating of one-fourth to one-half inch thick mixture of water, cement, and sand. He used a palette knife to apply a layer of granite dust to obtain a smooth finish. The chair frame's leaf and bead design were done freehand. The Chair's frame is painted to resemble Honduras mahogany and the seat to suggest upholstering in gold-and-maroon striped damask.
The Big Chair is 18 feet in height and stands on a 12 -feet high base of Indiana limestone. The Chair is exactly six times larger than the original Duncan Phyfe chair located in the Smithsonian. Local firefighters periodically assist visiting dignitaries and celebrities into the Big Chair's seat. In the last few years the Chair has been featured on Good Morning, America, in a Shoney's commercial and by the MTV network.
Tourists can easily find the Big Chair located on the Square in Thomasville by taking the Hwy. 109 exit of either Interstate 85 or Interstate 85 business loop (US 29/70).
Near the Big Chair
Fair Grove Church and Cemetery -located at the intersection of Old NC 109 and Fair Grove Road south of Thomasville, oldest known Methodist Church still in existence in Davidson County.
Thomasville Baptist Orphanage, Mills Home -located in the western part of Thomasville, the first branch of the Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina. In 1884, John Mills who had been Superintendent of the Masonic Orphanage at Oxford, North Carolina, organized the Orphanage Association with only eight members, who contributed one dollar each. Mitchell Cottage, the first cottage built for girls, is still standing and in use, the oldest of some nineteen on the Mills Home campus.
