Bassett’s blend of style, comfort and value has been trusted for more than a century and made it one of the most recognizable brands in America. Today, Bassett has taken its craftsmanship and built a new reputation of quality custom furniture that can be made and delivered in 30 days or less.
Bassett currently operates more than 100 retail locations in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada and is rapidly expanding sales on bassettfurniture.com. We are passionate about developing fashionable and innovative home furnishings at a great value, as well as offering a number of exceptional services to meet your needs. Our custom solutions make it easy to express your unique sense of style with a variety of options, including upholstery, beds, dining, home storage and home entertainment.
One visit to a store and you realize that Bassett is much more than a furniture store. Our skilled Design Consultants are dedicated to taking the guess work out of decorating. They’ll help create custom furnishings, define your decorating lifestyle, establish a budget, make a house call, or simply offer an opinion…all free of charge.
If you want to know how it all began, we have to take you back to late 1800s in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to an area northwest of Martinsville, Virginia. The Bassett family was running a sawmill that supplied rail ties for the new Norfolk & Western line that was being built through the family property. In 1892, the rail line was completed and the family began looking for markets for its lumber.
John David “J.D.” Bassett was making a good living traveling the countryside selling goods for general stores when he began carrying lumber samples from the mill. He quickly made his first sale of lumber to a coffin company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and returned home with the knowledge of the growing furniture industry and the subsequent demand for raw lumber.
He soon had orders for oak from several furniture companies in North Carolina. He quickly learned that the best markets for Appalachian oak was up north and he made inroads into those markets.
“Here I was shipping raw lumber from Henry County (Virginia) to Jamestown, New York, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, where factories converted that lumber into finished furniture to be shipped everywhere, including the South,” J.D. recalled. “It seemed to me that furniture certainly could be made in Henry County at a tremendous advantage.
Bassett and his brothers laid out a plan and in 1902 the Bassett Furniture Company was born. At first, the company had about 50 men, from farms and the surrounding hills, and focused on styles made of oak and features simple profiles with carved overlays.
Early dressers sold for $4.75, washstands for $2.75 and beds for $1.50
By 1917, Company sales reached $1 million. But family members had opened new divisions that ultimately competed with each other for sales. In 1930, a “house divided” meeting was called and the different companies were incorporated into Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc., in 1931.
The post-war years brought rapid growth as large neighborhoods sprang up quickly around the country. In the early 1960s, the Company bought Prestige Furniture Corp. and added upholstery to its line up and acquired three other companies to expand its bedroom and dining room production.
Furniture markets began to shift in the 1990s and many “mom-and-pop” stores were closed as large store chains with “no-name” furniture were gaining a foothold. Seeing this trend, Bassett opened its first store in 1997. The design was a departure from the compartmentalized rooms of typical furniture stores with little display merchandising.
Today, Bassett remains committed to the early principles of the company … that great quality, stylish furniture does not need to be expensive and should be available to everyone. A visit to one of our stores and you’ll see just how committed we are to that idea.
270 Federal Road
Brookfield , CT 06804
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