New York Made It A Staple: Now It's The Vintage Thrift Store Find We All Want For Our Yards

At one point in time, tuberculosis (aka consumption) was responsible for one in seven deaths around the world, per Smithsonian Magazine. At its peak, probably few could have guessed that the malady would also be partly responsible for the popularity of the Adirondack chair. Although the disease had been around since ancient times, it wasn't until the mid-1940s that doctors finally administered antibiotics to cure tuberculosis. In the absence of that medicine, however, fresh air — often taken in the wilderness — and the Adirondack chair became the antibiotic substitutes that healed many during the disease's heyday. That the seat is now synonymous with stylish patio spaces and poolside fun is a testament to the chair's stylish practicality.

When people initially came to the mountains to rid themselves of TB, they stayed in sanatoriums, usually sitting outside, often in steamship deck chairs. This chair's design boasted shipboard efficiency — easy to fold and no big arms — and was intended to help ship designers keep clutter to a minimum on vessels that hadn't been constructed for lounging on deck. For the TB patients sitting on those seats, the lounge chairs' bare bones design thus made for an uncomfortable convalescence. Thomas Lee, a native of Boston, spent the years between 1900 and 1903 DIYing an outdoor wooden chair. His design eventually became the Adirondack chair, acquiring its name from the area in which it was invented – Westport, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains. Many of the sanatoriums that used the chair were also located in the Adirondack region.

Although Thomas Lee was mostly trying to create a comfortable chair, its construction lent itself to convalescence. Many of the Adirondack chair's most-beloved design features, like the reclined back and wide-open arms, were of big benefit to those partaking in consumption therapy. The seat's construction kept the chest area open, allowing patients to take in more of the crisp, dry air that was thought to cure them.

The spread of the chair's arms did more than open the chest, however. People who had TB needed to sit out in the open air for most of the day, and they did so in winter, summer, and every season in between. The Adirondack chair's build gave them enough room to wear their bulky winter clothes while they sat for hours on end. The thick layers of blankets the patients rested under fit within the confines of the seat, too, thanks to the spacious design feature. Additional elements, like book racks, foot rests, and stoneware hot water bottles, known as stone pigs, eventually became a part of the design on some of the chair models that followed. These additions made the hours of forced sitting more pleasant for those trying to recover from the disease.

Many new iterations of the original chair have arisen over the years, starting with the version created by Harry C. Bunnell, a friend of Thomas Lee's. Bunnell made changes to Lee's design, adding a footrest, a spot for bed pans, and a tufted cushion: His iteration cashed in on the demand for so-called convalescence furniture. Bunnell's Westport chair got the patent, while his friend, Thomas Lee, who introduced the Adirondack to him, received nothing but historical credit for the invention years later. Other modern iterations of the seat, including the Muskoka chair out of Ontario, Canada, have gained popularity in the years following the the original invention in 1903.

Eventually, marketing for the chair went beyond the infirmary. This only made sense, given that the original Adirondack wasn't specifically made for TB recovery, though the chair certainly became synonymous with the disease due to its widespread use during treatment. Nowadays, people love this heavy-duty lawn chair because it's practical and comfortable. The arms are a great place for a cool glass of lemonade, and the reclining features don't hurt its comfort quotient, either. Most importantly, the chair is also budget-friendly if you can nab one at your local thrift store. (Choosing the right Adirondack is another matter entirely.) That said, the chair's history is worth remembering the next time you lay back in your thrifted piece, arms open wide with the fresh air coming into your lungs.