History

THE EVOLUTION OF EUSTIS CHAIR

 

Eustis Chair is the product of two different companies, both started in about 1990, one on the east coast and one on the west coast:

Eustis Enterprises, Inc. was founded in 1989 in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, by William Eustis, who was joined in 1993 by his son Fred. Father and son worked together for the next 5 years building top-quality dining chairs for Stickley Furniture, America’s pre-eminent manufacturer of Arts & Crafts style furniture. After Bill’s retirement in 1997, the company continued to manufacture chairs for Stickley, and Fred started to turn his attention to the design and manufacture of a new line of chairs that would carry the Eustis Chair name.

Eustis Designs, Inc. was founded in 1990 in Palo Alto, California, by Stanford’s Engineering Professor Robert Eustis. Bob developed and patented a remarkable joinery system using concealed steel rods and aerospace-grade epoxies. This technique allowed Eustis Designs to build hundreds of elegant chairs for universities and libraries without a single joint failure. Fred learned about Eustis Designs in 1999, and soon acquired the patent rights to the technology we now call the Eustis Joint®.

Eustis Chair is the trade name we now use for the business that emerged in the new millennium. The new company created a line of elegant hardwood chairs that are engineered to withstand decades of abuse in libraries, dining halls, clubs, and other high-use spaces. Since 2000 Eustis Chair has added dozens of new designs and completed hundreds of projects for prestigious clubs, schools, and libraries nationwide. More and more architects, designers, and institutional buyers now recognize the Eustis Chair name, and know that it stands for distinctive hardwood chairs that truly meet the test of time.

And yes, Fred, Bill, and Bob Eustis are related: they are 7th cousins and direct descendants of William Eustis, who was born in 1661 from what is now Chelsea, Massachusetts.