Woodworker's Journal 2008-32-6, страница 57

By Bruce Kieffer

Build your own historic Stickley Brothers inspired dining chair using sturdy dowel-joint construction.

57 December 2008 Woodworker's Journal

My wife and I have visited the Grand Canyon South Rim many times in the past decade. We luckily booked a room in the El Tovar Hotel on our first trip. It's a fantastic, quaint, bustling historic building set on the edge of the most incredible naturally formed canyon in the world. I'm in awe every time I go there.

Our first night's dinner was in the hotel's dining room. I noted dark log walls, an unusual serving buffet, large Hopi Indian murals and blase chairs, A few years later while at the hotel again, I noticed the chairs were newly built in the Mission style. I investigated and found they had been recently reproduced from photos and an original chair. There were notable differences between the reproductions and the white oak originals. The new chairs were red oak, they were shorter and slightly wider, the backs were more angled and the seat cushions were thicker and set on the seat frame rather than inside. Also, the reproduction chairs in the main dining room had arms; none of the originals did. I later learned the reason the original chairs had no arms was so women with large dresses, which were popular at the turn of the 20th century, could get in and out more easily.

I really liked the chairs, and I wanted to make some for myself. Running short of time, 1 made arrangements to get the chair details by phone at a later date. When I reached my hotel contact, he told me he found out that one of