From the moment we first realized we needed a space in which our customers could interact with and get to know our furniture, we’ve purposefully chosen the building intended to house our showrooms with the same attention to detail we apply to making furniture— including fidelity to each region’s unique characteristics. Each of our showrooms has its tale to tell about the building it inhabits, its region’s architecture, and the local community surrounding it.
Above: The old Peck & Peck store and Newbury-Boylston shopping corridor circa 1920s. Images courtesy of The Bostonian Society/ Old State House.
Our Boston showroom on Arlington Street along the famous Newbury-Boylston shopping corridor has a varied past. Standing a stone’s throw from the Boston Commons, it is a short walk to the duck pond made famous by Maine author Robert McCloskey in his book Make Way for Ducklings. And the connections to Maine don’t stop there; it’s thought that Benjamin E. Bates lived in our building in 1875– the same Benjamin Bates who was treasurer and Maine financier of the Bates Mill in Lewiston and the founder of Bates College.
In the 1920s, the building housed a few important clothing retail stores. The famous Peck & Peck outfitted an entire generation of upscale Bostonians and helped coin a new term: “preppy.” From the late 1940s to the late 1960s, our building was home to the women-clothier Neals of California.
In the 1970s, the building was transformed into the Garden Cinema and The Back Bay Screening Room, where neighbors remember seeing legendary cult and indie hits like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and silent films. Our showroom exists in what used to be the theater’s atrium. Moving into a building so rooted in local tradition just made sense. Our furniture is as deeply rooted in historical interpretation as is the city of Boston and its Back Bay neighborhood.
What we love about Boston
Showroom Manager, Boston
