Gothic Chair, 1845

Gothic chair, Thomas Brooks (1811-1887), Brooklyn, walnut, 1845.

This chair is one of number of pieces that Bowen ordered for Roseland from Thomas Brooks of Brooklyn. Brooks also provided the hall stand, two settees, two window benches, two footstools, a center table, a number of chairs, and a cottage bedroom suite.

In 1870 at the first of an eventual twenty-five Fourth of July celebrations sponsored by Bowen in Woodstock, this chair was brought outside to a tent on the town’s common providing the seat of honor for President U.S. Grant. Connecticut Senator William Buckingham sat next to the President, in another Roseland Cottage Gothic chair.