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Jun 02, 2023

Local History: Melsur Vintage Furniture — A famous Brattleboro label

BRATTLEBORO — During its century-long existence, the Estey Organ Company made

BRATTLEBORO — During its century-long existence, the Estey Organ Company made more than 520,000 musical instruments. Each organ famously had a "Brattleboro, Vt." label attached, and the Estey Organ Company became synonymous with the Brattleboro community. What you may not know is another local manufacturer made tens of millions of products here, and each one was labeled with the phrase, "Old Ferry Road, Brattleboro, Vt."

In 1960, as Estey Organ was closing its doors, Jason Doubleday moved his family to Brattleboro from Springfield, Massachusetts. He had been in the manufacturing business for 25 years and was appointed plant manager of C.F. Church Company on Flat Street. In 1920 C.F. Church arrived in Brattleboro, and the company specialized in the production of toilet seats. In later years, the plant also expanded its product line to include composite school furniture.

Doubleday grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts and began working as an apprentice toolmaker. He became a production supervisor and, in the evenings, earned a business degree from American International College. Unfortunately for Doubleday and Brattleboro, American Standard Company bought C.F. Church and, during the company's merger process, decided to close the Flat Street plant and relocate the manufacturing site to the Springfield, Massachusetts, area. C.F. Church ceased operations in early 1963.

Jason Doubleday moved his family back to Massachusetts so he could continue working in the composite manufacturing industry. However, after moving back to live in the city, the Doubledays hoped for a chance to return to the more rural lifestyle of Vermont. Doubleday reached out to local investors and workers to determine if there might be interest in starting a new manufacturing business in Brattleboro. Doubleday wanted to produce molded composite school furniture similar to the products that were made by the old C.F. Church Company.

In 1965 land in northeastern Brattleboro on Old Ferry Road was purchased from Robert and Ruth Allard. Financing for a new company was arranged with the help of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. A two-and-a-half-story, 15,000-square-foot manufacturing plant was built on the old Allard property by Loney Construction. President Jason Doubleday and Vice President Richard Avery became primary supervisors and joined with a dozen other investors to create the Melsur Corporation.

Doubleday explained the name "Melsur" was a combination of the words melamine and service. Melamine was a chemical binding agent that, when mixed with finely ground maple and birch sawdust, could be molded into a hard plastic. Different pigments were added to the mixture to create various colors, and the mixture was then shaped into furniture components with high pressure and heat. The completed desktops, chair seats and backs were then transported to a company in the southern United States, where they were attached to metal frames.

For more than 20 years, Melsur produced school desktops and chair components at the Old Ferry Road site. Millions of hard composite furniture parts were stamped with the Melsur logo. Over the years, the plant built a few additions and increased in size. Between 20 and 50 employees worked at Melsur's during the ’60s, ’70s, and into the ’80s.

In 1988 Jason Doubleday retired, and changes came to the operation. The company bought a building near the Westminster/Bellows Falls border and opened another furniture-making plant. In 1989 the company operated two plants, and in 1990 the Brattleboro plant closed. All of the workers at the Brattleboro plant were laid off and then offered jobs at the Westminster plant. Many relocated to the Bellows Falls area.

In 2002 the Melsur Corporation built a 90,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Alabama. The company said they were having trouble hiring enough employees in Vermont to meet manufacturing demands and needed to expand elsewhere.

The Westminster plant closed in 2003. Melsur said they needed to be closer to the region where the composite chair and desk parts were assembled. The corporation continued to operate as the premier U.S. molded composite school furniture manufacturer until 2007, when it was bought by Scholar Craft.

Melsur furniture was made in Brattleboro from 1966 to 1990. Millions of school chairs and desks throughout the country are stamped with the "Melsur-Old Ferry Road-Brattleboro, Vt." logo. In fact, a recent visit to a Brattleboro Area Middle School classroom found that half of the chairs and desks in the class began more than 30 years ago in the Old Ferry Road plant a few miles north of the school.

Brattleboro Historical Society can be called at 802-258-4957.

Visit Our Website: https://bhs802.org/.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brattleboro.history/.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrattHistSoc.

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bratthistoricalsoc.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brattleborohistoricalsociety/.

Brattleboro Historical Society can be called at 802-258-4957.

Visit Our Website: https://bhs802.org/.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brattleboro.history/.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrattHistSoc.

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bratthistoricalsoc.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brattleborohistoricalsociety/.

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