Furniture Companies of Burlington, Iowa

Chittenden & Eastman Co.

Chittenden & Eastman traces its history back to H. Bailey & Company, a jobbing and retail furniture business that began in 1866 in a three-story brick building on Washington Street. That company became G.M. Todd & Company when Bailey returned to dentistry and his partner took over the company. In 1873 it became Todd, Pollock & Granger and construction began on a new building on Third Street. H.W. Chittenden started at the company as a traveling salesman in 1875 and took over Todd's place in the company when Todd retired in 1877. The company was then known as Pollock, Granger and Chittenden until 1881 when Pollock left the company and it became Granger & Chittenden. Granger died in 1882 leaving Chittenden to run the business alone for several months. At that time the business filled two buildings totally 46,800 square feet at Third and Market. On January 1 of 1883, E.P. Eastman, the company's bookkeeper and salesman since 1877, joined with Chittenden. They went by Chittenden & Eastman. By 1896 the company had four large buildings located on Third Street that covered nearly 3 acres. On July 1, 1899 the business incorporated as Chittenden & Eastman Company. They manufactured the Square Brand product from about 1890 to the early 1970s. In 1972 the firm moved to a new facility on Division just west of Roosevelt. The firm later became Eastman House. After 139 years in Burlington, the company is preparing to leave town in 2005.

According to the 1915 History of Des Moines County Iowa and Its People, Chittenden & Eastman annually issued “a catalogue of about seven hundred pages, ten by fourteen inches, in which are shown the most complete and best selling lines of goods that can possibly be brought together by men of long experience in manufacturing and buying, with the advantage of ample capital and an enormous outlet for goods.” In preparing to leave Burlington, the company donated its collection of catalogs to the library in order to preserve this important piece of Burlington’s manufacturing history. List of the catalogs.

There are over 100 catalogs and they are not indexed. Due to limited staff time, we are not able to search the catalogs for you. If you have a specific year or a general question about the company, please contact us or complete the Furniture Search Form.

Leopold Desk Company

This furniture company was in business until 1990. Incorporated as the Northwestern Furniture Company in 1886, it changed its name to The Rand & Leopold Desk Co in 1888. In 1900 it became Leopold Desk and then became Leopold Company in 1937. The business was sold to Litton Industries in 1965 and was then known as Lehigh-Leopold Furniture (Lehigh was a similar furniture company in New York that Litton owned and merged with Leopold). When it was sold in 1984 to Joyce International it was known just as Lehigh-Leopold.

The library has volumes 7, 8, and 10 of Leopold News, a newsletter that contains limited product information. These cover the years 1927-1931. If you would like us to check a newletter for you, please complete the the Furniture Search Form.

See also, A Brief History of Leopold Desks Company.

See also, Records of Leopold Desk Company at the University of Iowa Libraries. This collection includes catalogs from 1888-1927.

Northwestern Cabinet Company

The company began as a manufacturer of walnut furniture run by Robert Wolf in 1866. The company was known as Northwestern Cabinet from 1898 until it closed in 1971. The company manufactured the Master Craft brand. The Burlington Public Library has catalogs for 1926, 1926/27, 1927, 1929, Christmas 1936, 1939/40, 1940/41, and 1957/58. The furniture often has a number on it that helps us find the piece in a catalog. If you have a number, use the index. If you would like us to search the catalogs for you, please complete a Furniture Search Form.

See also, Iowa State Historical Society collections. They have twelve catalogs (1900, 1904, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1911/12, 1913, 1917, 1922/23, 1923, and c1925).

Shower Brothers

Shower Brothers furniture company began in Bloomington, Indiana where it had its main plant. By the 1920s it was the world's largest manufacturer of furniture making 60% of the furniture in the United States. In 1922 the company opened a large plant at 2100 Des Moines Street in Burlington. The company was known for its straight line production method and made all types of wooden furniture. The depression caused the company to close the Burlington plant in 1933. The library does not have any catalogs for this manufacturer.