Bassett Furniture Industries history

The next year, 1903, the company earned $25,000 on sales of a little more than $100,000.

Even in 1907, with the nation in the grip of a financial panic, the Bassett Furniture Co. reported net income of $606.

By 1911, the economy had recovered and the Bassett Furniture Co. added sales representatives in several major Northern cities, including New York, Detroit, and Chicago.

In 1919, two men, B.C. Vaughan and J.D. Bassett, Sr., both of whom were from Bassett, Virginia, first founded our company.

In 1920, the board of directors voted to increase capital stock to $1 million; the Bassett Furniture Co. had become a million-dollar business in 18 years.

In 1921, J. D. Bassett took the unusual step of forming a second furniture business, the J.D. Bassett Manufacturing Co., apparently to test the abilities of his oldest son, William M. Bassett.

In 1923, William Bassett succeeded his father as president of J.D. Bassett Manufacturing Co., while J. D. Bassett's second son, John Douglas Bassett (later known as J. D. Bassett, Jr.) became vice president.

Other family members had also left the fold to form their own furniture companies, including J.D. Bassett's son-in-law, Thomas Bahnson Stanley, a future governor of Virginia, who started the Stanley Furniture Co. in 1924 on land adjacent to the Bassett plants.

Fire struck again in 1925, this time destroying a large part of the J.D. Bassett Manufacturing Co.

In 1931, the business incorporated all the Bassett stores under Bassett Furniture Industries.

In 1938, Bassett Furniture Industries introduced its massive and elaborate Waterfall design.

In 1959, there were still four separate marketing organizations for Bassett products--the Bassett Furniture Co., J.D. Bassett Manufacturing Co., William M. Bassett Furniture Co., and the Bassett Table Co.

By 1964, when Bassett Furniture Industries became the first furniture manufacturer to advertise in Reader's Digest, the marketing program was reaching more than 445 million readers.

In 1967, Bassett Furniture Industries opened its first retail outlet, a freestanding showroom on Interstate 85 between High Point and Thomasville, North Carolina.

Bassett Furniture Industries' sales topped $139 million in 1969.

1974 Bassett Furniture Ad - The move To

In 1984, Bassett Furniture Industries launched its Bassett Gallery program, a cooperative marketing program for retail dealers who were willing to set aside a portion of their floor space exclusively to settings of Bassett Furniture.