The Lowell Area Historical Museum is taking us on a stroll along Main Street and sharing the history of buildings in Lowell’s historic downtown. To learn more about Lowell history, visit the museum website to explore its collection of local artifacts and records.
Address: 318 E. Main
Date Built: 1984
Built by: Dan Vos Construction Co.
Owner: Superior Furniture Company- the Lee family
1st business: Superior Furniture Company
William S. Lee purchased the original Superior Furniture Company building in 1936 as part of a partnership that included the Charlotte Chair Co. Lee became general manager of the Lowell plant. He acquired full ownership of the company in 1958. William J. Lee succeeded his father as head of Superior Furniture Company and helped oversee a massive expansion of the business in 1984. (William J. Lee died unexpectedly in 1987 at age 49. He was succeeded by his son, William J. Lee II.)
The expansion of the Superior Furniture Company building shown above occurred in 1984 when an addition to the east (left) was built.
The $400,000 addition constructed in 1984 consisted of 14,700 square feet of space utilized for offices, employee lunch room, warehouse, packing and shipping and receiving. This freed up space in the existing buildings for manufacturing operations. This was the second expansion of the original Superior Furniture Company building… the western-most original building was built in 1908 and the center building in 1925. After the 1984 addition, the total building consisted of 65,000 square feet on two floors.
In 1984, Superior Furniture Company still produced a line of solid cherry occasional furniture, one of the few manufacturers in the country still working with solid wood. They added maple, pine and alder hardwoods to their line. Sales were national, through major retailers.
As of 2005, Superior had 65 employees and offered 9 different styles of furniture with over 200 models. They still made quality furniture the old-fashioned way. In 2007, they partnered with Jasper Cabinet Co of Indiana in an effort to stay competitive.
The description above was written by CEO William Lee.
Superior closed operations here in April of 2009 because they could no longer compete with foreign furniture makers who used the “rip, dip & ship” method of production and so could produce cheap furniture. Superior was about craftsmanship and the use of real wood. Every piece was made the old-fashioned way –hands-on and crafted. A typical table utilized 40 different operations from cutting, boring, and shaping, to dovetailing all drawers, carvings and the multi-step hand-rubbed finish.
After extensive renovations, Big Boiler Brewery opened in 2017. This popular brewery and eatery takes its name from the huge room-size boiler that was used by Superior. A part of the boiler can be seen in the brewery today.
Here is what 318 E. Main Street looked like then:
And here’s what it looks like now:
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