General Info

About Heywood Wakefield Place In 1824, the Heywood Brothers formed a partnership, which evolved from a back-room family operation to become the oldest and largest furniture factory in the world: The Heywood Wakefield Mills. By 1870, Heywood Wakefield employed 1, 400 workers, had an annual income of one million dollars, and had made an indelible imprint on the world of furniture design and construction, as well as on the economic and physical landscape of Gardner. During its heyday in the 1920's, the mills employed more than 3, 500 people. The company's business began to falter during the 1950's and, by 1978, Heywood Wakefield had closed its doors. Today these buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a reminder of their prominent position in the economics of the region.