CHICAGO TRIBUNE
March 18, 2001

HISTORY IN THE MAKING
By Pamela Sherrod

About 60 years ago, soldiers passed through town and even through this warehouse where the Marshall Petty furniture line is now made.

They courted the local girls, saw movies and awaited orders here before being shipped out for the Big War. The warehouse is filled with their past, anecdotes of soldiers' lives and memories of their anticipation of what the next day would bring.

The floors still creak. But instead of hundreds of men, there are only six who are spread out at various work tables across this 10,000-square-foot space.

And the only anticipation comes from followers of Marshall Petty's work.

Followers such as Wilmette resident Jane Powell, who will finalize her wedding plans according to the date her Marshall Petty dining chairs will arrive. "The tiger maple wood is beautiful. The styling is superb," says Powell, whose wedding ceremony will be in her home. "His work is unforgettable."

The praise is not given lightly. It is based on a truth that is seen in the 18th Century reproductions that are Petty's theme."Being English," Powell says, "I should probably lean more toward those reproductions that come from England for that period. But I believe Petty's work to be the finest there is."

In the dusty space where it is made, the work does shine in the tiger maple wood for which Petty is known. It's what sets him apart from others. But he also works in cherry and mahogany, depending on the historical significance of the piece.

Petty's fine work takes shape inside a one-story structure on an industrial strip of land off an expressway in Greensboro. There is no sign outside. The surroundings are plain. Nearby landmarks are a gas station and a Chinese restaurant.

Without detailed directions, it's hard to know if this is the place you want to be. But it is.

There's the feeling that you've lucked upon a deserted building until someone answers the door. That someone is Petty, the owner and craftsman who prefers the anonymity of his work studio and whose namesake line is made in the studio named Marshall James (James was his father's first name).

We don't plan to put up a sign. We really don't have need for one," says Petty when giving directions to his studio. "We've worked just fine without one. We don't really want people just stopping by."

But the visitors he's expecting are welcomed into the front showroom space and the large work studio in the back. The music heard is from a portable radio at one of the work stations. With Petty as guide, the work studio becomes alive with anecdotes of the soldiers who passed through and the warehouse's post-War reincarnation as a roller-skating rink.

The thick wooden (2-by-4) handrails for the skating rink remain attached to the walls.

"I used to skate here when I was a boy," Petty says. "There would be 300 people in here skating as hard as they could, as if their lives depended on it. I'd be hanging on to the handrails for dear life trying to get my nerve up to get in there and go around the rink.

"I was scared but I'd finally get in there and go at it." Petty's studio is named partially for his father, whose first name was James. His father never worked with him but had encouraged his son.

Petty's work is admired and sought after across the country. His 18th Century reproduction designs are shown exclusively at Sawbridge Studios stores in Chicago and Winnetka. Furniture dealers in the Northeast also have Petty's designs, but homes and apartments across the country show his work in a personal way.

"His work is very individual," says Paul Zurowski, one of the owners of Sawbridge. "There is nothing about his work that reminds you of what's done by mass merchandisers."

Designs in Petty's line include a two-step stool, $385; the George Washington Letter Box, $745; the Thomas Jefferson Laptop Desk, $960; Wallace Nutting Ladderback chairs, $845 for side chair, $1,000 for arm chair; queen-size four-poster bed, $3,120; and the Stedman Bookcase, $13,115.

Appealing to the masses is not in Petty's plans.

"He does historic pieces not suites of furniture," Zurowski says. "We wanted to sell distinctive pieces when we first opened eight years ago. We found him and have had his work in our line since then."

Petty opened his operation in 1976 for people who wanted a stereo cabinet or lingerie chest made just for them. That's how he got in business--and in touch with himself too.

Before taking on this journey in wood and 18th Century history, Petty had been pursuing a graduate degree in psychology. He loved the challenge of psychotherapy, but, in graduate school, he realized it was too passive for his personality.

"You'd sit for hours waiting for things to happen and you couldn't put your hands on it and force it and make it into something wonderful," Petty says. "I was one of those people, who didn't realize, until late in the game, that I had a real artistic drive. I really wanted to create beauty."

So while in graduate school, Petty took a part-time job working at a shop in Atlanta making antique reproductions, such as Georgian tables and highboys. Most of the craftsmen there were Europeans.

"I got so fired up about the furniture-making part of it. I worked with the craftsmen for a couple of more years and moved back to Greensboro and rented a little building as my studio." That was almost 20 years ago.

Petty still has that building. The 2,500-square-foot building, which was once an old Army barracks, is now where he does the refinishing.

This whole area was an Army base during World War II. where replacements who were pulled out of Europe came. Here, furniture in the Marshall Petty line is made by craftsmen, who are much like Petty. They come from different disciplines--architecture, electrical engineering, biochemistry--but share a love for having more control over the outcome.

"They have good brains ... and the desire to make something beautiful that will last for generations," Petty says. "They want something of substance to show for what they did." It's the substance that interests people like Powell, who have purchased and will continue to buy Petty's work.

"I know it's something I will have for a lifetime," she says.