Cooper Hewitt says...
Stow & Davis (sometimes stylized as Stow-Davis) is a Grand Rapids and Kentwood, MI-based furniture company. It was founded in 1885 when George A. Davis purchased Thomas Haight’s interest in Stow & Haight, changing the furniture concern’s name to Stow & Davis. The firm primarily produced kitchen, dining, and office extension tables. In 1928, the firm acquired Grand Rapids Desk Company, and the same year produced the first wood-and-steel framework desk in the wood furniture industry. In the ‘30s the company underwent a series of reorganizations that pivoted the its activities towards interior decorating services as well as furniture manufacturing, although it still produced primarily reproduction styles. The shift towards modern furniture began in the 1930s and continued well into the ‘50s and ‘60s—among these lines’ designers was Donald Deskey, interior and industrial designer whose best-known work is Radio City Music Hall. In the later half of the twentieth century, Stow-Davis produced modern domestic furniture, storage systems, and office planning solutions.
References: Christian G. Carron, Grand Rapids: The Story of America’s Furniture City (Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids Public Museum, 1998); and “Stow & Davis Furniture Co.” Furniture City History. Accessed April 19, 2019, http://www.furniturecityhistory.org/company/3852/stow-and-davis-furniture-co.
