In one of D.C.'s more creative publicity stunts, this oversized chair in Anacostia served as a home for model Lynn Arnold in 1960. (Source: Flickr user stgermh. Used via Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.)

In one of D.C.'s more creative publicity stunts, this oversized chair in Anacostia served as a home for model Lynn Arnold in 1960. (Source: Flickr user stgermh. Used via Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.)

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The Big Chair in Anacostia

Washington DC
 by
Mark Jones

Creative advertising wasn’t just for Madison Avenue in New York! In 1959, Washington's Anacostia’s Curtis Bros. Furniture Company commissioned Bassett Furniture to construct a 19.5 foot tall Duncan Phyfe dining room chair to put on display outside their showroom at V St. and Nichols Ave. SE (now Martin Luther King, Jr Blvd. SE). In one of the more creative publicity stunts D.C. has ever seen, the company then convinced local model Lynn Arnold to live in a glass apartment atop the chair for seven weeks.

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