It all started with an innocent golf game with my brother-in-law Dick Benson and his best friend Dave Horton. Dave had just bought a large home on Capitol Hill in Seattle. He and his wife wanted all new cabinets built for the kitchen. Since I was a carpenter and had built some cabinets, Dave asked me if I would like to build them. I would then be free to look for something else, as I wanted to quit carpentering.

A few days later Dave bought an upholstered breakfast nook from a man, Elmer Benner, who had a factory in Portland, OR where he built upholstered breakfast nooks and restaurant furniture. He called his company Associated Crafts.

Elmer told Dave that the man who sold him the breakfast nook was his brother-in-law and was an alcoholic and that hardly any of the money from the jobs was getting back to Portland. He was looking for someone to take over the business.

Dave told me of this and set up and appointment for Elmer to come out to our house to talk about the business. It sounded interesting so my first wife and I went with him to look at the office and show room.

The office was very small, probably about twelve by about twenty five feet. There were two upholstered nooks and a little space for a desk.

The office was just across Fifteenth Avenue NE from Roosevelt High School.

We managed to survive in that tiny space for a couple of years. During the time we were there I managed to sell the furniture for a very fancy cocktail lounge in the Olympic Hotel. The lounge was called the Terrace Room. The hotel is now the Four Seasons, still one of the top Seattle hotels.

The space limitation didn’t allow room to receive the breakfast nooks shipped to me. A nook shipped to me made it necessary to walk sideways to get past it. A move was essential.

Our next office was just west of Tenth Avenue on Forty Fifth Street, across the street from University Chevrolet. Here we had a front and back door so we could receive shipments at the back door and had plenty of room for receiving shipments. It was while we were in that office that we changed the name to Hein Restaurant Furniture.

It was while we were in this office that we sold the furniture for the Lakewood Terrace Restaurant in South Tacoma. The restaurant was owned by Norton Clapp who was the president of Weyerhaeuser. This job was where we also established an association with Roland Terry and Bog Egan, who, I am sure were the greatest restaurant architects of all time.

It was while we were in this location that Elmer Benner got into difficulties with the sheriff in Portland. He moved to California to build furniture for two Portland men who had bought the restaurant that had at one time belonged to Richard Nixon’s brother. This was in Anaheim.

Elmer’s foreman Elden Stewart had to come to Seattle to take care of a service call on something that had been done prior to my joining the company.

He told my wife and me that he and Howard Harrel, Elmer’s nephew, the son of the alcoholic brother-in-law, were not happy in California and would be glad to return to the northwest.

Elden told me that for $5000.00 he could set up a factory. I borrowed $5000.00 from my dad and we went about setting up a factory in the basement of Bladine Oil Company near First Avenue and Denny way in Seattle.

It was a space that was actually a 60" by 100" foot garage. I had to have heat and lighting installed. We bought a Plaff sewing machine, a band saw and a large table saw.

While we were waiting for the heat to be installed we used a diesel burning construction heater and electric heaters for the office. It was very primitive but we survived. Needless to say I had to borrow another $5000.00 from my dad.

While we were in this location we built the furniture for the Windjammer Restaurant in Seattle which was judged one of the two restaurants of the year by Institutions Magazine, the bible of the industry.

We also did the furniture for the Kahala Hilton, which for many years was considered the best hotel in the world. We also did the Galley West Restaurant at Marineland in Los Angeles. All of these by Terry and Egan, architects.

Not long after this our landlord, Ray Bladine sold the building to a lady, I don’t remember her name. Anyway, she wrote me a letter saying that now that I’d paid for the heat and lights to be installed, I could afford to pay a lot more rent.

I didn’t like her attitude, so I rented a space in historic Ballard. The space had at one time been a large hardware store.

Again we were faced with installing heat and electricity. By this time my dad had passed away. Somehow or other I managed to get the essentials paid for.

We weren’t in this location very long. I only remember doing the furniture for the Ocean Shoes Inn and the dining room and lounge of Sun Mountain Lodge at Winthrop, WA.

The Ocean Shores job was for Terry and Egan and was the only loser we ever did for them. Fortunately our wonderful banker, Hank Runkle told me to get an attorney and a signed contract. That contract finally got all the principle. I only lost the interest, but that job broke a number of other contractors.

At this point we ventured to buy our own building. Again, we had to install gas furnaces, and lighting. This time we also had to put in plumbing. There were 9000 sq. feet. 6000 on the lower floor and 3000 on the mezzanine. We put in men’s and women’s bathrooms on both the lower floor and the upper.

While we were here we did Canlis’ restaurant twice. We also did the furniture for my very favorite Chinese Restaurants, Louie’s Cuisine of China. We also did the Shee Attica Inn in Sitka, Alaska. This was owned by the Tlinguit Indian tribe. This was the last job we did for Terry and Egan, architects.

Some time after that my wife decided it was time to retire. We eventually sold off the business, but that’s another story.