 In late 1885, local Grand Rapids businessmen Gaius Perkins, William T. Hess and Seymour W. Peregrine founded the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company to manufacture school and office furniture.They began manufacture in a small factory in 1886. Business boomed, and in 1887 they began constructing a new factory.This was completed the next year, but an increase in orders soon forced to company to double its factory size.