The Berea Chair is from Auburn.

The beautiful cherry seats which will adorn the dining room at the magnificent Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea are being constructed at Auburn today.

The Artisan Center is to open in July, featuring a wide range of Kentucky products, included crafted items, recordings by Kentucky Musicians, books by Kentucky authors, and specialty foods grown or produced in Kentucky.

Other arts will be on display as well as items dealing with history and heritage.

Admisison will be free, and there with be items for sale. Visitors to the center can get a quick meal in the cafe or a leisurely, elegant meal in the restaurant.

Diners in the restaurant will be able to sit in 160 cherry seats which are being manufactured by Colonial House Furniture of Auburn.

Colonial House Furniture itself has become a tourist attraction.

In the current issue of Southern Living magazine, which will be in newsstands until mid-June, Colonial House is listed among "203 Favorite Shops," signifying its role as one of "the best and most beloved stores, markets and stopping stops" that Southern Living writers have found during their travels across the region, according to Executive Editor Dianne Young.

The magazine wrote about the 54-year-old Auburn family business in an article last year. Now it has listed the home of "fine cherry and walnut reproduction furniture and picture frames" among the South's elite businesses.

"We got number 48 out of thousands!" says Vice President Carolyn Moreland.

She's also excited about the possibilities that arise from being chosen to build the seats for this new showroom of Kentucky artistic items.

"We worked hard to get this bid. It puts us among Kentucky's best, and it helps us to be known by state interior designers, buyers and gift shop owners," she says.

This is Colonial House's second state contract in recent years. The 150 seats in the newly enlarged Blue Lick State Park dining area were manufactured in Auburn.

Standard cherry chairs for Colonial House customers come in Vase Back, Fiddle Back and Roll Back.

The Berea Chair is a variation of the Roll Back. It has five slats in the back instead of the standard one large one at the top and a smaller one in the middle.

The first variation was made into a prototype that was designed by Moreland and by her father, Colonial House founder Ralph Jordan. It was more like the Roll Back with two slats beneath the large one.

The variation which was chosen has five basically equal slats.

The new chair is officially known as The Berea Chair. It will be available for sale at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea and at Colonial House's new showroom on a hill at the intersection of U.S. 68-80 and Quarry Road in east Auburn.

The chairs are being constructed by the Colonial House manufacturing crew on Auburn's Main Street, led by brother/son Larry Jordan, the company's president.

Colonial House employs 17 people.

Moreland says many new customers have found Colonial House since the new showroom opened. "We have maybe four or five times as many people stop to look than before. They don't all buy, but some do," she says.

Colonial House Furniture products are shipped all over the nation.

Berea is known as the craft capital of Kentucky. Many of the faculty and students at Berea College are artists or craftsmen.

"The college and the artisan center have different boards, but some of the members are the same people," Moreland says.

The Kentucky Artisan Center is being built along I-75 at the Berea exit. It's not far from Lexington and Richmond.