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June 17, 2019 - Gold Medal Camp Furniture Company Listed in National R | Wisconsin Historical Society

News Release

June 17, 2019 - Gold Medal Camp Furniture Company Listed in National Register of Historic Places

For Immediate Release

June 17, 2019 - Gold Medal Camp Furniture Company Listed in National R | Wisconsin Historical Society

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kara O’Keeffe
608-261-9596
[email protected]


June 17, 2019

Gold Medal Camp Furniture Company Listed in National Register of Historic Places

Racine, Wis. - The Wisconsin Historical Society has announced the listing of the Gold Medal Camp Furniture Company in Racine, Racine County, in the National Register of Historic Places. National Register designation provides access to certain benefits, including qualification for grants and for rehabilitation income tax credits, while it does not restrict private property owners in the use of their property.

The Gold Medal Camp Furniture Company is locally significant for its association with industrial history in Racine.  The Gold Medal Company was a local manufacturer that became a nationwide leader in the design and production of a range of portable folding and collapsible furniture. Their products were originally intended to meet the demands of sportsmen and adventurers exploring the wilderness, but their use expanded when the United States Government adopted several products, attracted to their high-quality design and durability, and made them standards for design.

Gold Medal’s Racine building served as the headquarters of the company and the facility where nearly all furniture lines were designed, produced, and shipped. Gold Medal remained an important Racine furniture manufacturing concern for nearly a century until it closed in 1986. The Gold Medal buildings remain as the only production facility in Racine associated with the Gold Medal Company and is the property associated with the company’s rise to prominence and continued success resulting in expansion, thus representing Racine’s role in a specialized segment of Wisconsin’s furniture industry.


The register is the official national list of historic properties in America deemed worthy of preservation and is maintained by the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Wisconsin Historical Society administers the program within Wisconsin. It includes sites, buildings, structures, objects and districts that are significant in national, state or local history, architecture, archaeology, engineering or culture.

To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visitwww.wisconsinhistory.org.

About the Wisconsin Historical Society

The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.

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