This furniture company was founded in 1865 by Alfred H. Andrews, a Connecticut native who moved to Chicago in 1857. By the end of the 1860s, Andrews employed about 70 men, who made about $150,000 worth of furniture each year. By the beginning of the 1880s, A. H. Andrews & Co. had become the largest firm in the city's robust furniture industry, employing about 500 people and manufacturing about $600,000 worth of school and office furniture each year. During the 1880s, the company opened branches in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Andrews & Co. started to produce metal furniture in the early 1890s, but it entered bankruptcy and went into decline soon thereafter.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.