It may not rate as a big-time New England crossroads, but the 20,000 or so people who call Gardner home have something the rest of us don’t: the region’s tallest and widest chair. You say: It’s way too big to sit on and (probably) uncomfortable. They say: Don’t knock it until you’ve seen it.

Gardner’s first giant chair was hammered together about a century ago. The town replaced it twice with even bigger versions and when today’s 20Æ-foot-tall construction was finished in the 1970s it was, for a time, the world’s biggest. An Anniston, Ala., chair later took over the throne, but it has since been eclipsed by a whopping 65-foot chair in Manzano, Italy. Gardner’s is still impressive with its ladder-back slats and reinforced seat. Not to mention that, at 10 feet wide and nine feet deep, it’s more accommodating than even the plushest La-Z-Boy.130 Elm St., in front of the Helen Mae Sauter Elementary School.