Location: US 311 (South Main Street) in High Point
County: Guilford
Original Date Cast: 2013
Established in 1909 as a modest local effort, reorganized in 1921 as the Southern Furniture Exposition, renamed in 1989 the International Home Furnishings Market, and known since 2001 simply as the High Point Market, the semi-annual furniture market in the Guilford County city of High Point draws as many as 80,000 attendees. The market today is housed in 180 buildings across the city, but its core remains the original 1921 structure with its many additions. Major renovations have taken place about every five years.
High Point emerged as a furniture manufacturing center as early as 1900 owing to the nearby supply of lumber. In 1900 there were thirty-three furniture plants in the city; by 1904 there were 107. World War I delayed plans for an exposition hall. In 1919 members of the local Chamber of Commerce travelled to Jamestown, New York, to visit that city’s exposition building.
High Point’s ten-story building, designed by architect William P. Rose, opened on June 20, 1921, at cost of a million dollars. No outside capital was involved in the construction. That building offered 249,000 square feet of space. Today the market boasts over 10 million square feet. During World War II the market suspended operations and the massive building housed military records.
At the 50th anniversary of the building a plaque was unveiled, reading: “This Building is Dedicated to the Homemakers of America, to the Merchants and Manufacturers of the Home Furnishing Industry, and to the Public Interest in Providing for this Nation Home Goods Products of Beauty and Utility.”
The market operates for six days each April and October and is a major driver of the local economy. Hotel rooms are booked well in advance. The market is billed as the largest home furnishing trade show in the world. Competitors appear from time to time, most recently in Las Vegas, but the High Point Market remains dominant. Economist John Schlictman defines High Point as a “niche city,” one that has created an economic specialization in a specific segment of the global economy.
References:
The Building at Fifty: The Southern Furniture Exposition Building (1971)
Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003)
Greensboro Daily News, October 16, 1960; October 19, 1968; and May 29, 1971
High Point Enterprise, January 16, 1955 and October 18, 1964
John Schlictman, Small Cities: Urban Experience Beyond the Metropolis (2006)
High Point Market website: http://www.highpointmarket.org/