Week 7, Day 1 of 2: Furniture Capital of the World

February 13, 2010

I headed west today, as usual, in search of “Weird N.C.” The first stop on the list was a giant milk carton. According to the Internet, the milk carton is in Burlington right off of exit 145. I hopped off at the exit for Burlington and went into downtown. I did a little site-seeing, but didn’t see a milk carton. I turned around and drove back under I-40. I saw a cool old brick building and a church with a belfry. Unfortunately, the giant milk carton eluded my detection…I will eventually find it.

Next on the list was High Point, NC – furniture capital of the world. Located in High Point is the World’s Largest Bureau. Yes that’s right and it has sox hanging out of it. As I drove down the road, I took the exit for furniture world. I spotted a large dresser right away, but it wasn’t the one I had seen online. Apparently, there is competition in the furniture capital of the world. I snapped a few pictures and was off to find the next World’s Largest Bureau. I drove to downtown High Point in search of this bureau. I drove around downtown for about 30 minutes trying to find this bureau. High Point is a very interesting town. The buildings are unique and the town is not on the grid system. It is definitely worth a visit. There must be 100 or more furniture stores in that town.

After driving around for a while, I found the object of my adventure – a giant bureau with sox hanging out of the drawer. It was sitting on a side street mashed between an apartment building and an insurance company. This bureau is a few stories high. At almost 5 feet tall, I barely cleared the claw foot. What a bizarre thing to build. I went around the back and it’s connected to a building. The bureau is hollow.

I saw what I was looking for so I thought I would head home. As which point I saw a giant bicycle on top of a building. I guess the whole town is trying to stand out. While trying to find my way back to the high-way, I found a hidden delight. High Point has a museum dedicated to furniture (imagine that). I couldn’t pass this up. I went inside to learn all about High Point and the furniture boom. It was a great little museum and it was free! Along with the museum, there were a few out buildings. As I learned, this was once the home of John Haley the black smith. Haven’t heard of him? Me neither.

The first house had two ladies cooking on the open fire. They were having beans and sausages for lunch. Next I strolled down to the blacksmith shop. The blacksmith was phenomenal! He was very talented and was currently working on a trivet that was rotatable. Quite the invention for 1793. There was a wide array of items that he had previously made – horseshoes, shovels, silverware, fancy candle stick holders. The final building was the home of Mr. Haley. It had furniture from the late 1700’s, although it was not original to the house.

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