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HIGH POINT - Over the past century, the furniture market has put this city on the map.

The semiannual event, which marks its 100th  anniversary today, has turned High Point into an international destination, dominated its downtown with acres of showrooms and pumped billions of dollars into the local economy.

In the process, what is now called the High Point Market  has evolved into the largest furniture industry show in the world and become what some consider the state’s most lucrative event ever.

“All I know is that it’s damn big,” said Andrew Brod , director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNCG . “It is hard to think of another event that has had the economic impact over the past 100 years.”

Every April  and October , more than 2,000  makers of living and dining room furniture, upholstered pieces, accessories, lighting, rugs and bedding introduce new merchandise here.

And home furnishings dealers, architects and interior designers come to town to see and buy the products at wholesale. The market is not open to the public.

The scene plays out in 12 million  square feet of showrooms scattered in 188  buildings.

As many as 85,000  people take part, although attendance will probably be down this spring because of the recession.

In the past, according to Brod’s analysis, the market has boosted North Carolina’s  economy by $1.15 billion  a year, producing nearly 12,800  jobs in the process.

All in what former Mayor Roy Culler Jr.  once called “a hick town.”

That’s why Atlanta and Dallas have tried to lure the market away. And why Las Vegas  wants to do so now.

“Over the years, people have thought ... how can a market be any good when it is in such a small town,” Brod said. “That in many ways has been a blessing and a challenge for the town.”

The furniture market came to High Point because the furniture industry began migrating to the area in the early 1900s  and because local manufacturers wanted their own exposition space.

In less than 50  years, the market moved from New York  to Grand Rapids, Mich. , to Chicago  and then to High Point.

“There’s a very logical reason (why) the furniture market is in High Point,” said Richard Hargrove , an associate professor of business at High Point University . “It’s the center of the furniture industry.”

The market had come to the right place.

“It was in several right places,” Roy Briggs , unofficial historian for the American Furniture Hall of Fame , said of the market. “We just eventually became righter than anyone else.”

The market’s history hasn’t been smooth.

It survived a slow start, a Depression  and several recessions; two  world wars; shifts in styles and tastes; name changes; foreign imports; a decline in local manufacturing; traffic congestion; insufficient parking; a shortage of hotel rooms; showroom sprawl; price gouging by restaurants, hotels and rental car agencies; inflated attendance numbers; and, for a time, a lack of appreciation by its host city.

But even as furniture leaders wrestled with these and other issues, the market grew into a spectacle, attracting hundreds of media representatives, celebrity designers and wide-eyed visitors.

Harold Hart  of Hart Furniture Co.  in Siler City  remembers his first trip to the market back in the mid-1960s .

“I was just wowed,” Hart recalled. “I was just overcome by the magnitude and all the furniture.

“It’s still impressive now. Anybody that has any significant impact on the furniture industry is there. The High Point market is a world market.”

And furniture leaders and city officials want to keep it that way. That’s why they’re so concerned with the threat from Las Vegas.

But Brian Casey , president and CEO  of the High Point Market Authority , lists a different worry.

“The economy is the biggest threat,” said Casey, whose organization oversees the market’s operation. “It is an issue that many businesses are facing right now.”

Over the past 15  months, the recession has hit the industry hard. During that time, 17  furniture plants in North Carolina have closed and another nine  have experienced layoffs.

Those closures include nearly 800  jobs lost in March  at Broyhill Furniture Industries  plants in Taylorsville  and Lenoir , 350  at Stanley Furniture Co.  in Lexington last September  and 300  at Furniture Brands International  in Greensboro  last August .

In addition, 66  furniture and home furnishings stores closed across the state.

But others say the economy will eventually recover. And regarding the threat from Las Vegas, most believe High Point will continue to host the furniture market well into a second century.

The reason, market observers say, is the local presence of so many furniture company headquarters, industry associations, trade publications, photo and design studios and material suppliers.

“High Point is the intellectual capital of the furniture industry,” Brod said. “In a sense, the brains of the industry are here.”

Richard Bennington  chairman of High Point University’s home furnishings and design department , goes even further. “As long as the market is important to the sale (of furniture,” Bennington said, “I don’t see anyone who can dethrone (High Point) as the largest.”
 

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com