High Point Furniture Market 100th Anniversary in Full Swing

Spring Market 2009 marks the 100th Anniversary of the High Point Market and signs of the year-long Centennial Celebration are evident at every turn.

"We thought it only fitting to dress the downtown area for this historic occasion," says Brian D. Casey, president and chief executive officer of the High Point Market Authority, official sponsor of the High Point Market, "since nearly every street, intersection and building in the downtown area has played a part in the history of the Market, which began in Spring 1909 as a small, regional event and grew into the largest trade show of its kind. In the fast-paced world of business today, where change is often the only constant, it is unusual for any entity to not only reach the century mark, but to be as vibrant and relevant to its customers as it was one hundred years ago, and we think that's reason to celebrate."

The Centennial Celebration experience includes a Centennial Walkway, which begins at the corner of West Commerce Avenue and South Elm Street, and continues across Main Street to East Commerce Avenue. Marking the route are Market Milestones banners, depicting notable eras in Market's development over the past 100 years, such as the opening of the Southern furniture Exhibition Building in 1921. At the time, the City's newspaper editor wrote the following: "It is with a considerable degree of pride that High Point extends the glad hand of welcome to the ladies and gentleman who honor us with their presence on the occasion of the formal opening of what we genuinely hope will become the World's furniture mart."

Even the poles of the High Point Market's Transportation Terminal, the building of which marked another milestone in Market's development, have been wrapped for the historic event. The poles feature notable quotes about the Market from a variety of sources during the past century, including the following from industry trade publication furniture South in 1967: "Of all the stories of great achievement in United States history, few can exceed the Southern furniture industry as an exemplification of the American spirit of enterprise."

Nearby, situated on the walkway between Showplace and the International Home Furnishings Center, an interactive mural is beginning to take shape. "The High Point Market has been an integral part of thousands of home furnishings professionals lives for generations," Casey says. "So it was important to us that this be a participative celebration, one in which we could invite Market guests to share their memories of Market over the decades. The concept combines the in-the-moment vitality of a Polaroid snapshot with a simple, dynamic illustration style to present High Point as the place that brings together the products, people, information and ideas that shape our industry. Each day during Market, the artist and photographers will be at work, collecting snapshots and stories and interpreting them on the canvas."

"This biannual tradition is now so well established that the High Point Market itself seems as natural and inevitable as the changing of the seasons, so much so that one could easily assume this has always been the world's home for home furnishings," Casey relates. "Yet, there was a time when no one would have thought that High Point, North Carolina would ever surpass New York, Chicago and Grand Rapids, Michigan as the premier selling venue for the wholesale home furnishings trade in this country, much less become a world-wide leader."

No one, perhaps, except a few entrepreneurs who, having already carved a growing Southern furniture industry out of the Piedmont North Carolina woodlands, banded together to create a Market that would eventually fulfill their original vision as it expanded to "excel all others."

"The story of how that initial vision was realized, reconfirmed and refreshed across a full 100 years of history would require volumes to tell in total," Casey says. "On the site, we offer a few milestones, or high points, if you will, that can be found along the High Point Market's long and sometimes winding path to world leadership."

Indeed, sums the executive, "The most important thing about our history is that it provides a firm foundation for an even better future. At the High Point Market Authority, we see the Market's first 100 years as only the beginning, a period of spectacular growth that has created the infrastructure for an expanding global industry."

He continues, "As we move ahead into the next 100 years, we think that we have a responsibility because of our size and our heritage to act as more than a bi-annual trade show that occurs twice each year. Rather, we believe the High Point Market can, and should be, a force to move the industry forward. We intend to use the great foundation that has been built over the past century as a platform to help home furnishings professionals across this country and around the world improve performance and effect positive change for generations to come."