This world-famous chest of drawers was also known as the World’s Largest Bureau for its first 70 years of existence. In those days, it resembled a huge version of a waist-high stack of drawers, painted white with floral elements, and with an attached vertical mirror that nearly doubled its height, increasing it to 32 feet.
The “Big Bureau,” as it is currently referred as in High Point, was constructed in 1926 as a civic counterpunch to the Giant Chair, which is located nearby in Thomasville. It was not a piece of furniture in the traditional sense (the drawers were never functional), but rather a structure, a visually arresting welcome center for High Point’s furniture business. While the inside of the showroom was, and continues to be, paneled with high-end wood veneers, the outside was designed to look like the type of mass-market furniture that was being manufactured in High Point, NC area at the time. “The mirror” was a metal screen with letters spelling out whatever label High Point intended to promote at the time: “Bureau of Information” in the beginning, “World’s Largest Bureau” in the later years of the company’s existence.
However, 70 years is a long time for a piece of furniture, especially one that has been exposed to the elements such as sunlight and heat. By the 1990s, the Bureau had ceased to be a source of civic pride in the community. Its wooden handles were breaking off, its mirror was rusted, and its style was so out of date that some people didn’t even recognize it as a piece of furniture, let alone the World’s Largest Bureau, when it was first built in 1908.
Sid Lenger, a designer and artisan from High Point, North Carolina, was ashamed. When he took over the building in 1996, he oversaw a comprehensive renovation that transformed it from a simple bureau into a true enormous chest of drawers that stood 38 feet tall. He constructed a majestic Goddard-Townsend block-and-shell chest with weighty brass handles out of steel framing and synthetic stucco in the style of the 18th century. To pay homage to High Point’s hosiery industry, two pairs of gigantic socks (in muted colors and patterns) were draped from a drawer that was only partially open.
The fact that Sid’s design was based on a piece of furniture that had never been manufactured in High Point didn’t deter him from believing that it would be recognized as a chest of drawers — and as a worthy monument. “In his interview with the Greensboro News & Record, Sid stated, “Fifty years from now, we won’t feel the need to redo the face again because it’s a classic.” It has the ability to withstand the test of time.”
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