Hickory: The Furniture Capital

A tavern built under a large hickory tree at a crossroads gave this Catawba Valley city its name. When the Western North Carolina Railroad arrived in eighteen fifty-nine, the settlement incorporated as Hickory Tavern, then trimmed its name to just Hickory in eighteen seventy-three. The first industry was modest: a small wagon manufacturing plant opened in eighteen eighty.

But the Appalachian foothills surrounding the city were thick with hardwood timber, and entrepreneurs began shipping raw lumber, then finished furniture, to markets along the railroad. By the early twentieth century Hickory had become one of the primary furniture production hubs in the United States. At the industry's peak, the region within a day's drive of Hickory was said to produce more furniture than any comparably sized area in the world.

Today that legacy lives on in the Hickory Furniture Mart, and the city remains a destination for buyers hunting American-made case goods. That tavern dates to the seventeen nineties, and a Daughters of the American Revolution monument marks the site. Henry Link bought the first lot in the area in eighteen fifty-eight for forty-five dollars.

Hickory White, which has stood since nineteen oh two, is one of the oldest furniture makers in the country still operating on its original site, and during the Second World War it built ammunition boxes instead of furniture. The Hickory Motor Speedway, a half-mile track, opened in nineteen fifty-one.