High Point, NC

High Point's downtown changes scale twice a year when the home-furnishings trade takes over its showroom district. High Point Market is open to the trade and uses over 11.5 million square feet of showroom space; the Fall 2026 session is scheduled for October 17 through 21. Permanent showroom buildings fill 13 downtown blocks, so the industry's physical presence remains after buyers and exhibitors leave. Market planning reaches hotels, airport and downtown shuttles, food service, and design businesses, while the same streets serve residents during the rest of the year. That concentration gives local life a pronounced spring-and-fall rhythm. The city's name and furniture economy both began with transportation. In 1855, the North Carolina Railroad crossed the Fayetteville and Western Plank Road at the rail line's highest point between Goldsboro and Charlotte.

High Point incorporated in 1859 with about 250 residents. Rail access and nearby timber supported its first furniture factory in 1888, and by 1910 the city accounted for over one-third of North Carolina's investment in furniture production. The Southern Furniture Exposition began in 1909 and developed into today's Market. Manufacturing has spread beyond the city since then, yet furniture design, sales, logistics, and showrooms still shape downtown buildings and the business calendar. The 2020 census count of 114,059 shows how far High Point has grown beyond the compact industrial town at the original crossing. Current work also extends beyond furniture into innovative manufacturing, aerospace, supply-chain logistics, life sciences, arts and design, and specialized business services.

Piedmont Centre, the city's largest office and industrial park, covers over 1,100 acres and contains over 170 companies with roughly 11,000 employees. High Point University adds a major educational institution north of downtown; it reported 6,550 total students in fall 2025. Furniture connects many of these sectors through materials, freight, design, finance, and wholesale trade, but the workplaces themselves are distributed among the showroom district, factory and warehouse sites, business parks, and the university campus. The city also operates fixed-route buses, ADA paratransit, and demand-response service Monday through Saturday; its February 2026 short-range plan remained a draft. Between Market sessions, reused industrial buildings and local music history give downtown a different set of gathering places.

Congdon Yards occupies Plant 7 and The Factory, former Adams-Millis Hosiery Mill buildings on English Road. Offices share the complex with a public commons, an art gallery, meeting rooms, cafes, and the Generator workspace, keeping part of the old textile plant active through the week. High Point also preserves the childhood history of saxophonist John Coltrane, who lived in the city from infancy through age 17 and began playing saxophone at William Penn High School. His eight-foot bronze statue stands at Commerce Avenue and Hamilton Street on City Hall property. Set among furniture showrooms and former factories, the statue gives the central city a lasting marker for a cultural history that began in its schools, churches, and Black neighborhoods.