{"nrhp_refnum":"82003422","name":"White Furniture Company","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E. Center and N. 5th Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mebane","county":"Alamance County","state":"NC","lat":36.096080898000025,"lon":-79.26643772699998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-07-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The White Furniture Company complex is a furniture manufacturing plant occupying a corner lot in a transition area between residential and commercial buildings in Mebane, Alamance County, North Carolina. The main factory was built in 1924 after a fire in late 1923 destroyed most of the earlier plant.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the company, founded in 1881, is the oldest continually operating furniture manufacturer in North Carolina and one of the oldest in the South. It is presented as a leader in the growth of North Carolina's furniture industry, which the nomination says now ranks first in the nation in wood household furniture production. The White brothers' long careers in the firm and the company's role as Mebane's largest employer are also cited.","narrative":"Mebane's White Furniture Company complex sits on a corner lot in Alamance County, North Carolina. Its core is an L-shaped factory built in the summer of 1924, which incorporated three early twentieth-century buildings that survived a December 1923 fire. The plant includes a 1905 dry kiln, annexes built between 1926 and 1967, and sheds for lumber storage. Founded in 1881 by William and David White, who had worked as railroad telegraphers, the firm is described as the oldest continually operating furniture manufacturer in North Carolina. It pioneered the use of lacquer in the furniture field in the early 1920s, purchasing it from DuPont. The company shipped sixty carloads of furniture to Panama for canal workers in 1906 and produced 50,000 beds for the Army during the Second World War. Samuel White's career from 1896 to 1971 is regarded as among the longest in the state's furniture industry. The plant was also part of a state noise reduction program started in 1979.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Altered; the plant is in operation and employs about 500 people, per the nomination.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:42.304666-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/92/7188/47718892/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/82003422.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718892","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Furniture_Company","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7994713"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/alamance-county/white-furniture-company-82003422/"}