{"nrhp_refnum":"99001332","name":"High Point Bending and Chair Company, Former","other_names":["Boling Chair Company","Boling Company"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"108 W. 3rd St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Siler City","county":"Chatham County","state":"NC","lat":35.72602986700008,"lon":-79.46664111999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1999-11-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A former chair factory complex at 108 West Third Street in Siler City, Chatham County, North Carolina. It includes a 1908 brick factory building, brick buildings from about 1920 and 1946, and a section of railroad track from about 1884.","why_significant":"The complex is significant under Criterion A in the area of industry as one of the few surviving early-twentieth-century industrial complexes in Chatham County. It housed the first complete bentwood chair manufacturing facility in the South and helped make Siler City the county's industrial center. It is also described as one of the best-preserved industrial complexes in the county from the first half of the twentieth century.","narrative":"Brick factory buildings beside the railroad tracks on West Third Street in Siler City make up a chair-manufacturing complex that grew from a small buggy-parts business. Malvola Jackson Boling founded it in 1901 as the Siler City Bending Company, and a 1904 reorganization created the High Point Bending and Chair Company. After a fire in December 1907, a new three-story brick factory was built, and by 1908 it produced the first complete bentwood chair made in the South. Later brick buildings were added around 1920 and 1946, with further additions in 1960 and 1964. The company moved into fiber furniture, institutional seating and upholstered chairs, and by 1980 it employed about 500 people across two plants. The complex is recognized for its role in industry. It stands as one of the best-preserved industrial groups in Chatham County from the first half of the twentieth century and still operates, at a reduced scale, making contract seating.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1884 - 1949","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Other: industrial","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"As of 1999 the company had reduced operations to about fifty employees but still maintained and operated its three factory buildings in Siler City, making mainly contract seating.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:54.008248-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/73/7195/47719573/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/99001332.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719573","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_High_Point_Bending_and_Chair_Company","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18151730"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/chatham-county/high-point-bending-and-chair-company-former-99001332/"}