Location: US 70 (Center Street) in Mebane
County: Alamance
Original Date Cast: 2016
In May 1993 the White Furniture Company in Mebane closed, putting 203 employees (from a peak force of over 500) out of work. International trade agreements and the unwillingness to compromise on quality were to blame. The shuttering, documented by a photographer in a prizewinning book, was emblematic of the challenges facing industries nationwide, in North Carolina in particular, and in furniture even more specifically.
White Furniture and the small town of Mebane were synonymous. The town grew up with the plant. Brothers David and William founded the company in 1881, initially focusing on window sashes and doors. By 1886 they were exclusively furniture makers. The company credo was “quality craftsmen and sound management.” In 1906 the federal government contracted with White to send fifty-eight boxcars of furniture to the canal zone in Panama. In 1907 the company furnished much of the new Grove Park Inn. White became known as suppliers of hotel room furnishings. The company was the first in North Carolina to use lacquer, supplied by DuPont.
On December 21, 1923, the entire factory burned to the ground after a sawdust explosion. DuPont helped finance their reconstruction, accomplished in seven months. Every employee was ensured his old job. Workers there were remarkably loyal to management and resisted multiple unionization efforts. J. Sam White, younger brother of the founders, joined the company in 1896 and was its president from 1935 until 1969. During World War II operations shifted to dedicate 80% of production to defense needs.
White’s products (by mid-century primarily bedroom and dining room furniture) were high end, competing with other North Carolina manufacturers such as Thomasville. A dining room set near the end of their production would run about twenty thousand dollars. Sales in 1986 to Hickory Management Company foreshadowed the end of the company. Hickory produced at White cheaper products, clearly recognized as such by workers and by customers. A late effort at employee buyout, engineered by Martin Eakes of Durham, failed.
References:
National Register of Historic Places nomination (1982), historical significance statement by Jim Sumner
Bill Bamberger and Cathy N. Davidson, Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory (1998)