High Point, North Carolina

High Point Chest of Drawers

A six-foot pair of socks hangs from a drawer of the world's largest bureau.

Thanks to its century-long run as a major manufacturing hub, the town of High Point, North Carolina, earned the nickname of “the furniture capital of the world.” It’s a moniker worn with pride, as this gigantic, 40-foot dresser in the middle of town clearly shows.

High Point’s behemoth bureau follows the sensible tradition of home furnishing stores using oversized pieces of furniture as quirky roadside advertisements. The High Point dresser was first built in 1926 and at the time was delightfully known as the “Bureau of Information.”

It was restored in 1996 as a 19th-century Queen Anne-style piece, with four wide drawers and silver handles. Out of the center drawer hangs a mismatched pair of neon-colored socks, each six feet long (supposedly a shout-out to the town’s hosiery industry).

At nearly 40 feet tall, the colossal chest is roughly the size of a large house or small building, which in fact is precisely what it is. The bureau is actually the facade of an office space that’s currently up for sale. For the price of $235,000, you could own what’s been dubbed the World’s Largest Chest of Drawers. For everyone else, it’s worth driving by and stopping for a peek; the jumbo dresser is certainly a high point of the town.