Market Interest

IHFC History

What a rich and colorful history underpins IHFC, beginning in 1921 when a consortium of High Point business leaders opened the 10-story, 261,000 square foot exhibit complex where IHFC stands today. With a staggering construction price tag of $1 million, the businessmen were proved visionary when the Southern Furniture Exposition Building was fully leased within 18-months. A steady pattern of growth followed almost immediately. By 1950, keeping pace with a more prosperous and discriminating post-war America, the complex had grown to two buildings and more than 500,000 square feet of exhibition space.

The goods displayed within had also changed markedly, with more emphasis on fashion, design and variety. Every few years, it seemed, construction expanded the complex, with the Commerce Wing, at 795,000 square feet, being the largest single expansion in the 1970s. The list of exhibitors, of course, grew and came to embrace all categories of home furnishings — accessories, art and rugs — while the reputation of the trade show itself spread to all corners of the globe. In 1988, the complex became the International Home Furnishings Center, reflecting the building’s stature in the industry. The following year, the High Point Market changed its name to the International Home Furnishings Market.

What began more than eighty years ago as a big idea by small town businessmen has grown into the world’s preeminent home furnishings trade complex. Each April and October more than 80,000 buyers, manufacturers, designers and sales representatives from around the world come to see, meet, learn and place orders for home furnishings that total in the billions of dollars.