furniture industry

[Anonymous]

I'm a former furniture retailer now an HO modeler.I spent every April and October in the south at factories in Greensboro, High Point, Morganton, Hickory, Lenoir, Statesville areas of NO CAROLINA. All of these places have Chambers of Commerce and you can get info from them. Also try a publication called "Home Furnishings Daily" by Fairchild Publishing Co. (NYC, I believe). You may get help from major mfgrs., particularly Broyhill, Bassett,Thomasville, Drexel/Heritage, etc. which are probably listed on the internet. Most wood furniture plants were long low brick buildings with saw tooth roofs and plenty of industrial sash windows. Furniture is made on production lines just as autos are. Use plenty of cyclone separators for sawdust collection, vents for solvent exhaust from the spray booths, dry kilns for preparing the wood and a big incinerator for burning the scrap and bark. Inventories are big so provide plenty of warehouse (high ceilings - can be corrugated metal bldgs.) PLUS indoor and outdoor railspurs.
You are doing the right era for southern furniture mfg'ing. because now it is rapidly being moved to China for "economical" reasons and containerized back to the USA.The Walthers furniture factory kit is atypical of the south because it is MULTI-STORY, something not found when land is cheap in the Piedmont sections of NC/VA area. There was also a magazine called "Furniture World" published in NYC(?) that may have some great archival photos to give you. Hope I have helped you and I think you are modelling an interesting section.

[Anonymous]

Around here SW New York State, Home of Bush Industries and Crawford Furniture, The Factories can be any type of building. Bush is composed of several buildings.Some are new Steel buildings and others are old multistory brick,same goes for Crawford. Mike Dickinson

[cprted]

I believe Walthers makes a furniture factory in both HO and N scale.

[BruceJob]

Check out the Library of Congress "Prints & Photographs Reading Room" website at:

http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/pphome.html

This site provides a huge selection of photos...I use it frequently for photos of prototype structures. You'll probably find what you need here.

[CNJ831]

Check out the NEB&W's website (search New England, Berkshire & Western or RPI in Troy, NY). John Nehrich has provided typical examples of just about every sort of strucute an urban area might host. If not an exact match to your requirements, I'll bet the site has at least something similar to your needs displayed. It's a treasure house of details!

John

[dknelson]

No picture but when I was a kid there was a small furniture factory in my home town that was in an older one story factory (that originally made railroad parts for baggage and RPO cars s well as for horse drawn carriages). It was a standard cinder block building with portions in brick. The siding had an overhang and a dock. They made tables: so they got pressed wood and formica. I don't think they shipped by rail just got raw materials in box cars.
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

At one time, Grand Rapids Mi was considered the furniture capitol of the world..
Today its mostly office furniture, Steelcase, Herman Miller, Knoll and Haworth are the BIG players..

I could try & get something for you on steelcase.

Chuck Walsh
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

I want to build a furniture industry for my HO layout (mid '50s). I don't have any pictures of one. Anyone know where I can get some?