Grand Rapids Home Furniture / Furniture City Heritage

The 1876 World's Fair in Philadelphia put Grand Rapids furniture on the national map, and the industry never looked back quietly. By 1890, one in three workers in the city made furniture for a living. By the time of the 1911 general strike, forty-seven factories employed roughly 8,500 workers — workers who were paid less than their counterparts elsewhere despite producing work the industry acknowledged was the best available. That gap between craft and compensation is the real story of Furniture City.