Fire destroys United furniture plant, first known as Elk, built in 1902

{Firefighters used two aerial ladders and hoses to attack the fire at the former United manufacturing plant Monday morning. The vacant structure was in rough condition and smoke made initial assessment challenging. Elisabeth Strillacci, Davidson Local}

A fire broke out sometime before 7 a.m. Tuesday at the former United Furniture building on Elk Street in Lexington and continued burning late into the day.

The former manufacturing plant had been scheduled for demolition and was currently vacant, according to officials.

Not much was left of the former United Furniture plant after a fire Monday morning. Elisabeth Strillacci, Davidson Local

Firefighters worked to contain the fire to keep it from spreading. Officials on the scene said no one was injured in the fire.

Fire officials said the structure was in such bad shape that firefighters could not safely enter the building to fight the fire, and in fact, they used a type of boat fan to blow the smoke out to be able to assess the best attack.

Using two aerial streams of water, firefighters were able to knock down the exterior fire and then attack the interior, which continued to burn for hours.

The plant was located on Elk Street at the end of E. 3rd Avenue, on the opposite side of the railroad from the old Dixie/Lexington Furniture plant buildings. The plant has a long history in Lexington, starting as the Elk Furniture Plant in 1902, according to furniture designer and historian Steve Hodges, who is writing a book including the history of furniture plants in Lexington.

A photo of the original Elk plant. Photo courtesy of Davidson County Historical Museum

The Elk facility suffered a previous fire in 1926 or 1928 that meant rebuilding and expanding, resulting in the two current buildings, originally with an open tramway connecting them.

The original United Furniture was on East Center Street, across from the former Cecil School and burned to the ground in 1936.

Meanwhile, Elk eventually joined forces with Dixie, becoming Elk-Dixie. In 1936, Henry Link and a group of investors purchased and split off the Dixie portion of Elk-Dixie and the Philpott family bought the Elk portion, changing the name to United. At one point during the depression, according to Hodges, Dixie was actually shut down, but United was still operating successfully, with more than 200 employees.

Elk Street was named for the original Elk factory constructed on the current site, receiving that designation sometime between 1907 and 1913.

An aerial image from the 1950s shows the United/Elk plant in the bottom of the photo, below the railroad tracks, with expansion underway. At the top of the photo, above the tracks, is part of Dixie Furniture. Photo courtesy of Davidson County Historical Museum.

Eventually Dixie began to grow, opening more divisions, and in 1968, Burlington bought United. Harry Anderson, Lexington’s former mayor, was in charge of merchandising for the new branch and was very successful, but following his unexpected death in 1978, the company floundered. In 1983, Webb Turner purchased Burlington, and about a year later the company went bankrupt, causing one of the biggest job losses in area history, said Hodges, with 1,000 jobs lost in a single day. Parts of what had been United were sold off piecemeal, and the remaining structure, which was the original, was purchased by a company in Asheboro, but reportedly they were never able to lease it out, and the structure remained vacant.

“In 2009 some company was trying to develop it as condos, but it never came to fruition,” added Hodges,

A crowd of residents were on hand watching Monday’s fire and a parade of cars came through to see what was causing the smoke, which could be seen in both directions on I-85 during the day. Several residents commented on losing another piece of Lexington’s manufacturing history.