Century Furniture was established by Harley Ferguson Shuford Sr In 1947. Century Furniture opened its doors with Harley Shuford. Sr. as president. A year later the casegoods plant was built in Hickory, NC. The first 18th century style mahogany dining room suite was built the following January. In 1957, Century Furniture Co. Upholstery Division opened. This division specializes in custom upholstery with approximately 2500 fabrics and nearly 300 frame styles, making the furniture produced by this division highly individual and often unique. White House visitors may come from France, Finland or the Fuji Islands, but in the East Room of the White House they all sit in gilded chairs made by Century Furniture Company in 1969. The chairs were modeled after an original 18th century French opera chair.
Century began its own trucking business on that day. The first load of furniture was headed toward Chicago, Illinois. In 1971 Shuford Furniture was established for volume production of high style, lower priced upholstery. Alex Shuford, Jr. son of Century Furniture founder, joined the organization to manage operations as its President. In 1980 the Century LTD plant opened in Longview for manufacturing a mid-priced upholstery line, Century’s LTD Collection. The first Century Showplace opened in New Jersey and Century Upholstery produces replicas of George and Martha Washington chairs for the Smithsonian.