Furniture Row
By the mid-nineteenth century, the first several blocks of Royal Street were known as Furniture Row, for the quantity and quality of furniture stores that could be found there. Shoppers looking to furnish their homes in the latest styles could walk down the street and find dining sets, parlor suites, and bedroom furniture, as well as the carpets, curtains, wallpaper, and mirrors to complete a room. Although many of the stores had workshops for upholstery and repair work, the majority of the furniture on the street was imported from manufacturing centers across the Atlantic, along the Eastern Seaboard, and up the Mississippi River. Sometimes merchants received shipments on the same vessels as their competitors down the block.