Bernice Bienenstock Furniture Library in High Point is considered to be one of the largest and most comprehensive furniture publications libraries in the world. Founded in 1970, the collection and its ancillary services had their origins in the personal collections of Nathan (Sandy) Bienenstock of Pennsylvania. Bienenstock's family-owned Furniture World magazine began publication in New Rochelle, N.Y., in the 1920s. His company subsequently bought the Southern Furniture News in High Point and renamed it Furniture South, a subsidiary publication of Furniture World.
Bienenstock retired in 1970, leaving the publication business to his son and moving to High Point. He brought his invaluable collection of furniture publications, which dated back to the eighteenth century and included the complete original volumes published by Thomas Chippendale, George Hepplewhite, and Thomas Sheraton. In High Point, Bienenstock purchased the Colonial Revival home in 1968. which houses the library, from the estate of Charles S. Grayson, a physician and four-term mayor of the city. It was one of the few remaining homes from the city's early development along its main thoroughfare. It is constructed of gray granite, source from Mount Airy. The home is located at 1009 North Main Street, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bienenstock's wife Bernice died in 1984, and the library was formally named for her by the Furniture Library Association. Today, the library serves as a no-cost location where researchers, furniture designers and enthusiasts, and historians congregate to learn more about home furnishing history. As of February 2026, the library holds about 5,000 volumes. 350 of those volumes are housed in a climate-controlled rare book room, with the oldest dating to 1543. The rare book room is open to the public, with special usage conditions. Other notable pieces of the Bienenstock Library include Chippendale's first, second, and third editions of Gentlemen & Cabinet-Makers Director, published from 1754 to 1762. Along with those editions are Hepplewhite's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide and Sheraton's Cabinet-Makers and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, all dated from the mid- to late 1700s.
The nonprofit library is financed through a variety of ways. The Bienenstocks endowed funds to the space to handle routine maintenance, and publishers donate new publications free of charge. The library also sponsors student programs to support students specializing in home furnishing specialties, which are supported through grants and donations from businesses in the furniture industry. One such program is the annual Interior and Furniture Design competition, which awards $15,000 to participatory students. The Bienenstock Future Designers Summit, another program, selects about forty college students annually to attend and participate in interactive learning opportunities related to the furniture industry.