Anyone can indulge in summer excesses such as sunburns and bad fashion. Why think small? N.C. has a huge array of self-proclaimed “World’s Largest” thingsall perfect backdrops for Instagram selfies.
Start in Chapel Hill with the World’s Largest Statue of a Ramalthough, truthfully, we’re not sure how much competition it has.
Then head for High Point, where The World’s Largest Chest of Drawers has stood tall since 1926. Built in honor of the town’s title of Home Furnishings Capital of the Worrrrrrrrrld, it was updated in 1996 to 38 feet. We’re told it’s a Goddard-Townsend style dresser, which it definitely is if that’s fancy furniture jargon for “ginormous.”
Of course, this is America, and you can’t have a 38-foot-tall chest of drawers without some joker wanting a bigger one. A furniture company in Jamestown built a highboy dresser that’s 80-plus feet tall. It’s a cheat, though, as it’s not freestanding.
If such humongousness leaves you dizzy, grab a seat in The World’s Largest Chair in Thomasville. We can’t vouch for its comfy-ness, as it’s cement (the original wooden one, created by Duncan Phyfe, rotted). It sits 30 feet high; Lyndon Johnson stood on it during the 1960 presidential campaign. Ponder its majestyand the bewildering number of giant chairs dotting the U.S., all the “world’s largest.”
All this giant rubbernecking might work up a giant appetite. Sadly, the World’s Largest Strawberry is just a building in Ellerbe painted like a strawberry. But you can chew on the World’s Largest Gummy Bear from Popalops in Raleigh’s Crabtree Mall. At 5 pounds, it’ll sate you for longer than the record-setting 38-inch curly fry a woman got from an Asheville Arby’s last year. (Asheville’s Wall Street also boasts the World’s Largest Iron.)
That spud would have been perfect for the World’s Largest Frying Pan in Rose Hill. Built in 1963 to salute the area’s poultry industry, it accommodates up to 365 chickens. But is it really a pan, or a cooking pit with a handle attached?
Sugar-crashing after eating a 5-pound Gummy Bear? Time for contemplation! The World’s Largest Open-Face Granite Quarry near Mount Airy lets you dwell on human meddling in the earth. Then take to the sky and marvel at the World’s Largest QR Code on the roof of a Charlotte building. It’s almost 10,000 square feet, so hopefully you have the world’s largest phone to scan it.
If so much grandness makes you feel small, seek spiritual solace from the 300-feet-wide World’s Largest Ten Commandments in Murphy’s Fields of the Wood religious park. It also claims the World’s Largest Altar, presumably big enough for God to see it from space. You can’t miss it.
