World's Largest Duncan Phyfe Chair
Thomasville, North Carolina
Originally built of wood in 1922, the World's Largest Duncan Phyfe Chair was rebuilt in concrete and steel and set on a granite pedestal in 1951. Its non-fibrous construction makes it perhaps the sturdiest of America's giant chairs and, oddly, one of the prettiest.
Future President Lyndon Johnson sat in this chair when he campaigned for VP in 1960. He was far from the first to do so; the chair's 10-foot-square seat has been graced with a procession of governors, mayors, and beauty queens over the years.
Average tourists are not permitted to sit in the giant chair, but they can read its bronze dedication plaque and imagine what it must feel like to be up there, while gazing at its 30-foot-high majesty.