As Manistee's construction lumber industry neared its end in the late 1880's, local businessmen turned to the region's abundant hardwoods to build a furniture industry that could continue after the lumbering era. Believing this cheap and renewable resource could support manufacturing, they founded several factories. The first was the Manistee Manufacturing Company in 1888, owned by numerous Manistee residents, which bought a former planing mill on Washington Street and expanded steadily until by 1905 it occupied over an acre and specialized in maple furniture, especially bird's eye maple pieces. It continued production for over eight decades. Also in 1888, local entrepreneurs started a furniture factory at Filestown that quickly employed over a hundred workers, but it burned to the ground after only a year and was never rebuilt. The East Shore Furniture Factory, established in 1890 on the river below the Manistee Manufacturing Company, at times reached high production but was destroyed by fire in 1900. The Arcadia Furniture Company, begun in 1907 by the Starke family at Arcadia, remained in production for nearly five decades. Hardwood furniture is still often handcrafted in the area from the still abundant hardwood timber.