William L. Murphy lived in a one-room apartment that had a standard bed taking up most of the floor space. Because he wanted to entertain, he began experimenting with a folding bed, and applied for his first patent around 1900. The ‘Murphy Wall Bed Company’ of California came into being that year, making it one of the oldest furniture companies in America with nearly a century of continuous manufacturing and marketing.
The first of the folding beds were manufactured in San Francisco. In 1918, William Murphy invented the pivot bed that pivoted on a doorjamb of a dressing closet, and then lowered into a sleeping position; some of which are still in use today. During the 1920’s and the 1930s, the popularity of the Murphy bed was at its peak and in 1925, the company moved its corporate headquarters to New York City and became the Murphy Door Bed Company, Inc. Production was limited during World War II to replacement parts due to the rationing of steel.
