The Heritage Of Winston-Salem

This North Carolina town provides visitors with delightful glimpses into the past.

By Kimberly Button

If you have never heard of the Moravians, it’s safe to say that you’ve never visited Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Winston-Salem is one of the leading urban areas in the state and is a forward-thinking city, but it's still proudly rooted in its Moravian past. The pioneering spirit of its settlers, as well as their commitment to arts and industry, lives on.

The Winston-Salem area was first settled by the Moravians, a German-speaking group of Protestants whose faith originated in the 1400s in the province of Moravia, now a part of the Czech Republic. After finding a safe haven in Germany from religious persecution, the Moravians came to North America to do missionary work and settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

A small group of these Moravians traveled to the Piedmont region of North Carolina in 1753 and settled on 100,000 acres known as the Wachovia Tract. In 1766 a town called Salem began forming within the Wachovia Tract and soon became an active community of artists and tradesmen.

Nearby, the town of Winston was founded in 1849 and became known for its textiles and tobacco farms. Both towns were happy to exist apart from one another until the two cities' post offices were merged by the United States Postal Service in 1899. Salem objected to the merger, because it created a Winston-Salem postmark, but by 1913 the two towns had agreed to officially come together and form one city.

The creation of Winston-Salem brought together distinctly different industries, yet those industries continued to flourish and still are a part of the city’s economy. Winston-Salem boasts a thriving artistic community, yet manufacturing remains integral to the local economy, as companies such as Hanes, R.J. Reynolds, and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts are located in the city. Tobacco once was a major part of the city’s economy as well, but today many of those tobacco fields have been revitalized and now produce wine-making grapes and other profitable crops. Although the city has had its economic ups and downs in the past decade, it continues to persevere and prosper just as its founding fathers did.

Visitors can explore the site of the first Colonial settlement at Winston-Salem in an area known as Historic Bethabara Park. This National Historic Landmark is composed of a 175-acre wildlife preserve, a reconstructed 1754 village, a French-Indian War fort, and Colonial and medical gardens. Inside the visitors center, a video and exhibits further explain the beginnings of Winston-Salem.

The high point of your visit will be seeing the restored 1788 Gemeinhaus. This building served as a church, meeting place, school, and parsonage for the settlement and is the only one of its kind remaining in the United States. Costumed guides lead tours through the living quarters and the community rooms.

The grounds, gardens, and trails of Historic Bethabara Park are open daily year-round, and admission is free. The exhibit buildings and guided tours of the Gemeinhaus are available from April 1 to November 30, Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The cost of a tour is $2 for adults and $1 for children. Admission to the park is free. Visit www.bethabarapark.org or phone (336) 924-8191 for more information.

Winston-Salem’s earliest residents may have settled in the Historic Bethabara Park area, but the city truly got its start with the 1766 founding of Salem. Step back in time into the lives of the early Moravians in the late 18th and early 19th centuries at the Old Salem Historic District, a living history town that is one of the most popular attractions in Winston-Salem.

Old Salem Museums and Gardens is a small working town with nearly 100 buildings on 87 acres. What makes this living history area so unusual is that it shares its location with Salem College (a women's college), a Moravian church and administrative offices, as well as private homes, creating an old-fashioned village that bustles with modern-day activity. Guests wander around city streets populated with 18th-century buildings and garden tracts rich with vegetables and flowers. Inside many of the buildings are costumed interpreters practicing the trades of early Colonial life, such as the shoemaker sewing the soles of a leather shoe, or the gunsmith pounding out a rifle.

The Old Salem district has several museums that document history. The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, known as MESDA, has 24 period rooms and six galleries that showcase the decorative arts that were popular in the South until 1820, including furniture, textiles, and metal objects. Examples of Southern living include a Charleston, South Carolina, parlor and a North Carolina log house.

The Old Salem Toy Museum is a delight for both young and old with its collection of dollhouses, miniatures, wooden toys, and other playthings from the past. And yet another facility, the Old Salem Children’s Museum, was designed to give kids ages 4 to 9 an appreciation for the past with old-fashioned dress-up clothes and toys, as well as frequent puppet shows.

No trip to Old Salem would be complete without a visit to the Winkler Bakery. This quaint 1800 business still creates breads, cookies, and pastries the old-fashioned way, and visitors can watch costumed ladies knead bread dough or load pastries into the wood oven. Be sure to purchase a box of the paper-thin wafer cookies that have become synonymous with Winston-Salem’s delicious culinary history.

A one-day all-in-one ticket, which includes admission to the Old Salem historic district and the three museums, is $21 for adults and $10 for children ages 6 to 16. The restaurants and shops of Old Salem, including Winkler Bakery, do not require an admission ticket. Old Salem is open daily April through December, and Tuesday through Sunday from January through March. Visit www.oldsalem.org or call (888) 653-7253 or (336) 721-7300 for more information.

The Moravians weren’t the only influence in developing Winston-Salem. As noted earlier, tobacco was once a vital part of the city’s economy, and one of the leading names in tobacco was Richard Joshua Reynolds, who founded the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1875. Reynolds and his wife, Katharine Smith, used their wealth gleaned from tobacco sales to build a 64-room estate on more than 1,000 acres of land in Winston-Salem. Now known as the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, the Reynoldses’ estate is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Inside you’ll find an impressive art collection, with permanent pieces that date from 1755 to the present, including works by Georgia O’Keeffe and Andrew Wyeth. Plenty of family artifacts are also displayed, including the clothing worn by the Reynolds family from the early 1900s; furnishings; and even the children’s toys.

The Reynolds estate, completed in 1917, was intended to be self-sufficient. The many acres of land encompassed a demonstration farm, tranquil gardens, and even a village to support the needs of the estate, including a school, a blacksmith shop, and cottages for the workers. The acreage today is smaller because of a 300-acre gift of land donated by the Reynoldses' elder daughter, Mary Reynolds Babcock, and her husband for the relocation of Wake Forest University to Winston-Salem in 1946. Wake Forest also operates the gardens once overseen by Katharine Smith Reynolds, now known as the Reynolda Gardens. They include more than 700 varieties of plants in the formal gardens and greenhouse, as well as acres of trails and woodlands. The village shops now are filled with specialty items and restaurants.

The Reynolda House Museum of American Art is open Tuesday through Sunday. Admission, which includes an audio guided tour, is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors, and free for guests 18 and under. Visit www.reynoldahouse.org or phone (888) 663-1149 or (336) 758-5150 for more information. The Reynolda Gardens are open to the public free of charge during daylight hours year-round.

Wake Forest University is a major presence in Winston-Salem, and its beautiful grounds invite you to take a stroll. While you're there, stop at the Museum of Anthropology, the only museum in the Southeast devoted to the study of world cultures. Inside you’ll find archaeological artifacts from the cultures of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and admission is free. Visit www.wfu.edu/moa or call (336) 758-5282 for more information.

Now that you’ve discovered the fascinating history of Winston-Salem’s past, it’s time to enjoy the attractions and activities that are promising for its present and future. Winston-Salem is well-known for its thriving arts community, and a multitude of galleries and art museums are located within the city. Winston-Salem began the nation’s first arts council in 1949 and has put an emphasis on supporting the arts ever since. In fact, Winston-Salem has more funding for the arts than many major metropolitan cities.

Wine lovers know that the process of making wine is a fine art, and the Winston-Salem area is surrounded by a plentitude of wineries that are part of the Yadkin Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA). The Yadkin Valley AVA, which covers more than 1.4 million acres, is North Carolina’s only such area. Many portions of the land were once tobacco fields. When some farmers couldn’t support their families by growing tobacco anymore, they turned toward wine-making grapes, which reduced the area’s dependence on tobacco money. You can visit many of these wineries and enjoy free tastings of their products. A complete list of wineries is available from the local visitors bureau and online at the Winston-Salem Web site listed below.

If you’re traveling with children, you won’t want to miss a visit to the Children’s Museum of Winston-Salem, a storybook wonderland where popular children’s books come to life. Inside the youngsters will find a climbable two-story beanstalk from Jack and the Beanstalk and the river and bridge from Three Billy Goats Gruff. At the Three Little Pig’s house, kids can learn more about architecture as they don a hard hat and tool belt. Most of the play areas are based on children’s books to inspire children to read, and the museum gives them plenty of opportunities to do so with lots of reading nooks stuffed with books. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., and also on Mondays from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Admission is $6 for everyone age 2 and up. Visit www.childrensmuseumofws.org or phone (336) 723-9111 for more information.

And finally: Did you think you could visit Winston and not hear about the Winston Cup, the one-time title sponsor champion's award for NASCAR's elite racing division? The Winston Cup museum is located in town. Inside you'll find authentic Winston Cup race cars, such as those driven by Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon. A fancy wall mural depicting the 33-year history of the Winston Cup; driver uniforms; souvenirs; and authentic Winston Cup displays also fill the museum. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for kids ages 5 to 12, and free for children under 5. Call (336) 724-4557 or visit www.winstoncupmuseum.com for more details.

Though many cities are content to celebrate their past only in museums and with assorted monuments, Winston-Salem proudly celebrates its heritage through every aspect of the city. If you’re searching for a vacation destination with a uniquely different past, a visit to Winston-Salem should be in your future.

Further Info

Winston-Salem Convention and Visitors Bureau
200 Brookstown Ave.
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
(866) 728-4200
(336) 728-4200
www.visitwinstonsalem.com
The Winston-Salem CVB provides a free visitors guide, available by calling or by ordering on the Web site. If you stop in at the visitors center in person, you can obtain info about the area, explore a gift shop, and enjoy a free Moravian cookie. The visitors center is open seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Area Campgrounds

Dixie Classic Fairgrounds Campground/RV Park
421 W. 27th St.
Winston-Salem, NC 27105
(336) 727-2236
www.dcfair.com/rvpark.htm
Offers 175 sites with full hookups.

Lake Myers RV Resort
2862 U.S. 64 W.
P.O. Box 698
Mocksville, NC 27028
(336) 492-7736
www.lakemyersrv.com
Offers 425 sites and full hookups; 20-, 30-, and 50-amp electric.

Oak Hollow Family Campground
3415 N. Centennial St.
High Point, NC 27262
(336) 883-3492
www.high-point.org
Offers 90 full-hookup sites along a lake.