Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

For a number of years we have traveled to North Carolina for a week or two in the winter. The prime reason is to visit my brother who lives in Winston Salem. And usually in February it is much warmer there than it is here in Pope County.

Winston-Salem is a town that tobacco built.

Winston-Salem is the combination of Winston and Salem, once two adjacent communities. The city names were carried on the names of brands of cigarettes produced by R. J. Reynolds, the city’s major tobacco manufacturer.

But Reynolds’ impact on WS is much greater than cigarettes, the money generated by those products has created a lively, progressive community.

The Reynolds family started shaping WS back around the turn of the century. Later, in the early 1950s a Reynold’s heir decided that WS could use a good university. So she convinced Wake Forest University, then located in Wake Forest, North Carolina, to move to WS. The Reynolds heir donated land and money to make that happen.

The university has grown over the years and currently has around 9,000 students who study on a beautiful wooded campus on the north edge of town. But Wake Forest has a much larger imprint. It has a huge medical school downtown and is part of Wake Forest Baptist Hospital, a huge medical complex on the south edge of town. You can see Wake Forest offices for one thing or another all over.

The Reynolds tobacco warehouses and production facilities were in downtown WS and the town grew up around them. Many years ago tobacco production facilities were moved out of downtown and the buildings were donated to the city, county and other governmental units.

The county moved into one of the buildings. An adjacent building was turned into a parking ramp. The parking ramp was put into a building that had previously held heavy machines related to making cigarettes. To convert the building to a ramp all they had to do after the machinery was out was build ramps from level to level! This thing is six stories tall.

Other donated buildings became the Wake Forest Medical School, a large tech innovation business incubation center for startup businesses, apartments and condos and more. It is pretty interesting.

The Reynolds family also donated park land and the city has built a large network of bike trails and walking paths. The Hanes family, as in Hanes underwear, t-shirts and socks has also made major donations to the community. Both families contributed what is now park land to the city which provided land for a variety of uses.

In addition to Wake Forest University, the city includes Winston-Salem State College, Salem College, North Carolina School of Arts, Carolina College and Forsyth Tech Community College.

And there is the old Salem village with its old homes and businesses people can tour.

All in all it is a pretty interesting community.

          -0-

My brother has lived in WS for over 30 years. He and his wife, Joan, had a house they fixed up north of downtown in a historic residential district. They sold that a few years ago and bought one of the most unique properties I’ve seen, a compound in the middle of a block four blocks from the middle of downtown.

The compound, surrounded by tall opaque fences, contains two two-story homes, a two-bedroom dwelling and a one-bedroom dwelling. They were probably servant quarters for the houses on the outside of the block at one time but had been upgraded considerably by a previous owner. Inside the area is green because of pine and magnolia trees.

My brother, who retired from full time work this month, is living in the two-bedroom home and rents the other on Airbnb. He was able to walk less than five blocks to work downtown and will continue to work some special projects for the firm.

It is hard to believe, when staying in the place, that one is just four blocks from the main street downtown.