Ole Timey Historic Scrapbook
West Salem Historical Society
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Historic West Salem

It's Official!

As of January 19, 2005, West Salem takes its rightful place on the National Register of Historic Places.

It all started when the West Salem Civic Club, under the leadership of Bob Litaker, applied for a grant to pay for an historic researcher/writer to review West Salem and determine whether it met the standard to become an Historic Neighborhood. See some of our historic homes!

Sherry Wyatt, Historic Preservation Specialist, wrote a Study List, and it became obvious that West Salem was indeed an Historic Neighborhood. Michael Bricker, our resident historian, had no doubt. He had already formed the West Salem Historic Society, and has done tons of research on West Salem's history. (For more information on the West Salem Historical Society, and an application to join, click here.)

Volunteers throughout the neighborhood then stepped forward to take pictures of each and every home in West Salem. After picture taking came the research at the downtown Library in the North Carolina Room. City Directory information had to be looked up and recorded for each and every home in West Salem. A team of hard working volunteers stepped forward to do this tedious work. And further needed was oral histories from older residents to glean all possible information about our neighborhood and its history. Bob Litaker, Suzanne Warren, Michael Bricker, and others spent hours talking with our older residents.

Sherry took all this information, put it into the proper format, and presented it to the National Register. And the rest is history, so to speak!