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Study ListWEST SALEM HISTORIC DISTRICT ~ STUDY LIST A. Description I.
Architectural Features The early architecture of the area is primarily vernacular in expression with a few examples of mid-nineteenth century architecture. One of these, Poplar Street’s Ackerman-Reich House (c.1875), is a two-story frame house with brick noggin, boxed cornice, and six-over-six windows. (1) More substantial in number, however, are examples of late-nineteenth century houses featuring Queen Anne influences. An excellent example is the Pfohl House on Poplar Street. Built in the 1870s this house was among the early development of West Salem as a residential expansion of the village of Salem. The house is two stories with sawn brackets and turned posts on the porch, a polygonal bay over the porch, and paired, arched, upper-story windows. (2) Although two-story examples like this one exist, the one-story frame house is the most common house type in the district. Hall and parlor form houses, such as those found in the 900 Block of Broad Street, abound both with and without Queen Anne-style ornament. The one-and-a-half story, side gable dwellings on Salem Avenue are slightly larger than the hall and parlors and have vernacular expression. Particularly common in West Salem are the one or one-and-a-half story bungalows. While the majority of these bungalows are simple in their Craftsman stylistic turnings, featuring knee braces and battered posts on brick piers, the collection of bungalows on Granville Drive/Walnut Street displays greater stylistic interest. Pebbledash and ornate, Craftsman-style muntins in windows, doors, and sidelights are among a few of these decorative features. The commercial buildings in West Salem tend to be clustered on Green Street at Wachovia Street and on Broad and Marshall streets at Walnut and West streets. Notable buildings include the 1940s row of one-story, flat-roof, brick buildings on Walnut Street at Broad. Across Broad Street from these is a historic service station with Spanish tile roof. A second historic service station, this one with Colonial Revival influences, is located on West Street at Marshall Street. A cluster of commercial buildings on Green Street at Wachovia exists although some of the buildings have poor integrity. Perhaps the finest commercial building in West Salem, the M.J. Gantt Building, is located in this cluster, however. It is a brick, two-story building with stepped parapet and cast stone coping. There are cast stone keystones over the paired, six-over-six windows. The building has three, small storefronts. Overall, the collection of commercial buildings in West Salem is notable. Though not as large as the commercial centers in West End, West Salem maintains more commercial buildings than Holly Avenue, Washington Park, or Ardmore. The only industrial building included within the proposed boundary is the 1930s-era Coca-Cola Bottling plant. Typical of this company’s early twentieth century plants, this building features highly decorative architecture. This beautiful brick building with tile roof displays heavy Mediterranean Revival influences and is among the most ornamented industrial buildings in Winston-Salem. The West Salem neighborhood is rich in historic institutional buildings. The impressive Christ Moravian Church, done in the Gothic Revival style, is the earliest, dating from 1895, and is prominently situated at the crest of the neighborhood’s topography. Nearby is the Green Street Methodist Church, which features the classical portico and domed roof that were popular at the time of its constructions in 1921. The third large neighborhood church, Salem Baptist, no longer retains its original sanctuary, but the 1917 Education Building still stands. Done in the Romanesque Revival style, this building is joined by 1940s era (and later) buildings related to the church’s Piedmont Bible College. The architecture in West Salem maintains a very good level of integrity with typical alterations including replacement siding and windows. While there are a few late-twentieth century apartment complexes interrupting the neighborhood’s streetscapes, these are isolated and the dense historic character of West Salem is unmistakable. West Salem is particularly noteworthy because it maintains so many of its original multi-use features. The institutional, commercial, and industrial sectors of West Salem are still abundantly evident and add to our understanding of life in the neighborhood. B. History The neighborhood of West Salem is a unique combination of suburban development and natural, westward progression from the town of Salem. West Salem, unlike most of Winston-Salem’s neighborhoods, has a very long history that is closely related to the history of the area now known as Old Salem. Similar to nearby neighborhoods like Ardmore, however, West Salem also played a role in the early twentieth century development of the newly created city of Winston-Salem. This dual role, a combination of the growth of the town of Salem and later the combined Twin City, gives West Salem a character that is distinct and a history that is rich in layers. The town of Salem was established in 1766. As part of the initial planning, outlots were designated to the west of the village. (3) The outlots along the two streams near town, Town Run and Tanners Run, were developed as industrial sites during the early history of Salem. The red tannery, brewery, and slaughterhouse were all constructed to the west of what is now Old Salem Road, near the current intersection of Academy Street and Factory Row, by 1790. The cotton mill, a major industrial endeavor for the Moravians, was constructed in 1837, near the current intersection of Marshall Street and Brookstown Avenue. Further west, at the western edge of the Salem Town Lot (defined by current Peters Creek Parkway), Gottlieb Shober established a paper mill in 1791. (4) The road that traveled to this mill eventually became Academy Street. The early industrial development on the outlots were accompanied by a handful of farmsteads. These farms were established to provide supplies, milk in particular, to the village. The sole survivor of these is the George Stockburger farmhouse (1782 with later alterations) located on Walnut Street. (5) In addition to the scattered farmhouse, the first expansion of the original town grid occurred with Factory Row during the second quarter of the eighteenth century and with it the first wave of new residential development outside of the village core. During the 1840s, Poplar Street, located two blocks west of Factory Row, began to be developed. (6) It was with Poplar Street that the development of the West Salem neighborhood began. Yet, by the second quarter of the nineteenth century, much of West Salem was still farmland. The coming of the railroad and the establishment of Arista Cotton Mill on Brookstown Avenue at Marshall Street increased development, however. In 1885, the Moravian Memorabilia recorded that “the new western part of the town, with its beautiful sites, is now being rapidly laid out in streets, and being built up by those who expect to make their permanent homes there.” (7) It was at this time that a new neighborhood had begun to take shape around the Graded School (built 1890), in the vicinity of Mulberry and West streets; this area would become the core of the older section of West Salem. Although the Moravian Church had ceased to hold the theocratic leadership in 1856, the church continued to sell its lands surrounding the village throughout the nineteenth century. The sale of these properties offered the church continued to control over development in the area. For example, the church required the erection of a “suitable home” on each lot it sold to prevent speculation. (8) The result of this growth in West Salem can be see in a late nineteenth century photograph where a cluster of homes are apparent in the vicinity of Academy and Poplar streets. (9) During the first decade of the twentieth century, West Salem continued to gain residential development. In 1905, the population there complained about the poor quality of the streets and the lack of sidewalks; brick sidewalks were installed in some blocks in 1908. (10) The birth of West Salem as a substantial, suburban residential neighborhood dates to the 1910s and 1920s as existing streets of the Moravian Church were sold off. Other lands were subdivided and speculative bungalows were constructed in many areas including Walnut Street. (11) By 1917, many of the existing streets were platted although very little construction had occurred west of Greet Street. (12) One of the most significant features of this early planning was the platting of Granville Place (named in honor of the Earl of Granville, who sold the Wachovia tract to the Moravians) in 1906. This suburban-type development, built on lands owned by Christ Moravian Church, included the construction of Granville School (destroyed) in 1914, at Granville Drive and Academy Street and Granville Park at Granville Drive and West Street. This section includes some of the most architecturally sophisticated dwellings in the neighborhood with several large, Craftsman-style bungalows. (13) During the early twentieth century, West Salem became home to a wide range of people including executives, business owners, foremen, supervisors, clerks, laborers, and services workers. In 1915, the 600 Block of Poplar Street housed a laborer at Salem Iron Works, a tobacco worker, a carpenter, a salesman at Arista Mills, a watchman at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, a carpenter, a farmer, and a machinist at Shamrock Mills. Similarly, in 1930, a teller, a grocer, a yard conductor, a battery man, a foreman, a clerk, and the pastor of Ardmore Moravian Church, resided in the 700 Block of Granville Drive. (14) While the bulk of West Salem was a white neighborhood, there were pockets of African American development. One of these, bounded by Walnut, Broad, Salem Avenue, and Poplar streets, housed laborers in dwellings that were constructed around the turn of the twentieth century. A second area exists at the northern end of West Salem in the vicinity of Watkins Street and Granville Drive (now separated from the neighborhood by Business-40). The M. D. Gantt Building on Green Street is a large, African American commercial building near this section. (15) Denoting its character as a mixture of urban expansion and suburban neighborhood, West Salem was home to many commercial activities that were interspersed throughout the area. Grocery stores, barbers, contractors, gas stations, and plumbers were common throughout the neighborhood, but two substantial commercial sectors did form by the 1930s at Broad and Walnut streets and at Green and Wachovia streets. (16) Following the increase in residential development in West Salem during the late nineteenth century, churches began to appear in the neighborhood. As might be expected, Christ Moravian Church is one of the earliest in the neighborhood. The church grew out of a Sunday school class (a mission activity of the Home Moravian Church) in 1892, and built the eastern section of its large church in 1895. Then, in 1917, Salem Baptist Church moved from its location at Arista Mills to the 400 Block of Broad Street growing into a substantial church that established Piedmont Bible College in the 1940s. Salem Methodist Episcopal Church (now Green Street Methodists Church) began in a tent revival on Poplar Street in 1902, and constructed a fine, domed church at Green and West streets in 1921. (17) In addition to commercial and institutional buildings, the construction of the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway spur through Salem in the 1910s attracted industrial development. By 1930, the Bahnson Company (air conditioners), Coca-Cola Bottling Company, and the Holseum Bakery made their home in the vicinity of South Marshall Street at the eastern edge of West Salem. The last phase of historic development in West Salem occurred during the post-World War II period as infill houses were constructed on vacant lots, and streets like Shober and Hutton were developed. The post-war period also saw the establishment of the West Salem Civic Club by returning veterans, making the club one of the oldest in the city. The
spirit of community that the West Salem Civic Club helped to foster
has served the community well in the interceding years. The focus
of attention on the Old Salem district has often left West Salem
unnoticed, and road projects like Business-40 in the 1950s left
the neighborhood open to blight. The neighborhood is striving to
rebuild its reputation, however, and highlight its ample history.
West Salem is significant because of its early history and relationship
with the town of Salem; but it is also significant in the history
of Winston-Salem as an early twentieth century suburban neighborhood.
The unique mix of developmental forces in West Salem are reflected
in the diverse architecture, which ranges from vernacular buildings
from the nineteenth century to late nineteenth century, Queen Anne-influenced
dwellings, early twentieth century bungalows, and later houses that
reflect nationally popular architectural trends. West Salem is a
relic of the earliest development in the area; the locations of
Academy, Walnut, and Poplar streets aiding our understanding of
the complex web of industry, farms, and village that made up Salem
during the first half of the nineteenth century. Yet it is also
a substantial early twentieth century suburban neighborhood that
housed a wide range of citizens who served not only Salem, but also
the Twin City generally. 1 Gwynne Taylor, From Frontier to Factory, 1981, 230 2 Ibid, 231 3 Michael and Martha Hartley, “The Town of Salem Survey, 1999,” State Historic Preservation Office, Raleigh, 9. 4 Hunter James, Old Salem Official Guidebook (Winston-Salem: Old Salem Inc., 1987), 80-86 and Adelaide Fries, The Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, p.2321. 5 Hartley, 10. 6 Ibid, 12. 7 Ibid, 22. 8 Ibid, 24, and Rev. Edward Rondthaler, The Memorabilia of Fifty Years, 1877-1927, 87. 9 Fam Brownlee, Winston-Salem: a Pictorial History, 71 10 Ibid., 25. 11 Ibid., 28-29. 12 1917 Sanborn Map. 13 Hartley, 29, 1917 Sanborn Map, and Cindy Hodnett, “History of Sale” Winston-Salem Journal, 11 August 2002. 14 1915 and 1930 City Directories 15 Langdon E. Opperman, “Winston-Salem’s African American Neighborhoods, 1870-1950” State Historic Preservation Office, Raleigh, 1994, 43-44. 16 Hartley, 29. 17 Ibid. |
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