History of Winston-Salem:
Ludlow's Plan
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One of the most fashionable of the residential areas to emerge in the early decades of Winston's boom period, Washington Park was a planned development. It is situated on rolling farmland and on lands previously used by the Moravians as hunting grounds because it was thought too steep for development. The plan for its development was designed by Jacob Lott Ludlow who also drew the West End plat.
Ludlow's plat was officially recorded in the Register's office in March of 1892. However, the 'Bird's Eye View' of 1891 shows the streets of Washington Park in the upper right corner, indicating that at least the street plan had been drawn by that time. Inclusion in the Bird's Eye View did not mean that the streets were actually on the ground; that map also shows the Zinzendorf Hotel prominently in the foreground, though the hotel was not completed until May of 1892.
It is generally accepted that the streets of Washington Park were laid out by 1895 when they are shown in the index map to the Sanborn Insurance Maps. Furthermore, two photographs taken in 1894 show David Reid's house at 1820 S. Main Street, completed and lived in, and the streetcar tracks wrapping the house at the corner of Main and Cascade.
Ludlow came to Winston-Salem from his native New Jersey in 1886 and started a general civil engineering practice in municipal, sanitary and hydraulic problems; he helped design water supply and sewerage systems throughout the South. From 1889 to 1892 he served as Winston's first city engineer, and it is believed he was instrumental in initiating a sewerage system and street-paving program. Ludlow received his Masters degree in civil engineering from Fayette College in Pennsylvania in 1890 while working for the city. In that same year he was asked to draw the plan for the West End suburb, and concurrently or shortly thereafter, drew the plan for Washington Park and, immediately east, Sunnyside. The West End plan more closely adheres to the teachings of Frederick Law Olmsted, with a large hotel on a hill and residential lots along curvilinear streets, interspersed with small parks. The curvilinear pattern used there was a major departure from the grid patterns of Winston and Salem.
Ludlow's plan for Washington Park, although believed to have been designed after his plan for West End, contained the more customary grid pattern in the center moving west into curvilinear streets which heeded the topography of the ridge overlooking the floodplain of Salem Creek.
Ludlow's plat gave no name to the area. It was titled "Plat of the property of the Winston-Salem Land and Investment Company (WSL,&I) situated at Winston-Salem, NC, as developed by J.L. Ludlow C.E., Winston, NC." It is generally accepted that Washington Park was named in honor of George Washington, who passed through the area on his way to Salem on May 31, 1791. His route from the south brought him on Old Lexington Road, today's Rawson Street. However, it is not known when the park received that name. Most believe the park itself has always been called Washington Park, but Ludlow's plan shows the name "Sunny Side Park" in the ravine. Fries notes in her history of the county that the name Sunnyside was derived from a plantation owned by E. AVogler. In 1928 the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) presented the stone gateway at the foot of Gloria Avenue with the name Washington Park in an iron arch above. The ceremony extolled the virtues of George Washington; however, newspaper accounts do not give any indication whether this was a new or continuing name for the park.
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Information from the National Register of Historic Places:
Architects | Development Companies | Residents | History of Winston-Salem | Ludlow's Plan | The Park | Streetcars