History of Winston-Salem
Information from the National Register of Historic Places: Architects | Development Companies | Residents | History of Winston-Salem | Ludlow's Plan | The Park | Streetcars
In 1870 Winston was still a small town with a village atmosphere, having been established less than twenty years earlier in 1851. Immediately south was the Moravian town of Salem, a planned community which dates to 1766. Winston's population was 473, but just ten years later its population multiplied to 2,854 and then almost quadrupled by 1890. This growth was the result of the coming of the railroad and the optimism of energetic entrepreneurs who built factories and warehouses. R.J. Reynolds left his father's tobacco company in Virginia to come to Winston-Salem in 1873 because he had learned of Winston's railroad connection (made in 1873) and of its brand new tobacco sales warehouse, built in 1872. Reynolds and others like him built their factories and thus contributed to the rapid transformation of the small country town to an industrial leader. Reynolds first built a small factory and quickly needed another. It was Pleasant H. Hanes who built the first large tobacco factory in 1873. These had a snowballing effect. Seven years later in 1880 Winston had eleven tobacco factories; by 1888 it had twenty-six. By 1894 a tobacco directory listed thirty-seven tobacco manufacturers in Winston alone. Winston was also developing other industries: foundries, textiles, tobacco and furniture were the core of its success.
Many businesses and individuals benefited from the boom. The heavy demand for workers created in turn an equal demand for housing and for services for the expanding population. Perhaps the most direct beneficiaries were the construction companies who built the warehouses, offices, houses and shops. Two families of brothers started building companies which were later said to have "built practically single-handedly the entire towns of Winston and Salem." In 1871 Charles A. Fogle and his brother Christian H. Fogle joined in operation of a wood-dressing plant which expanded immediately; they also operated as building contractors. The Miller Brothers Company was begun by John S. and Gideon L. Miller in 1872. Successful for two decades, the firm turned to furniture manufacture after the Panic of 1893. This left Fogle Bros. Co. to carry on as the builders of Winston and Salem.
Winston's boom gained speed in the 1880s. 'ne burgeoning tobacco and textile industries spawned numerous new residential areas. The Twin City's first suburb, West End, was developed in the 1890s and became home to prominent families. Washington Park was planned at the same time and developed slightly later. Ardmore, named for the Philadelphia suburb, was begun in 1914. Records show a new house begun every week for twenty-two years. As the automobile became more prevalent, the neighborhood of West Highlands developed west of West End. Just as in West End and Washington Park, lavish houses for prosperous businessmen were built along West Highland's central street, Stratford Road. It was also during this period that Winston and Salem, which had in a practical sense merged in the preceding decades, formally consolidated in 1913. Some time after that the city limits were expanded to encompass its growing suburban neighborhoods, among them Washington Park.
end