The Waughtown-Belview Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [‡]
Description
The Waughtown-Belview Historic District is located southeast of Winston-Salem's center-city and is immediately east of U.S. Hwy 52. The Waughtown-Belview Historic District stretches approximately eighteen blocks along the east-west axis created by Waughtown and Sprague streets and is roughly bounded by U.S. 52 at its western edge, Waughtown and Belleauwood streets in the north, Reynold's Forest Drive (formerly Gilreath Dr.) in the east, and Sprague, Ernest, and Goldfloss streets in the south. Waughtown Street, which was a Native American trading route, was in service by the early nineteenth century as the Plank Road to Fayetteville. It travels northeastward along a fairly wide ridge towards the town of Kernersville. Sprague Street runs roughly parallel to Waughtown Street and was completed as far east as Peachtree Street by about 1901 based on the date of the streetcar line, which ran along Sprague Street to its northward turn at Peachtree Street. Sprague Street was completed east of Peachtree after 1917. Its route swings to the south as it travels east of Peachtree Street before finally turning northward to intersect with Waughtown Street east of the district boundary. The topography within the Waughtown-Belview Historic District is fairly level with rises near the intersection of Waughtown and Marble streets (Nissen Wagon Works vicinity) and at the eastern end of the district. North and south of the Waughtown-Belview Historic District, the land falls more dramatically towards Salem Creek and Fiddlers Creek respectively. The Waughtown-Belview Historic District boundary, particularly the southern boundary, follows the level topography rather closely indicating that the historic development in the area occurred near Waughtown Street and the ridge line.
Although the topography was an important feature in the layout of Waughtown Street, the relatively gentle terrain within the district did not have a significant impact upon the placement of other streets or platted developments. In fact, of the three largest platted developments within the Waughtown-Belview Historic District, only one, Carlton Bluff, shows any evidence of attention to topography in its street design and this response was driven by the presence of a steep ravine at the development's southern and eastern edges. Thus, the street patterns within the Waughtown-Belview Historic District are typically grids or straight cross streets that dead-end. Lot sizes in the district vary with their location. Within the platted developments, lots are very regular and similar in size to early twentieth century platted neighborhoods throughout the city. Lot sizes on the few dead end cross streets, such as Leight and Lyons, tend to be slightly larger than those in the platted developments, but they too, are homogenous. Along Waughtown and Sprague streets, however, the lot sizes vary greatly and are indicative of the historic development pattern where large sections of land, held by various families, were sold off and subdivided over time.
The overwhelming majority of the historic resources in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District are residential buildings (approximately 1,050). Of these, less than one percent were constructed before about 1890 while about one-quarter were built from about 1890 through circa 1915. Slightly more than one-third date from between about 1915 and 1940 and about one-third were built between circa 1940 and 1955. Only about fourteen percent date from the circa 1955 to 1965 period with less than one percent dating after 1965.
Few houses remain from the antebellum period of development in Waughtown-Belview. The oldest extant property is believed to be located at 1630 Waughtown Street. Reportedly built about 1825, this double-pile, two-story frame house has heavy timber framing and boxed eaves. Another early dwelling is the circa 1850 Clodfelter House at 1510 Waughtown Street. This house, which appears to be of timber frame or log construction sheathed in asbestos shingles, is one and a half stories with a side gable roof. The building is three bays wide with the main house block being one room deep. Details include a two vertical panel front door, stone pier foundation with brick infill, some wrought-iron shutter hinges, and end chimneys. A second house from the mid-nineteenth century is located at 2218 Waughtown Street. This one-and-a-half-story dwelling is in the gable ell form with six-over-six double-hung sash. This dwelling was the home of Leroy and Mary Malone from the turn of the twentieth century, or perhaps even earlier, until after 1940. Leroy Malone was an African American employed at Spach Wagon Works and later at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Perhaps the finest dwelling dating from the mid-nineteenth century is the Phillips-Linville House at 2123 Waughtown Street. This two-story, side gable, single-pile dwelling is constructed of common bond brick. It was built for Crawford Tatum Phillips around 1870.
Resources from the late nineteenth century through about 1915 are primarily one-story, side-gable (or occasionally hip-roof), frame cottages with minimal Queen Anne or classical references such as full-width porches with turned posts, sawn brackets, or Tuscan columns. The cottages are single-pile, almost always with rear ells or rear shed additions. Other typical features include two-over-two sash windows and exposed purlins. These houses are found in many areas of the Waughtown-Belview Historic District, but concentrations are found in the area platted by the Wachovia Development Company, Devonshire Street in particular, as well as on Leight, Waughtown and Peachtree streets. One of the best-preserved examples is 2215 Art Street. This two-room house has its original weatherboards, pressed tin shingles, and exposed purlins. Another excellent example is 700 Devonshire Street. Built about 1910, the one-story, side-gable, single-pile house has two-over-two, double-hung sash, weatherboards, square posts with curved brackets and unusual decorative vent covers on the gable ends with diamond and heart motifs. The house at 2312 Peachtree Street, built around 1915, is a simple, one-story, side-gable, single-pile house with its original pressed tin shingle roof and four-over-four windows. The tri-gable form of this house type features a gable marking the central entrance; a feature inspired by the asymmetrical rooflines of the Queen Anne style. Tri-gable cottages are less numerous than the simpler version of the form. The circa 1915 tri-gable house at 833 Devonshire Street is representative. It retains its original hip-roof porch with turned posts and sawn brackets.
A more elaborate variation of the single-pile dwelling is the gable ell cottage. Based upon the simple, single-pile cottage, the gable ell cottage features a front-facing, gabled wing and, like the single-pile cottages, it features a range of late Victorian decorative motifs including turned posts and sawn brackets. The gable ell cottage form is found regularly along Waughtown Street and many other areas with and without Queen Anne motifs. The circa 1915 house at 67 Cottage Street is a good example. It features decorative shingles in the gable ends, six-over-six windows, turned posts, and sawn and spindle brackets. The house at 1320 Waughtown Street is one of the most elaborate and best-preserved gable ell cottages in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District. Built about 1905, the house has a wraparound porch, weatherboard siding, six-over-six and two-over-two windows, turned posts, exposed purlins, and a paneled door with double-arch lights. There are several gable ell cottages on Goldfloss Street, which is within the Wachovia Development plat, including the similar houses at 737, 739, and 745 Goldfloss Street. All of these houses were built about 1915.
By the 1910s, double-pile, hip-roof cottages were becoming increasingly common. While there are examples of the simple, square-plan pyramidal cottage in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District, the more elaborate Queen Anne cottage is prevalent. A good example of the former is located at 705 Goldfloss Street (c.1915) and has a hip-roof dormer, asbestos shingle siding, two-over-two, double-hung sash, and a hip-roof porch with sawn brackets. In the Queen Anne cottage, the pyramidal cottage is expanded and given asymmetry with the addition of a gable-roof front projection, the gable is often ornamented with contrasting wood shingles or molding. Otherwise, the decorative elements of these houses are in keeping with the Late Victorian motifs found on other houses of this period. Again, turned porch posts and sawn brackets are common. Several well-preserved examples of this house type can be found in the district. Nissen Avenue alone holds nine, virtually identical examples.[1]
Similar to, though more substantial than the cottages are late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century two-story houses. They are much less frequent, however, totaling only about twenty percent of all the late-nineteenth century to 1915 resources. These dwellings, often I-houses or tri-gable houses have details similar to the cottages. The house at 717 Devonshire Street (c.1900) is representative of the house type with diamond-shaped attic vent and a hip-roof porch with turned posts. 2212 Pleasant Street (c.1900) is a good example of the I-house type and retains its original turned posts, sawn brackets, and four-over-four, double-hung sash. Like the one-story, single-pile houses, the use of the tri-gable form was common as a way to make the house more in keeping with the fashionable Queen Anne style. A good example of the tri-gable form at 2325 Waughtown Street retains its original turned posts, brackets at the eaves, and decorative shingles in the central gable. 2516 Peachtree Street (c.1900) and 1172 Waughtown Street (c.1905) are also good examples of this trend. Both houses are in the I-house form with the central gable and hip-roof porches, but the Peachtree example features turned posts and sawn brackets while the Waughtown Street house has Tuscan-style porch columns and decorative shingles in its central gable.
In addition to these relatively modest I-houses, there are a few more elaborate dwellings that combine elements of the Queen Anne style with Colonial Revival style motifs. Located primarily on Waughtown Street, these include the house at 1147 Waughtown Street (c.1915) which has details such as the pedimented wall dormers, Tuscan columns, pedimented porch entry and sidelights at the entry. Similar, but on a larger scale is the Ernest Nissen House at 1402 Waughtown Street (c.1905). This two-story house features a gabled, upper level bay, decorative shingles in gable ends, upper level porch with slim Tuscan columns, and polygonal bays on first floor. A third large dwelling, the circa 1905 Jake Newsom House at 1321 Waughtown Street, has more Queen Anne style motifs including a bracketed polygonal bay, decorative shingles in the gabled ends, pedimented second floor balcony, and pedimented porch entry while Tuscan columns on the wraparound porch are Colonial Revival in style. Finally, the two-story, gable ell form William Fiddler House (c.1900, 1726 Waughtown Street) is relatively simple in its Late Victorian stylistic expression, but is notable because of its brick construction.
The late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century houses and cottages are almost exclusively of frame construction. Side gable roofs are dominate in both the cottages and houses, although the most elaborate houses do display a degree of roof complexity with the use of the tri-gable form, the gable ell form, and the limited use of polygonal bays. Ornamentation on most of the houses is limited to decorative wood shingles in gable ends, exposed purlins, turned posts, and sawn brackets. Many houses either never had or have lost these ornaments. Asbestos shingle siding and vinyl siding are very common replacements, but original weatherboards are also found. Original windows are often either two-over-two light or four-over-four light, double-hung sash.
Clearly, the architecture in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District followed national and regional architectural trends, and by the late 1910s and 1920s, the bungalow had evolved as a home of convenience and casual living, with an emphasis on expressive craftsmanship and workmanship. A wide range of bungalows can be found in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District. In fact, with over 300 examples, this house type is more common than any other. Bungalows are located in every section of the district that was developed before 1935. The vast majority of the existing bungalows are frame, although brick examples are found.
The Waughtown-Belview Historic District's bungalows vary greatly in size and level of stylistic detail. One of the most detailed examples is located at 2450 Sink Street (c.1925). Sheathed in wood shingles, this house features a recessed porch, shingled balustrade and posts with thru-tenon detail, knee braces, fifteen-light casement windows and diamond/pentagon multi-light transom over a single light. More common, however, is the front-gable, one-story bungalow with an intersecting side-gable porch. These houses feature Craftsman stylistic motifs such as battered posts on brick piers, false beams, knee braces, and exposed rafter tails. Front and side gable forms are also common; the jerkinhead (or clipped gable) roof is also found. A representative example is found at 1322 Bretton Street (c.1925). It has a front-gable roof and front-gable porch. Other details include six-over-one, Craftsman-style windows, battered posts on brick piers, knee braces, and exposed rafter tails.
Several Craftsman Bungalows are located on Longview Drive and Marne Street in the Longview development. 1740 Longview Drive (c.1925), for example has a hip roof and a hip-roof dormer, exposed rafter tails, weatherboard siding, six-over-one, double-hung sash, paired, square porch posts with thru-tenon details. The house at 1206 Marne Street, also circa 1925, is similar. 1811 Longview Drive (c.1928) represents the front-gable house, side-gable porch form mentioned above and features battered brick posts on brick piers, four (vertical lights)-over-one, double-hung sash as well as large single light with hexagonal/diamond-pattern leaded transom, shingled gable ends, exposed rafter tails, and knee braces.
The use of the Craftsman style was not exclusive to bungalows and there are a very few Craftsman-style houses within the district. The best example, and one of the most architecturally significant houses in the district, is the 1924 Mickey House at 1162 Waughtown Street. The two-story, hip-roof house features a gable-roof dormer, gabled projection, and flared upper level all sheathed in wood shingles. The hip-roof porch has a gabled entrance supported by brick piers and knee braces and extends into a porte-cochere. The entry is marked by beveled glass and sidelights while exposed rafter tails and prominent lintels complete the well-preserved dwelling.
Returning to bungalows, it should be noted that they may feature some Craftsman motifs or may have very little decorative detail, leaving their low roof form and wide eaves to convey their stylistic associations. Low-pitched gable and shed-roof dormers are common and are often ornamented with contrasting wood shingles, knee braces, or exposed rafter tails. Asbestos shingle siding is a very common replacement siding, but original German siding or weatherboards are also found. Other materials include wood shingles and rock-faced concrete block. Original windows are found in a range of configurations typical of the period including four vertical lights-over-one, six-over-one, and a full range of Craftsman style upper sashes. The use of decorative transom featuring leaded panes or multiple vertical lights over a large single light is also common. As with the earlier houses, vinyl siding and replacement windows and porch supports are the most common alterations.
The 2600 block of Carlyle Street has several modest bungalow examples such as 2604 Carlyle Street which features weatherboard siding, two-over-two windows, plain porch posts, knee braces, exposed rafter tails, and cobblestone-pattern concrete block foundation. The bungalow at 806 Goldfloss Street is another good example of this simple house type with a front-gable roof and front-gable porch both ornamented by exposed rafter tails. While most of the Waughtown-Belview Historic District's bungalows are one story in height, there are several that are one and a half stories. Representative of these is 1939 Lyons Street (c.1930), which has a side-gable roof, shed-roof dormer, leaded transoms over large single-light windows, pressed tin shingle roof, and exposed rafter tails.
The use of the Colonial Revival style during the 1920s and 1930s in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District is much less frequent than the Craftsman style. In fact, there are fewer than twenty in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District with most of the examples being located on Waughtown and Sprague streets. 1187 Waughtown Street is one of the best examples and was built about 1925. The two-story, side gable, weatherboard sheathed house features a headboard soffit with modillions, deep eaves, gable returns, and a pent roof encircling the house. The gabled entry porch has a barrel vault and there are large curved brackets at the entry.
Most of the Colonial Revival examples within the Waughtown-Belview Historic District date to the 1940s, however. The most elaborate of these is the c.1945 Immanuel Moravian Church Parsonage. An excellent replica of the Georgian style, the two-story house has Flemish bond brick construction, segmental arches infilled with shaped brick over lower windows and attic windows, eight-over-eight and eight-over-twelve windows, and a stuccoed foundation with tooled joints. More typical is the house at 1104 Sprague Street. Built around 1940, the one-and-a-half story, side gable dwelling has six-over-six windows, gabled dormers, and a Moravian bonnet-style hood at entry. In addition to these Colonial Revival examples, there are a very few Dutch Colonial Revival dwellings such as the circa 1935 house located at 1901 Longview Drive.
Few houses were built during the Great Depression in the district, but by the late 1930s, construction was beginning to regain a foothold and several houses were built immediately before World War II. Many of these are done in the Period Cottage style, which continued to be used through the early 1950s. Influenced by the larger and more academic Tudor Revival style houses, the Period Cottage is often English in its design motifs. The dwellings are usually one or one-and-a-half stories in height and constructed of brick. The Period Cottage often has a side gabled roof with one front facing gable and a chimney on the front facade. Other characteristics are round-head or Tudor-arch doors, windows with diamond-shaped lights, and stone trim. One of the best examples in the survey area is found at 733 Sprague Street. This circa 1940 house is one-and-a-half stories and constructed of stone with an arched entry and arcaded side porch. In fact, many Period Cottages (there are less than fifty) within the Waughtown-Belview Historic District are located on Sprague Street. This attests to the post-1925 development on Sprague Street, particularly east of its intersection with Peachtree Street. Several more of the finest Period Cottages are located in the Longview Development, which also saw intensive development in the late 1930s and early 1940s. One of the best of these is located at 1748 Longview Drive and was constructed about 1945. The one-story, brick dwelling has a steeply pitched gable at eave line, a front-gable entry pavilion, a facade chimney, and an arcaded side porch.
There are also several dwellings that feature more minimal Period Cottage motifs, such as the circa 1955 house at 637 Devonshire Street. This one-story, side-gable house has aluminum siding, a steeply pitched gable entry pavilion, and a facade chimney. In this version of the Period Cottage, a relatively boxy form reminiscent of the Minimal Traditional house is ornamented by gabled entry bays and even more commonly by facade chimneys that display detailing in yellow brick, stone, or brick patterning.
After the war, southeastern Winston-Salem became a significant part of the city's postwar building boom. Of the houses built between about 1945 and 1955 in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District, most are in the Minimal Traditional style; making up about twenty percent of the residential architecture. This house type is usually one-story and often has one front-facing gable. The type takes its name from its use of traditional stylistic motifs in a minimal, or stripped-down manner. These house tend to have rather boxy forms with flush eaves being common.
The one-story Minimal Traditional houses in the survey area are of frame construction, usually with aluminum siding or asbestos shingle siding (sometimes original), although some retain original weatherboard siding and others are brick veneered. Most have eight-over-eight or six-over-six double-hung sash windows, but there are examples with metal casement windows. Vinyl siding is the most common alteration.
Minimal Traditional houses are found throughout the Waughtown-Belview Historic District, but are concentrated in a few locations that developed during the postwar period such as the 1000 block of Devonshire Street. A representative example is the circa 1955 house at 1018 Devonshire Street. This one-story, side-gable house features a front gable projection, an engaged entry, six-over-six, double-hung sash, and asbestos shingle siding. A brick example is found at 2510 Sink Street (c.1955). It is also one-story, with a side-gable roof, front-gable projection, eight-over-eight windows and a picture window with sidelights. One of the larger Minimal Traditional houses in the district is 749 Sprague Street (c.1950). It has the side-gable, front-gable projection form, but features a small, gabled dormer, an engaged porch with paired posts, and a front-gable garage attached via a hyphen.
In addition to the Minimal Traditional houses, the post-war architectural palette includes the Cape Cod style. These houses are not extant in great numbers, however, constituting only about four percent of the houses in the district. Cape Cod houses have extremely simple Colonial Revival features and massing characterized by a symmetrical facade with central entrance and side gable roof, often with two or three dormers, covering the one-and-a-half-story dwelling. The house at 1268 Clemmonsville Road (c.1945) is representative. It is one-and-a-half stories with a side gable roof and gabled dormers. The windows are eight-over-eight, double-hung sash and the gable-roof entry porch features a barrel vault opening. There are several Cape Cod houses located on Sink Street and one of the best examples is located at 2525 Sink Street (c.1950). Similar in form to the above example, this house is sheathed in brick and has a gable-roof hood at the entry with barrel vault.
By the early 1950s, sizeable numbers of dwellings were exhibiting elements of both the Minimal Traditional style and the Ranch house. By the mid-1950s, the Ranch style came to dominate new construction in the district. The majority of Ranch houses in southeastern Winston-Salem, however, lack high-style features such as the use of Roman brick or Modernist details, instead relying on the long front elevation and one-story form to convey the style. Occasionally, other stylistic influences, such as Colonial Revival door surrounds and shutters, are added to the basic Ranch form. The circa 1955 house at 1970 Lyons Street is typical with a side-gable roof, two-over-two, horizontal-light windows, aluminum siding, and a picture window.
Within the survey area, approximately 350 outbuildings were surveyed, of which the majority are garages. The typical garage in the survey area is a front-gable structure with one or two bays. They are usually sheathed in clapboards, although German siding, vinyl siding, asbestos shingles, replacement wood sheathing, rock-faced concrete block, and brick are also found. Representative examples include the hip-roof, single-bay garage at 1226 Bretton Street (c.1925), which has weatherboard siding and wooden doors, and a front-gable example at 2300 Pleasant Street (c.1925) with a clipped corner entry and German siding. The circa 1920, rock-faced concrete block garage at the Ernest Nissen House (1402 Waughtown Street) exemplifies the most substantial outbuildings in the district while the relatively ornate double-bay garage with gabled dormer, original multi-light wooden doors and exposed rafter tails at the Mickey House (1162 Waughtown, built 1924) illustrates the practice of building matching garages during the house construction. One of the largest single outbuildings in the survey is found at 2014 Leight Street. This large, two-story, two-bay garage was built about 1925 and has clipped-corner entries, rolled asphalt siding, four-light windows, and exposed rafter tails. Although not common in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District, there are a few buildings that appear to have served as modest agricultural buildings such as the above example. Another good example is found at the Vogler House (2303 Waughtown Street). The one-and-a-half-story, side gable building has a single bay and vertical siding. Attached at the side is a single garage bay with shed roof and vertical wood siding and an open corn-crib-like shed.
There are approximately twenty-one commercial buildings including six service stations within the district. The majority of these (fourteen) were built during the period of significance. The two earliest examples date from about 1905 and 1910, eight buildings date from circa 1920-1935, and four buildings were built between about 1945 and 1955. All but one of the commercial buildings are constructed of brick or concrete block. Usually one story in height, the buildings represent typical commercial designs from the early and mid-twentieth century featuring recessed entries, recessed sign panels, parapets, and modest ornamentation. On buildings from the 1950s, the use of brick facades with concrete block sides, plate glass windows, and tile coping are also common. Two examples of commercial buildings that retain a high level of integrity are the one-story, brick building at 1501-1505 Waughtown Street (c.1930). Each of the three storefronts has recessed entries and brick sign panels. Another important commercial building is the two-story commercial/residential building at 2401 Urban Street (c.1910) within the Wachovia Development plat area. Although altered with vinyl siding the building is a rare example of a frame commercial building in the district. Additionally, there are three historic filling stations in the district indicating the continued importance of Waughtown and Sprague streets as thoroughfares. One of the most notable of these is the 1931 Shell Station located at 1111 Sprague Street (National Register, 1976). It is the last surviving example of the seashell-shaped stations in Winston-Salem. The other two stations are 2126 and 2341 Waughtown Street. Both are brick and date from the 1920s but 2126 Waughtown Street is more elaborately decorated and maintains an excellent level of integrity. The station features paneled brick posts on the filling bay detailed with stucco, a soldier course, and a wood storefront with plate glass windows. The Waughtown-Belview Historic District's collection of well-preserved commercial buildings is extremely important since this type of building is often heavily altered or destroyed in an effort to keep the business up to date.
In addition to commercial buildings, the area also maintains important buildings of the Nissen Wagon Works complex (1539 Waughtown Street). Built during the late nineteenth century, the Wagon Works was struck by fire in 1919. The only survivor was a brick smokestack (c.1880). A new, large, brick building with stepped corbelling at the corners was built in the wake of the fire and still stands. Other significant industrial buildings include the Triangle Body Works (2014 Waughtown Street, c.1927), which displays an unusual arched parapet.
Ten churches are within the Waughtown-Belview Historic District and all but three were constructed within the period of significance. Many of the churches were built between 1915 and 1930 and are representative of the neighborhood churches that were part of many rural and suburban communities. The ornate architecture found in the churches built on Sprague and Waughtown Streets reflects the well-to-do church members in the area during the early twentieth century. In fact, many of the most well-known families in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District were members of these local churches. Waughtown Baptist Church was built in 1919 in the Neoclassical Revival style with a domed roof and columned portico, while Waughtown Presbyterian Church dates from 1914 and features pebbledash walls and ornate Tudor Revival motifs. Representing a simpler mode of church architecture is Southside Christian Church. Built around 1915 at 2411 Urban Street, this one-story, front-gable building is ornamented only by a small, hip roof tower.
Another important community landmark is the Waughtown Cemetery. To date, there is little information known about the original layout or development of the cemetery. However, it was loosely associated with the Waughtown Union Church first established near the cemetery in 1820.[2] At least two headstones date from 1816 suggesting the cemetery was established prior to the church structure. The basic design and layout of the cemetery seems to be a dichotomy of styles. The Moravian influence of "equality in death and aesthetic harmony"[3] is counterbalanced with the German influence that allowed for a less regimented layout. The cemetery is organized around a series of drives that create three sections in the center of the site with continuous sections along each end. The center section of the cemetery is located on a slight rise, a feature prominent in Moravian graveyards. Two areas near the southwest corner of the cemetery illustrate the Moravian style of layout with regimented rows, simple grave markers and rows of cedar trees. Several of these markers display only a single first name and date of death, indicating they may be the resting places of slaves or servants.[4] Death dates on these markers range from the 1820s through about 1860. As the cemetery grew to the northeast there is a distinct change in character with more formal marble headstones. Low concrete or marble curbing surrounds many of the individual plots. Several plots belonging to very prominent Waughtown families are distinguished by prominent curbing, marble ledger-type grave markers or ornate, Victorian-era wrought iron fencing. On both ends of the cemetery are a series of low retaining walls, creating flat surfaces for burial plots. The walls on the northern end appear to be more symmetrically placed and are of the same material, stone and mortar, and likely date from the early twentieth century. At the southern end, these low walls are of various materials and appear to be more closely associated with specific family plots. The original entrance of the cemetery is located in the 1800 block of Waughtown Street and is marked by two stone posts, set well back from the street. Newer, brick posts are located near Waughtown Street and match the posts at the cemetery entrance in the 1800 block of Sprague Street.
While the largest cemetery in the survey area is the Waughtown Cemetery, at least one other cemetery was reported through oral history, in the rear yard of 1027 Sprague Street. Tradition indicates that this is a African American cemetery with cedar trees and unmarked graves. As a collection, the architecture of the district exhibits a wide range of styles and forms associated both with highly refined architectural motifs as well as simpler, popular forms. These are indicative of the upper middle class and the lower-income, working class, respectively. The Waughtown-Belview Historic District holds a large collection of historic buildings and sites within their relevant setting. When viewed individually, some properties have had alterations that effect their integrity, but as a whole, the historic character of the district is clearly evident. The Waughtown-Belview Historic District represents both industrial and commercial growth along with the associated residential and religious life in the village of Waughtown, which came into its own during the mid and late-nineteenth century, and in the Belview neighborhood, which grew as part of the railroad and streetcar expansion into the area at the turn of the twentieth century. Further, the expansion of the entire area into a suburb of the city of Winston-Salem by the mid-twentieth century left its own mark on the Waughtown-Belview Historic District's character.
Significance
The Waughtown-Belview Historic District in southeastern Winston-Salem is locally significant for community planning and development, commerce, and industry as it is associated with rural and later suburban development in Winston-Salem spanning nearly one hundred and forty years. The Waughtown-Belview Historic District was home to notable industries such as the Nissen Wagon Works, but was never a company town. Rather, the area evolved into a community inhabited by large numbers of citizens who worked in all of the major industrial and manufacturing concerns in Winston-Salem including textiles, tobacco, as well as wagons. The residential architecture of these factory workers constitutes a substantial part of the resources in the district, and is complimented by a good collection of commercial buildings, primarily located along Waughtown Street, including grocery stores, filling stations, and other businesses.
Southeastern Winston-Salem, where the Waughtown-Belview Historic District is located, has a varied and complex history due to its extended period of development. The area began with the early nineteenth century settlement that would become known as Waughtown, spawning additional rural settlements such as Centerville [see Centerville Historic District], located to the northeast. By the turn of the twentieth century, however, the development became increasingly tied to suburban and industrial growth brought about by the completion of rail and streetcar lines through the area. With the coming of the railroad and streetcar into the area near Belview, west of Waughtown, in 1892 and 1901 respectively, industry and residential development flourished; first in the Belview area and eventually spilling over into Waughtown. Waughtown was linked to the Belview area by the streetcar and residential development in the form of modestly sized platted neighborhoods that sprang up along the car route. The Waughtown-Belview area evolved into a suburb of Winston-Salem that flourished and continued to grow dramatically through the 1920s and again in the post-World War II era. The district is at once a study in the development of small communities on the outskirts of the Town of Salem and an illustration of the burgeoning industrial presence in Salem and its environs by 1910. Touched by streetcar and automobile suburban development, the area is also significant in the growth of the city of Winston-Salem.
The period of significance of the Waughtown-Belview Historic District extends from c.1816, the earliest death date observed on grave markers in the Waughtown Cemetery, to 1955 as to include changes in development patterns after World War II. Although there are fewer resources dating from the postwar era than from earlier decades, these resources contribute to our understanding of the continued development of the neighborhood as an area inhabited primarily by middle-income manufacturing and industrial workers. Development in Waughtown continued into the 1950s and 1960s, particularly south of the historic district. This period is not of exceptional significance, however. Thus, the period of significance ends with the fifty-year cut-off for community planning and development. The Waughtown Cemetery met criteria consideration because of its age. It is, in fact, the oldest resource within the Waughtown-Belview Historic District. Although Waughtown was settled during the first half of the nineteenth century, few resources remain from this early period of development and, of those that do remain, the cemetery maintains one of the highest integrity levels.
Historical Background, Community Planning and Development, and Commerce Contexts
Early Village Development: 1806-1880
The settlement of Waughtown began in the early years of the nineteenth century. Charles Bagge, for whom the town was originally named (Charlestown and Baggetown were both used), was born in Salem and inherited a considerable fortune from his father Traugott Bagge. The senior Bagge held a prominent place in Salem society and at his death in 1800, his son expected to continue both his father's business and position. The Moravian church leadership of Salem refused to allow Charles Bagge to operate his father's store on Main Street in Salem, however. In protest, Bagge left Salem and moved north, but after a few years returned to Forsyth County, purchased undeveloped land southeast of Salem, and established a store. Salem's Moravian records indicate that Bagge was constructing his home/store in May of 1806. The new store was located about two-and-a-half miles southeast of Salem on the Plank Road to Fayetteville (the site of present Waughtown Baptist Church). Bagge eventually came to own three hundred acres in this vicinity.[5] The situation of Bagge's store was clever since his was the first establishment encountered by weary travelers coming north on the plank road towards Salem. It was also near the off-shoot of the Waughtown-Clemmons Road (now Clemmonsville Road), which led west to Clemmons and Davie County.[6]
Shortly after Bagge's settlement in the area, he was joined by several other early settlers. Michael Rominger, a saddle maker, came from the nearby Moravian settlement of Friedland to the south.[7] Jacob Ferguson, a blacksmith, and John Simon Leight, a spinning wheel and grandfather clock maker came from Salem.[8] John S. Leight, who came to the village about 1812, purchased the house Michael Rominger had built in Waughtown in 1806. The house appears on the 1928 Sanborn map on the north side of Waughtown Street, a short distance east of the cemetery entrance, in the vicinity of present-day 1811 Waughtown Street (the Rominger-Leight House was moved to a site near the Yadkin River in the mid-1900s). The community well, a gathering place and a water source for the stage coach and teamsters traveling the Plank Road, was located across the street from the Leight House.[9]
As Rominger, Ferguson, and Leight established their businesses along the noted transportation route between Salem and Fayetteville, the settlement became defined as a village in its own right. During the next few years, other Moravians and non-Moravians joined the little community and Bagge's store prospered. By 1813, it appears that Bagge's success prompted Salem leaders to rethink their earlier position and call for his return to Salem. In August of 1813, the Bagge family moved back to Salem and Bagge gradually sold his Baggetown property.
James Waugh bought Bagge's house and store along with 200 acres of property in August of 1815.[10] James Waugh was born on January 1, 1768 in Adams County, Pennsylvania. To date, little historical information has been found about him. The Moravian archives record only that he was a successful businessman who amassed considerable property including many slaves. Although he was a Presbyterian, not Moravian, his wife convinced the Moravian Joint Conference to permit his burial in the Salem cemetery upon his death in 1844. Lacking a local Presbyterian Church, Waugh had attended Methodist services with his wife after coming to then Stokes County.[11] Waugh's place of burial is interesting since the community that eventually took Waugh as its namesake had established a cemetery by the 1820s.
The Waughtown Cemetery tells a rich history of the community with its variety of retaining walls, plots and headstones. While records of the original layout and development of the cemetery have not been found, it is thought that the cemetery was loosely associated with the Waughtown Union Church, a non-denominational church built at the southwest corner of the cemetery.[12] A log building was constructed there in 1820 and was dedicated February 2, 1821. Ministers of all faiths led services at the church and the congregation remained at this location until 1878. Visual investigation of the cemetery revealed that the oldest grave markers are located near the southwest corner where there are at least two headstones that date from 1816 and several others from the 1820s-1840s. The 1816 markers suggest the establishment of a community cemetery prior to the construction of the Union Church at the southwest corner of the property. This points to a growing cohesiveness within the Waughtown community.
With the establishment of the cemetery, church, and small businesses along the Plank Road, Waughtown developed many signs of a permanent community during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and this growth hastened by the 1830s. Around 1828, David Blum established the village's first inn. In 1834, John Vawter, established a cabinet, furniture, and wagon-making shop across Marble Street from Waugh's store. Following Vawter was the wagon works established by furniture maker William Spach (this company was located west of the Waughtown-Belview Historic District). Also in 1834, John Phillip Nissen, with Dan Clodfelter as his blacksmith, began Nissen Wagon Works on land across the Plank Road (Waughtown Street) from Waugh's store.[13]
Not only were businesses beginning to thrive in this developing community, but homes were also being erected, further defining Waughtown with typical rural settlement patterns along established transportation routes and near developing businesses. A few houses still remain from this early period of development in Waughtown. The oldest is believed to be located at 1630 Waughtown Street. Reportedly built around 1825 for the Jim Christman family, it was later known as the Crowder house. Another early dwelling is the c.1850 Clodfelter House at 1510 Waughtown Street. Oral history attributes this house to the Waugh family before the Civil War; it has been owned by the Clodfelter family since at least 1902.[14] Perhaps the finest dwelling dating from the mid-nineteenth century is the Phillips-Linville House. This two-story, brick house (2123 Waughtown Street) was built for Crawford Tatum Phillips who was living in Waughtown by the publication of the 1884 City Directory.
By the post-bellum period, the village of Waughtown had fully coalesced with wagonmaking as the principal industry in a primarily agrarian economy. Vawter's wagon shop had disappeared, but the Spach and Nissen shops grew. The Nissen wagon works was enlarged during the mid-nineteenth century and significantly outpaced the Spach wagon works in size. By the mid-1870s, the George E. Nissen Wagon Works, named after John Nissen's first son, was spread over a 600-acre tract on the north side of Waughtown Street and employed about one hundred men. In 1876, the company produced 427 wagons at an average price of one hundred twenty dollars each, realizing a profit of about $13,000.[15] In contrast, the Spach Wagon Works, located to the northwest of the Nissen plant near the village of Centerville, produced only about twenty wagons a year and was dependent upon the Nissen plant's blacksmith shop for hardware.[16]
The Wagon Works and the Streetcar: Growth in Waughtown 1880-1900
The wagon works played an important role in the development of Waughtown. Wagonmaking and the closely related blacksmithing trade were the dominant employments in Waughtown by 1889. In this year, there were thirty wagon makers and twenty blacksmiths. The community was not a company town, however. Rather, it was home to people employed in a variety of positions including fifteen laborers, twelve farmers, nine tobacco workers, six painters, five drivers, four sawmill workers, and three shoemakers along with a physician, two schoolteachers, a barber, a pastor, and myriad other tradespeople.[17]
Reinforcing Waughtown's growing stature as a village rather than an ad hoc community, was its incorporation in 1891 with support from many of its best-remembered citizens. The town's mayor was W.H. Sheppard and the commissioners were W.L. Link, W.L. Cook, P.E. Leight, C.F. Nissen, and W.M. Nissen.[18] In 1896, however, the incorporated status was lost because residents refused to tax themselves.[19]
Further expressing the stability of the Waughtown settlement by the late nineteenth century was the fact that many notable families chose to be buried in the community cemetery rather than in other Winston or Salem cemeteries. Family plots for the Nissen, Vogler, Clodfelter, Spach, Leight, Phillips, Linville and Sink families are found prominently in the Waughtown Cemetery. One of the most notable grave sites is that of the Nissen family. This plot is delineated with an ornate wrought iron fence, a family obelisk and individual grave ledgers. These elements, as well as the hilltop location of the family grave site, indicate the wealth of this family and its prominence in a growing community.[20] Oral tradition tells us that Fred Thorton, who built the house at 1802 Waughtown Street adjoining the current cemetery property in 1904, owned a portion of the cemetery property and sold plots as they were needed for the cemetery's expansion.[21]
The oldest section of Waughtown Cemetery (southwest corner) includes several slave burials. Some of the enslaved individuals buried here are Betsy Ann (died 1859), who was the mother of Dr. James Francis Shober, the first African American physician with a medical degree to practice in North Carolina;[22] Susannah (1775-1858); and Mary Sophia who died in 1861 while a candidate for confirmation at the African Moravian Church in Salem.[23] In addition to the slave burials in Waughtown Cemetery, tradition indicates that the cemetery located at the rear of 1027 Sprague Street is an African American cemetery. The site includes cedar trees and unmarked graves.[24]
African Americans were part of the Waughtown community from at least the mid-nineteenth century. Just as a significant portion of the founding white families in Waughtown were of Moravian origin with ties to Salem and the Moravian settlement of Friedland, the same was true of the early black families. Many of the early families of Belview and Waughtown had familial connections with Happy Hill, the plantation where many Salem African Americans were enslaved and later came to own property. Further evidencing a close connection between the communities, the first black school in the area was opened near Happy Hill (northwest of Waughtown) in 1867 and was a joint effort between African American residents in Happy Hill and Waughtown.[25]
The African Americans living in or near Waughtown at the time of the 1870 and 1880 censuses included many notable citizens. Robert Waugh was one of the wealthiest and most respected early black residents of Waughtown. He was the son of Sultana, who was enslaved to James Waugh. Giles Banner, who would later donate some of the land for the first building of First Waughtown Baptist Church, lived in the home of his stepfather (Richard) and Lucy Reich. George D. Reynolds, banker, philanthropist and major land owner, lived in the area and even had a church and community named for him near Waughtown. The wealth and prominence of the early black residents of Waughtown is exhibited by a report from the 1886 Tobacco Belt Directory of Charles Emerson. The Directory's Gazetteer of Forsyth County list four blacks: D. Howard, Pastor; M.C. Rogers, Pastor of the Methodist Church; S. Stafford, Mining and Blacksmith; and R.B. Waugh, Grocery and Shoeshop. Three of the four, Howard, Stafford, and Waugh, lived in Waughtown.[26]
Still, African Americans made up a relatively small percentage of the Waughtown area population during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Of the 184 Waughtown residents in 1889, thirty were African Americans. Among these citizens was the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Reverend S.M. Hanes and two school teachers, Elsie and Sallie Waugh. Also, LeRoy Malone, an African American, and his wife, Mary, occupied the home at 2218 Waughtown Street (c.1850) into the 1940s. LeRoy Malone was employed at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the 1930s.[27]
Several other residents during this period played important roles in the creation of significant African American institutions. Rev. George W. Holland was the organizing pastor of the first black Baptist church in Forsyth County, First Baptist Church. He is credited with organizing thirty-five other Baptist churches in North Carolina and Virginia. Residing nearby were Charles and Jane Linebach Fries Morris, the parents of three daughters: Addie, Emma, and Bessie. Addie Morris, a well known missionary who worked in Africa, opened the first known black Mission House in Forsyth County and, with the help of Rev. G.W. Holland, Rev. Pinkney J. Joyce and several others, she opened the Colored Baptist Orphanage in Belview in 1903. Addie's sister, Emma Morris also operated the Mission House and was the wife of Rev. Pinkney J. Joyce.[28]
The history of African Americans in the district is closely tied to the First Waughtown Baptist Church. Many early African American settlers were freed slaves of prominent Salem families and during slavery many had attended St. Philips Moravian Church in Salem.[29] After the Civil War, they organized themselves into Baptist and Methodist churches, following the trend among freedmen across North Carolina during this period. Located three miles from Rev. Holland's First Baptist Church, black Baptists in the Waughtown vicinity began services in a brush arbor on Waughtown Street property of Washington and Harriet Fries around 1890. Fries was a former slave of the John W. Fries family of Salem.[30]
Rev. Pinkney Joyce, a deacon at First Baptist Church under Rev. Holland, who helped organize West End Baptist Church (which became United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church) about 1892 became the first pastor of First Waughtown Baptist Church in 1900. The first sanctuary was located on Waughtown Street. The congregation grew and moved to a new church building in Belview in 1913. Joyce also served as pastor of Rising Ebenezer Baptist Church on Happy Hill as well as congregations in Yadkin and Stokes County.[31]
Churches became the center of community life in Waughtown during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As noted previously, the non-denominational Union Church, located at the Waughtown Cemetery, was dedicated in February of 1821. Although the Union Church eventually disbanded, it sponsored a Sunday School (1858-1870 and again in the later 1870s) and was reorganized in 1878 as the Waughtown Baptist Church.[32] The first pastor of the Waughtown Baptist Church, Reverend J.B. Richardson, served from 1878 to 1886.[33] The church was legally incorporated in 1891 with W.L. Sink (1155 Waughtown Street), W.L. Cook (1518 Waughtown Street), C.A. Clodfelter, and W.W. Phillips (1630 Waughtown Street) as officers. Another church established in Waughtown at the turn of the century was the First Reformed Church, which built its original frame building in the 1900 block of Waughtown Street about 1904. The congregation is now known as the First United Church of Christ. Marcus and Daphne Crotts (2112 Waughtown Street) were active members at First Reformed Church. In 1914, Waughtown Presbyterian Church was constructed on Waughtown Street at Bertha Street, and Immanuel Moravian Church built its first sanctuary on Peachtree Street at Waughtown Street before 1917.[34]
Schools were also established in Waughtown during this period and included private home schools, Sabbath schools, and subscription schools called "academies." The first of these subscription schools, the Academy, was located on Tryon Street. Reverend Harrell and Professor Messer were among the early instructors and costs were paid for by the parents of students attending the institution. In 1890 land was purchased for the first public school (demolished 1895) from John F. Brendle at the site of the extant Waughtown Elementary School (2266 Marble Street).[35]
Economically, the village was in a period of prosperity as the success of the Nissen wagon works grew. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the main shop increased production and John Phillip Nissen's sons began new ventures. In fact, the Nissen family history and the wagon works history are complex and intertwined. Upon the death of John Phillip Nissen, founder of the Nissen Wagon Works, in 1874, his sons, George Elias and William M., inherited the business. William Nissen bought George's interest in 1909 and the wagon works' name was then changed to Nissen Wagon Company. In all, five of John Nissen's sons were involved in wagon-making. John Israel Nissen, the second son, opened the J.I. Nissen Wagon Works in the 1400 block of Waughtown Street just east of the Nissen Wagon Company shops during the late nineteenth century. He sold this business to his younger brother, Christian Frances Nissen, in 1910. C.F. Nissen manufactured wagons under his own name, developing and patenting the "mitered spoke," until he consolidated with his younger brother William's Nissen Wagon Company in 1910. The youngest Nissen, Samuel Jacob Nissen (1859-1943), built the S.J. Nissen building (with Henry Roan) at the corner of Patterson and Third Streets, in downtown Winston about 1895. Here he manufactured spring wagons used by grocers, bottlers, drays, hacks, milk deliverers and ice wagons until 1929. The quality of all of the wagons the Nissens produced, especially those from the main shop, was recognized nationally and the business acumen of the Nissen family caused the wagon works to thrive throughout this period.[36]
Despite the significance of the wagon manufacturing and the development of institutions such as churches and schools, Waughtown might have remained a rural community except for two important events — the completion of the streetcar line into southeastern Winston-Salem by 1901 and the construction of the Roanoke and Southern Railroad by 1892. The railroad was located at the western edge of Waughtown, near the newly platted Sunnyside development. This line was incorporated into the Winston-Salem Southbound Railroad in 1910 and is currently paralleled by U.S. 52.[37]
Growth occurred in the area between Salem and Waughtown before the completion of these transportation corridors, however. By the second quarter of the nineteenth century, small communities such as Centerville, located northwest of Waughtown outside of the historic district boundary, had become established.[38] Yet, Centerville, like Waughtown, was simply another rural village on the outskirts of Salem until the Roanoke and Southern Railroad spawned a boom of industrial development along its route.
With the construction of the railroad, Southside Cotton Mills, associated with the Fries family's Arista Mill in Salem, was built in 1896 on Goldfloss Street in the Sunnyside development west of Waughtown.[39] The construction of Southside Mills (demolished) was closely followed by other industrial facilities west of Waughtown, in the Sunnyside area, including the Forsyth Chair Company and the Forsyth Furniture Company. Forsyth Manufacturing grew within a few years to include 200 men on its payroll and constructed additional plants around 1907 and 1915.[40]
The Sunnyside development, where much of this industrial growth occurred was platted immediately west of Waughtown, just across the railroad, in March of 1892 by the Winston-Salem Land and Investment Company.[41] The close coordination of industrial development and residential development in the area was not accidental. H.E. Fries, owner of Arista and Southside Mills was also one of the investors in the Winston-Salem Land and Development Company, which platted Sunnyside. Further, the Winston streetcar system opened in 1890 and was purchased by H.E. Fries in 1899; the company was known as Southern Public Utilities and was later acquired by Duke Power.[42] The combination of real estate developer, streetcar investor, and industrialist as seen in H.E. Fries was a common theme among influential men across the South at the turn of the twentieth century.
The extension of the streetcar line by Fries southeastward from Sunnyside to the "George E. Nissen shops in Waughtown" around 1901 was a more direct factor in residential growth in Waughtown.[43] The line was extended to Nissen Park (destroyed) northwest of the Nissen wagon works by 1914. The streetcar ran along South Main Street turning eastward on Sprague Street to Peachtree Street, where it turned north then turned east again on Bretton Street to Pleasant Street, finally traveling north to the park.[44] Sprague Street was probably named for F.J. Sprague, president of the streetcar company prior to Fries' purchase. The end-of-the-line pleasure park was a common feature in early streetcar systems as they helped promote usage of the car by providing a destination in the midst of a rural landscape. The park was apparently defunct before the end of the 1920s.[45]
Belview and the Wachovia Development Company Plat: 1891-1920
As was typical of its era, the construction of a rail line through southeastern Winston-Salem brought with it a great deal of economic potential. The platting of Sunnyside, the development of industry there, and the extension of the streetcar into Waughtown would follow closely. Yet, prior to this important expansion, within months of the platting of the Sunnyside development discussed above, a plat was filed for the property owned by the Wachovia Development Company. The plat was drawn by J.L. Ludlow, Civil Engineer. The new development was located just east of Sunnyside, across the new railroad tracks. The plat included lots on Monmouth, Sprague, Devonshire, Goldfloss, Brookline, Glencoe, Aureole, Moravia, Morsinia, Dacian, and Urban streets. Due to the loss of historic buildings and extensive alterations to many standing buildings, only the northern section including Sprague, Devonshire, Goldfloss Streets and parts of Dacian Street and Urban Street are included in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District.
It is little surprise that H.E. Fries, was again involved in the development of real estate in this burgeoning Southside area. Fries along with eleven other men incorporated the Wachovia Development Company on 9 June 1891 with $25,000 capital. Among these men, were civil engineer, J.L. Ludlow; postmaster R.W. Belo; G.R. Quincy, the proprietor of Hotel Quincy; and The Honorable F.M. Simmons, president of the Winston-Salem Land and Investment Company.[46] The Grantor Indexes reveal that the company transferred few titles under its own name. This may indicate that the company's investors held and sold much of the property privately. For example, one of the investors, R.W. Belo, began selling lots in the Wachovia Development in 1891. Some of the earliest lots he sold were located along Sprague Street, which was the site of the streetcar line, although lots on Monmouth Street and Devonshire Street were also sold in the first year. Belo sold a number of lots each year through about 1908. Most of his sales were for one or two lots to individuals, both African American and white. One early purchaser was Lewis Hege, an African American who bought a lot on Morisina Street in 1908. By 1910, Hege appears in the City Directory as a laborer living in Bellview indicating that he may have built a house on this lot. There were also a few people who purchased large numbers of lots from Belo. The most prolific was George Crowder, a blacksmith at the Spach Brothers Wagon Works, who bought numerous lots, a few at time, between about 1900 and 1905.[47]
Many of the lots sold to African Americans during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were located in the area of Aureole Street, Moravia Street, and Morsinia Street. This southern part of the Wachovia Development plat became known as Belview, an English adaptation of the French belle vue or "beautiful view," and with time, most of the area within the Wachovia plat came to be called by that same name.
It appears that Belview was well developed by 1910, when it is first listed in the City Directory as a "suburban settlement southwest of Southside."[48] The Wachovia Development, or Belview, became a place where both whites and blacks lived together in the early 1900s and this pattern extended into the 1940s and early 1950s. The southern part of the community, however, did become a center for African American life with an orphanage, school, and black-owned businesses developing from the early 1900s through the 1920s near the site of the 1913 Waughtown Baptist Church at 828 Moravia Street.[49]
Similarly, the northern section of the Wachovia Development plat was primarily occupied by white residents by the 1910s. The extant houses in the 600-800 blocks of Devonshire Street offer an excellent picture of the occupations of these white residents in 1915. Residing here were several transportation employees including a hostler for Southern Railway, a conductor at street railway, and two car repairman for the street railway, as well as a clerk at Frank C. Brown Company, two chair makers, a traveling salesman, an employee of Arista Mills, a clerk at the Smokers Den, a shipping clerk at Southside Roller Mill, a foreman at Winston Vehicle Company, three carpenters, a contractor, a painter, and a farmer.[50]
The earliest houses in Belview are for the most part vernacular or modest popular-style architecture and include a number of side gable, single pile dwellings as well as small hip-roof cottages. The circa 1915 house at 736 Goldfloss Street, a one-story, side-gable, single pile house with turned posts and sawn brackets is a good example. The house was occupied by Charles and Willard, a blacksmith, and his wife Bertha in 1920.
While many of the most prominent Belview institutions developed in the southern section, there are notable exceptions. Southside Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in Centerville in 1901 and had strong ties to Centenary Methodist Church in downtown Winston. The church grew and built a sanctuary on Sprague Street at Dacian Street during the first decade of the twentieth century. While this building is now demolished, it was an important part of the early neighborhood development. The church moved to Central Terrace, a new subdivision west of Sunnyside, in 1924 and became Central Terrace Methodist Church. A second church is the Southside Christian Church built about 1915. This building still stands at 2411 Urban Street although the congregation built a new sanctuary at 2315 Urban Street about 1950. Another prominent building in the Belview area of the Waughtown-Belview Historic District is a rare example of a two-story store/house combination located at 2401 Urban Street. Built about 1910, this building was home to I.L. Campbell Grocery in 1915.
The Streetcar Brings Residential Growth to Waughtown: 1900-1915
The Wachovia Development plat is among the earliest and most ambitious of the first wave of residential development following the rail line into southeastern Winston-Salem (Southside). With the completion of the streetcar, however, other investors rushed to plat their own developments. In fact, several plat maps show the progress of residential development and the anticipation of growth brought about by industrial and transportation improvements. Development companies as well as individuals and families were subdividing large tracts within the district boundary, and especially tracts of land surrounding Waughtown.[51] Two additional suburban developments were platted within the district between 1900 and 1920. These include Carlton Bluff platted for C.F. Nissen in 1911 (the area between Peachtree and Dudley streets is within the district boundary) and the Dr. Francis Duffey and Meyer Hahn plat dating from 1913. The Duffey and Hahn plat lay between Sprague Street, Clemmonsville Road, and Burgandy Street (only the northern and eastern sections are located within the district boundary). A few other developments, such as Grove Park (1914) and Central Terrace (1912), were also platted outside the district boundaries and indicate the broad nature of this pattern throughout the Waughtown and Southside areas.
Unlike large developments like Wachovia in the western section of the district, many of the new homes being built to the east, near the older area of Waughtown, were on lots platted by individuals from personal family estates or large land holdings like the Carlton Bluff development. On an even smaller scale were areas such as Leight Street. Deed indexes indicate active real estate transactions by Peter E. Leight, during the post-bellum period. P.E. Leight was the son of early Waughtown settler, John S. Leight, who had acquired considerable acreage in Waughtown during the early nineteenth century. P.E. Leight sold at least seven small lots in the Waughtown area between 1881-1888, but Leight appears to have become increasingly involved in the subdivision of land by the turn of the twentieth century when he began to sell lots along a new street carrying his name. The first Leight Street lot sold in 1903 with at least six lots sold by P.E. Leight in 1903-1904. Based on the Grantor Index, it appears that P.E. Leight, G.M. and John Swaim, George and B.S. Nissen and perhaps others owned property on Leight Street and began selling lots about 1903.[52] They may have collaborated in laying out the street, but no plat has been found. Still extant are several examples of original houses on Leight Street such as the circa 1910 Gable Ell Cottage at 2021 Leight Street. This one-story house has a hip-roof porch with paired, arched posts on brick piers and was owned by S.A. Weir until 1952. Deed records show that P.E. and Emily Leight sold the property to S.A. Weir on 14 May 1904 for $85.[53] S.A. Weir owned and operated the Triangle Body Works, a truck body manufacturing shop located at 2014 Waughtown Street.[54]
Another interesting locally-based development is Nissen Avenue. Although platted in 1917 and noted as the property of the C.F. Nissen Estate, the houses on this street are listed in the 1910 and 1915 City Directory. The houses are similar in scale and style indicating that they were built speculatively before 1910. C.F. Nissen or his heirs may have owned the houses until after the 1917 plat date. These houses were purported to have been company housing built for the Nissen Wagon Works, however, further investigation reveals that residents on Nissen Avenue held a variety of occupations including a painter, an inspector for Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph, a carpenter and a cabinet worker at Forsyth Furniture Company.[55]
The creation of Leight Street and the development of speculative housing such as that on Nissen Avenue occurred within ten years of the streetcar's extension into Waughtown and was certainly part of the residential growth spurred by the streetcar and by the industrial development at Sunnyside and in Winston-Salem generally during this period. The residential boom in the district between 1900 and 1915 saw the construction of at least 200 new residences. Peachtree and Waughtown streets best illustrate this period of intense residential development in the heart of Waughtown. The extant buildings indicate that by about 1900 three of the now-extant houses were built in the 2300 through 2500 blocks of Peachtree Street. City Directory records show that twenty of the extant houses in these blocks of Peachtree Street were built prior to 1920. This number is corroborated by the 1917 Sanborn map, which illustrates twenty houses; sixteen of these still stand. Similarly, eight of the now-extant houses in the 1200 through 1500 blocks of Waughtown Street appear to have been built by 1900 while a total of thirty-one dwellings (seventeen are extant) in these blocks appear on the 1917 Sanborn map. Occupations of owners and occupants of the Waughtown and Peachtree dwellings included a laundress, wagon makers, Wagon Works foremen, postal carriers, chair makers, lumber dealers and teamsters.[56]
During this prosperous period at the turn of the twentieth century, some of Waughtown's most noted families built some of the area's most distinctive architecture. In fact, between the 1000 and 2600 blocks of Waughtown Street there are more than sixty buildings dating before 1920. The ornate Queen Anne style Jake Newsom House at 1321 Waughtown Street, for example, was constructed around 1905 by C. Frank Nissen for his daughter, Maggie (1871-1925), upon her marriage to Jacob (Jake) Newsom (1852-1913). Unlike the Newsom House, however, most of the nineteenth century houses on Waughtown Street are regional in their architectural expression. The Smith House, c.1900, at 2011 Waughtown Street is a good example. This I-house is ornamented by a tri-gable roof and wraparound porch with turned posts and sawn brackets. The house was built by Milton Smith and his wife Sarah (daughter of the founder of Spach Wagon Works). Smith was a partner in Smith and Phillips General Merchandise as well as owner of M.D. Smith and Son Dairy.[57]
Front Village to Suburb 1915-1940
By 1915, Waughtown and the Belview-Wachovia Development neighborhood became closely linked as residential development filled the gap between them. These two areas were also increasingly tied to the industrialization and economic prosperity of the burgeoning city of Winston-Salem. While wagon making and the building trades continued to be the dominant occupations in Waughtown throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the first fifteen years of the twentieth century brought about significant growth and change in Winston and its sister town of Salem. The development of a tobacco-based economy had begun in the Twin Cities during the late nineteenth century with several small firms. Tobacco production was almost entirely consolidated in the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company after the purchase of the profitable Hanes family tobacco business in 1900. The Hanes brothers went on to establish two separate, successful textile plants with the proceeds of that sale helping to ensure a diversified economy in the city.[58]
Though textiles as well as furniture were important contributors to the economy during the early twentieth century, tobacco surpassed all others in growth. Construction at the company's downtown location boomed in the 1910s as did employment. Other businesses in the city showed signs of prosperity as well. Wachovia National Bank and Wachovia Loan and Trust, for example, merged in 1911 to create one of the South's strongest financial institutions.[59] The economic growth and change during the early years of the twentieth century culminated in 1913 with the merger of Winston and Salem into a single political entity. With the growth of the new city, in-town neighborhoods became more crowded, drawing the working and middle classes outward to the more affordable rural areas made accessible by the streetcar and eventually the automobile.
By 1924, Winston-Salem was not only the state's largest city, it was the largest manufacturer of tobacco products in the world. Winston-Salem was also the nation's largest producer of men's underwear and the largest manufacturer of knit goods, woolen goods, and wagons in the South. The city's wealth was evidenced by the 1923-1924 federal tax roster; Winston-Salem paid more than one-half of all the federal taxes paid in North Carolina during that period. While the Reynolds and Hanes families, along with the Fries family and other Salem industrialists, held a great deal of the city's wealth during the early twentieth century, Winston-Salem's burgeoning group of businessmen, administrative, and clerical workers became increasingly wealthy as well. The combination of national housing trends, increased population, and the economic capacity among the growing middle class to purchase automobiles created a boom to suburban development.
In Waughtown, the increased growth of this period was closely related to the emerging tobacco and textile industries in Winston-Salem as well as the peak in the wagon making industry that occurred during the first two decades of the twentieth century. By 1919, production at the Nissen Wagon Company had increased to about fifty wagons a day. Further, the company was able to rebound after a disastrous fire that consumed the company's buildings in that year by building an even larger and better plant during the 1920s.[60] In 1925, William M. Nissen, foreseeing the eventual decline of the wagon in favor of the truck, sold the Nissen Wagon Company to F.B. Reamy for almost $1,000,000. Reamy continued making wagons, about 4,000 per year, until the mid-1940s. After selling the wagon works, William Nissen invested much of his proceeds in the construction of a skyscraper, the Nissen Building, at the corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets in downtown Winston-Salem.[61]
The sale of the Nissen Wagon Works and the construction of the Nissen Building in Winston-Salem foreshadowed a shift in the character of Waughtown after 1925. The well-to-do in Waughtown became fewer in number and the working class moved from employment in the wagon works, blacksmithing, and farming to become factory workers. In the 1920s, there were a total of twenty-one Waughtown residents employed at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, eleven residents employed in furniture manufacturing, and four employees of P.H. Hanes Knitting and Dyeworks but, only four employees at the Nissen Wagon Works; down from eight in 1910.[62] Employment in industry became dominant among residents of northern Bellview by the early 1920s as well when there were four employees of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in addition to employees of Forsyth Manufacturing, Forsyth Dining Room Company, Chero-Cola Company, Southside Roller Mills, and Winston Chair Company.[63] In the 700 block of Goldfloss Street in 1930, for example, Rex Mayberry, Arthur Gough, Thomas Pegram, and Grover Wooten were employed at four different furniture companies while Horton Hall was a clerk at Southern Power and Utilities Company.[64] Employment for African Americans living within the district during the 1920s also ranged widely. Many were employed at Nissen Wagon Works, but others held higher status positions at Wachovia Bank and Trust, Vogler's Funeral Home, and service positions with some of Winston-Salem's most prominent families.[65]
This economic shift ties the Waughtown-Belview Historic District closely to the history of the city of Winston-Salem. While many people living within the district, particularly those living in Belview, were employed at "local" factories such as Forsyth Manufacturing, Forsyth Iron Bed Company, or Southside Mills, many more rode the streetcar or drove automobiles downtown to work at the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company or the P.H. Hanes Knitting Company.[66] Reynolds and Hanes (including the family's dyeworks and hosiery mill) grew to dominate the city's economy during the 1920s.[67]
Although demographics in Waughtown were shifting, its population continued to grow and the building boom expanded as Winston-Salem's industries increased production causing a need for housing. The 1917 Sanborn map shows houses on typical suburban-size lots throughout Waughtown, customarily being between thirty-five feet and fifty feet wide and of varying depths. These lots were found along Waughtown Street, Peachtree Street, Sink Street and Sprague Street. The Sanborn maps also illustrate how, by 1928, Waughtown's development had blossomed from houses along the primary arteries with a few side streets, and the large Wachovia Development to the west, into an area growing quickly eastward and northward. The expanding development illustrates the dichotomy of the Waughtown area. It at once follows the national trend for platted suburban developments, yet illustrates the continued pattern of native Waughtown families subdividing their large land holdings. Sixteen platted developments were created within the district boundary between 1917 and 1937 with an additional eleven being located adjacent to the Waughtown-Belview Historic District boundaries. Of those plats within the district, fourteen were submitted under the names of personal property owners while only two plats were registered under development company names. Plats adjacent to the district boundary included seven registered under personal property owner names and four under development company names.[68]
One of the larger of the plats within the Waughtown-Belview Historic District is the Longview Development. This area was platted by B.S. Nissen, the son of George E. Nissen, and grandson of John Phillip Nissen, in 1920. Subsequent land plats occurred adjacent to Longview in 1921 by Atlantic Coast Realty Co., noted on the map as "A part of the C.F. Nissen Estate."[69] Longview was located immediately west of Nissen Wagon Works. The development's World War One-theme street names, sizeable bungalows, and the presence of the streetcar line on Bretton Street, gave the area an elegant air. Following the precedent set by the Nissens, A.L. Hoover platted land adjacent to the west side of Peachtree Street, the border of Longview, and current-day Hoover Street in 1923.[70] The earliest houses in the Longview Development are c.1925, indicating that although much of the rural landscape of Waughtown was being platted in the early twentieth century, development continued until the second quarter of the century.[71] This intensive residential development in Waughtown culminated in the annexation of Waughtown and Belview Wachovia Development in 1923 by the City of Winston-Salem. By the 1930s, the city limit encompassed the entire district, extending as far east as the intersection of Waughtown Street and Butler Street.[72]
The physical expansion of the city indicated building trends during this time period as the central core became more densely populated and suburban housing developments emerged in larger numbers. Real estate development companies came to Winston-Salem as early as the 1880s and by 1925 there were seventy-three (five of them African American) taking advantage of the housing boom.[73] In Forsyth County, beginning about 1919, the value of building permits increased from just over 2 million dollars to nearly 10 million dollars by 1928, illustrating the increased development both within Winston-Salem and expansion in adjacent areas. [74]
House-building in Waughtown held a rapid pace throughout the 1920s. As late as 1917, Sprague Street extended only to Peachtree Street, but was extended further east, paralleling Waughtown Street, during the 1920s. Thus, by the publication of the 1928 Sanborn Map, Waughtown was a rather linear and irregular community along Waughtown Street from Nissen Wagon Works (at the corner of Waughtown and Marble) east just beyond the intersection with Lyons Street. The community kept its orientation close to Waughtown Street except for an area to the north along Leight and Flatrock streets.[75] By the late 1920s, development along Flatrock Street and Butler Street had increased as former farms, held by estates, were divided.[76] The northward extension of Waughtown was prompted by the location of a granite quarry near the north end of Leight Street. The quarry site includes two quarries; the older of which has been suggested as a stone source for the town of Salem. It is unclear when the old quarry closed and excavation in the new location nearby began, although oral tradition indicates the older quarry was still in use during the early twentieth century. The older quarry site is located in rear of the former quarry office and weigh station at 1850 Leight Street (c.1950). The Foursquare house located nearby at 1856 Leight Street is also associated with the site as it was home to Ted L. Hedrick from the early 1940s through the early 1950s. Hedrick was the superintendent of Piedmont Quarries Company in 1942 and was vice-president of the company by 1952. Quarrying continued at the site through the mid-twentieth century with the opening of the second quarry and was a significant industry in the area.
The growth in the community of Waughtown during the 1920s was clearly evidenced by an increase in commercial activity. Always a notable thoroughfare, Waughtown Street became increasingly important in the community's economy during the early years of the automobile age as service stations sprang up along Waughtown and Sprague streets. Zeb Norton built his filling station at 2341 Waughtown Street about 1920, W.B. Browder's Dad's Place Filling Station was built around 1925 at 2126 Waughtown Street and the seashell-shaped Quality Oil Station was built at Sprague and Peachtree in 1931. Norton's was especially significant in Waughtown's community life as a popular evening gathering spot for Waughtown's men.[77] Grocery stores increased in number during this period. One of the principal stores in Waughtown, Colonel Stewart and Sons Grocery, built a new store around 1925. This one-story, brick building at 1501-1505 Waughtown Street features standard commercial motifs such as recessed entries and brick sign panels. The building actually houses three storefronts and a rear store originally occupied by the grocery (E.L. Vogler) as well as Roy Wooten's cafe, a barber shop, and a shoe store.[78] The cafe was often a place for spontaneous socializing as locals gathered for meals or snacks.[79]
The commercial growth in Waughtown followed a residential building boom in the area. Craftsman-style Bungalows sprang up on Sprague, Waughtown, and the many cross streets, Peachtree Street in particular. These houses exhibited popular designs of the day, with the front-gable roof/side-gable porch form, being especially common. One of the finest dwellings from the 1920-1930 period is the H.L. Mickey House, certainly one of the best examples of the Craftsman style in Winston-Salem. The stylish, two-story house was built in 1924 for Henry Mickey and features a gabled dormer, a gabled projection, flared upper level, shingle sheathing, a porte-cochere, beveled glass and sidelights, and a hip-roof porch with gable over the entry supported by brick piers and knee braces.
The prosperity of Waughtown and Winston-Salem generally was often reflected by the construction of new, larger, more ornate sanctuaries by churches. Waughtown Baptist Church built a new sanctuary in 1919. The building committee included E.L. Vogler (former mayor), Dr. A.Y. Linville, George Clodfelter and Russell Sides (2212 Pleasant Street). First Reformed Church constructed a new building in 1927. An additional institutional building, Waughtown School (demolished), was built in the 1920s and Forest Park Elementary School (Milford Street, outside district) was built in 1925.[80]
By the end of the 1920s, the truck had overtaken the wagon as the primary mode of local transportation for goods. Although Nissen Wagon Works remained open until 1948, due in large part to the continued use of wagons in tobacco farming, other wagon manufacturing businesses had closed. Ironically, one of the new businesses that opened in Waughtown during the 1920s was Triangle Body Works, which produced truck bodies. It was founded around 1927 by T.V. Linville, S.A. Weir, and J.L. Swaim, who were all long-time residents of Waughtown. This operation was located in the 1900 Block of Waughtown Street in a two-story, wood-frame building with arched parapet. Following national trends, the automobile also became the primary mode for the transport of people and the streetcar ceased operation in 1936, its route taken over by the more flexible bus operated by the former streetcar company, Duke Power.[81] Emory Coleman, a long time resident of Waughtown, remembers looking out of their second-story bedroom window with his brother to see the first bus come into Waughtown, witnessing the change in modes of transportation for the working class of the area.[82] Thus, by the eve of World War II, Waughtown and its adjacent communities had been transformed from a singular village and isolated streetcar suburbs into a large residential area composed of growing automobile suburbs that was fully integrated with the City of Winston-Salem.
Post Second World War and Contemporary Development: 1945-1960
As in most suburban locations in North Carolina, the immediate post-war period brought intense residential development to the Waughtown area. The national housing shortage after the war prompted many developments and infill in established developments within Waughtown. Many of the larger post-war developments were occurring just outside of the district boundary, such as that in the vicinity of Ernest Street, southeast of Clemmonsville Road, or along Pleasant Street at Harding and Donald Streets. Filled with modest, Minimal Traditional style houses, these areas are typical of several locations adjacent to the historic district. Minimal Traditional and Ranch houses also were built in large numbers as infill in previously developed areas within the district boundary. In the Longview development, for example, contractor James R. Stewart built several houses in the 2000 block of Longview Drive in 1947 as speculative housing. Further east on Waughtown Street, Mollie S. Leight, the wife of Erastus Milton Leight (son of P.E. Leight), began selling lots from the 1943 E.M. Leight Property Plat located in the 1800 block of Waughtown Street. The first lot was sold in 1945 with several additional lots sold in 1946. E.M. Leight had at least one brother, John J., and the two appear to have dealt in real estate under their firm, Leight Brothers.[83]
The Waughtown area emerged as one of the most desirable middle-class neighborhoods in Winston-Salem drawing an increasing number of middle and working class residents in spite of the decline in the number of wealthy families. Clerks, salesmen, tradesmen, business owners, bus drivers, railroad employees, farmers, and manufacturing employees lived throughout the district by the 1940s.[84] A small sampling of the rapid pace of growth is indicated by the experience of long-time resident Emory Coleman. He had a paper route as a youngster, prior to WW II, and began with approximately 70-80 customers, after only four years, just after the war, his customer base had grown to between 130-140 customers.[85]
Although the growth of Waughtown continued at a steady pace, based on oral tradition, it remained a fairly rural area, with several farms on the outskirts of town. Emory Coleman's early morning paper route ended at the farm of "Uncle" Dave Long (near current-day Woodville Street) where he would help to feed and milk livestock, after which he would go to school. He also helped to bring wagons of produce into town from the farm, peddling along the street until the produce was gone. Many of the side streets were still dirt with traditional suburban size lots of fifty to sixty feet wide along them. There were no sidewalks, only narrow areas to walk along the edge of the dirt road. For instance, Pleasant Street consisted of lots fifty to sixty feet wide, with a few larger lots that were remnants of old farmsteads, during the 1940s and 1950s. This street, however, was not paved until the mid to late 1970s. Even though there were no sidewalks along any of the side streets, most transportation was by foot, some horse and wagons and a few automobiles.[86]
Churches were still being built as well, although less frequently than in earlier days. One of the finest examples is the c.1946 Church of the Living God, which features a stone exterior done in the Gothic Revival style. Another fine example is the Immanuel Moravian Parsonage, c.1945, at 1912 Peachtree Street. This Colonial Revival dwelling is an excellent replica of the Georgian style, with Flemish bond brick and segmental arches infilled with shaped brick over lower windows and attic windows. The first occupant was Rev. Ellis Bullins who resided there throughout the early 1950s. Churches during the 1940s and 1950s were still the center of most social activities, involving all ages from children to grandparents.[87]
Elementary age children attended either Forest Park School, or Waughtown Elementary School and proceeded to James A. Gray High School (now part of the North Carolina School of the Arts). Forest Park was constructed about 1920 and Waughtown Elementary about 1917, but Gray High was not built until 1930. Most students walked to school in Waughtown. During the 1920s, prior to the construction of Gray High School, Evelyn Essex attended Reynolds High School in the West End neighborhood. She rode the streetcar to school, gathering with friends at the corner of Peachtree and Waughtown in the mornings, transferring cars at the courthouse square and continuing on to Reynolds High School.[88]
Other social activities included participating in YMCA activities (a bus would be sent to various schools), playing at Reynolds Park or other local parks or riding the bus downtown to see a show at the theater. Church events, such as missionary societies, days of prayer and lawn parties or picnics were other common social activities.[89] Less formal activities were also enjoyed by families during this period as neighbors spontaneously gathered in the evenings to visit and families would share Sunday lunch together at a nearby grandparent's home.[90] Another popular gathering area (at least for youngsters) was Meadow Lake (also referred to as Meadow View) Park, which was officially closed in 1936, but remained accessible to those who knew where to find it. Although outside of the district boundary, this park was a well developed area with a swimming pool, bathhouses, lights and a grotto type structure around the natural spring.[91]
Commercial development was still expanding at a steady pace. New, larger service stations, groceries, and general merchandise stores were built along Waughtown and Sprague streets, especially between 1955 and 1965. These ventures gradually became clustered near the intersections with Clemmonsville Road and Thomasville Road as well as in the vicinity of the 2700 through 2900 blocks of Waughtown Street. Lackey's Texaco Service, for example, was built about 1952 at 812 Waughtown Street. Probably a Texaco Company design, the Art Moderne building exemplifies popular gas station architecture of the day. Other important businesses during this period included a Hoover Lumber woodworking plant at the corner of Peachtree and Waughtown Street, a Feed and Seed store, Jones' Grocery store, two grist mills, and the Triangle Body Works on Waughtown Street.
The fuel for this residential and commercial growth was R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and other industries in downtown Winston-Salem. By the early 1950s, the number of employees at Reynolds had swelled tremendously, far outstripping any other occupation as the primary income source for the district and the city generally. Local industries such as wagonmaking and furniture had ended in Waughtown and Sunnyside by 1950 but, the Southside Mill hung on through the 1950s.[92] These industries were supplemented by the addition of the Western Electric plant in the old Nissen Wagon Works building in the 1950s. The Western Electric Company moved into Winston-Salem in 1946, occupying several pre-existing buildings and drawing ninety percent of the 1,600 person payroll from the local area. Besides making a positive economic impact in the area, Western Electric also drew other corporations to the area. With the new influx of technicians, engineers and management personnel, a "new" middle class began to emerge as these folks began to support the arts programs, boosted civic clubs, changed the character of the consumer market and supported churches.[93]
The 1950 census reported 26,678 people living in "Southside," an area roughly covering the district as well as Sunnyside and Centerville, and including some areas outside the city limits. By 1960, this same area had grown thirty-seven percent, more than the city or county. A 1962 article in the Twin City Sentinel characterized the area as predominantly homeowners including industrial workers, store clerks, bank tellers, carpenters, plumbers, and mechanics. Many households had two incomes and the streets were filled with houses intermingled with fruit stands, shops, grocery stores, and filling stations. "Most of the families who made a lot of money there," the Sentinel reported, "have either died out or moved to another part of town. Yet a business survey shows Southside to be above average in family income."[94] Residents of Waughtown did not necessarily see themselves nor their neighbors as wealthy. According to Sarah Swaim, Waughtown was a community of hard-working, middle class people, who had a lot of pride in their work and their neighborhood.[95]
During this period, the various neighborhoods within the Waughtown-Belview Historic District and its environs began to coalesce and enter the city conscience as a single area referred to variously as Waughtown or Southside, although residents of Belview struggled to maintain their unique identity. Perhaps this shift reflected the increasingly middle-class character of the area. Virtually all sections of the district were inhabited by salesmen, mechanics, grocers, accountants, and carpenters, as well as industrial workers for Arista Cotton Mills, Southern Steel Stampings, Unique Furniture, and R.J. Reynolds.
By the late 1960s, however, the national drive to get out of the city was taking its toll. The suburban development here gradually became less desirable as the automobile and good quality roads made moving farther from downtown more feasible. Today, faced by new development and social pressures, the area is struggling to reinterpret itself as an integrated neighborhood serving a wide range of socioeconomic groups.
The history is rich with parallels with other areas of Winston-Salem. The multi-faceted neighborhoods that make up the Waughtown-Belview Historic District represent rural villages from the earliest periods of development near the Town of Salem, the industrialization and suburbanization that followed the introduction of the streetcar and railroad into the city, as well as the burgeoning growth of the 1920s and residential boom of the 1950s. The overwhelming majority of the historic resources in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District are residential buildings (approximately 1,050). Of these, less than one percent were constructed before about 1890 while about one-quarter were built from about 1890 through circa 1915. Slightly more than one-third date from between about 1915 and 1940 and about one-third were built between circa 1940 and 1955. Only about fourteen percent date from the circa 1955 to 1965 period with less than one percent dating after 1965. All told, the Waughtown-Belview Historic District touches on nearly all of the major historical themes and social groups that played a part in the development of the City of Winston-Salem and illustrates them with a distinctive and diverse collection of architecture. As the city continues to grow and change, however, the resources located in the survey area are among the city's most threatened. New development and social pressures continue to affect a neighborhood that is no stranger to change.
Endnotes
References
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"Central Terrace United Methodist Church History." Privately Published, 2001.
Coleman, Emory. Interview by Lori Tolliver-Jones, March 2004.
"Desire of Charles Bagge to Operate Store Caused Beginning of Waughtown." Wachovia Historical Society Scrapbook #5. Moravian Archives.
East, Bill. "Nissen Park: A Side Street Excursion." Winston-Salem Sentinel 24 November 1975.
Essex, Evelyn. Interview by Lori Tolliver-Jones, May 2004.
First United Church of Christ. Reflections on Living in Waughtown. Privately published, 2000.
Fries, Adelaide, ed. Forsyth: The Historic of a County on the March. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1976.
________. Records of the Moravians, Vol.6-7. Raleigh: State Department of Archives and History, 1970.
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Giunca, Mary. Winston-Salem Journal 21 November 2000.
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‡ Sherry Jones Wyatt, Waughtown-Belview Historic District, Forsyth County, NC, nomination document, 2004, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Street Names
Art Street • Bretton Street • Brindle Street • Burgandy Street • Carlyle Street • Clemmonsville Road • Colony Street • Cottage Street • Dacian Street • Devonshire Street • Dudley Street • Flatrock Street • Goldfloss Street • Leight Street • Longview Drive • Lyons Street • Marble Street • Marne Street • Nissen Avenue • Peachtree Street • Pleasant Street • Shelby Lane • Sink Street • Sprague Street • Sunshine Avenue • Thomasville Road • Tryon Street • Urban Street • Verdun Street • Vogler Street • Waterbury Street • Waughtown Street