Winston Salem Forsyth County history

The university was established in 1834 by the Baptist State Convention.

In 1849, the residents of Salem sold some of the city’s land to the county of Forsyth, so that the county could build and establish a county seat.

Salem (from the Hebrew shalom, meaning “peace”) was laid out in 1766 by Moravian colonists in the centre of their Wachovia land tract; it was incorporated in 1856, when the land was sold to outsiders.

In 1875 Richard J. Reynolds instituted his tobacco corporation in Winston, and it propelled the area’s economic growth for years to come.

In 1899, the United States Post Office moved into Winston.

It would not be until 1913 when the town of Winston finally merged with Salem and became what it is known as today, Winston-Salem.

R.J. Reynolds died in 1918 of a mysterious stomach illness that befuddled doctors.

In 1920, the city had become the largest in North Carolina.

By the 1940’s, over 60 percent of all residents in the city worked for either Reynolds or the Hanes textile factories, which had also made their home in the city.

In 1941 the medical school moved to Winston-Salem.

When Tanglewood was opened in 1954, several parks existed in Winston-Salem in black neighborhoods, but nothing that rose to the beauty or available facilities of Tanglewood.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools formed in 1963 with the merger of the Winston-Salem and Forsyth County school systems.

In March 1970, in light of recent decisions by the United States Supreme Court involving, among other places, Stone Mountain Park in Georgia, the court ruled that Tanglewood must be open to all races or close.

The trust then leased the park to a nonprofit corporation, which operated the park just as before but made it available to all citizens. As a result, Tanglewood was officially integrated in 1971 following 20 years of segregation.

In 1976, using $2.05 million in bonds and $3.2 million from the Smith Reynolds Foundation, Tanglewood finally belonged to the people of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.

In the 2010 biography “Washington: A Life,” author Ron Chernow wrote that “the southern tour was a hugely ambitious adventure. … In an era of primitive communications, he would be absent from Philadelphia for three months, making it hard to settle major policy disputes.