Old Salem
Posted by Bryan Rothamel on October 3, 2008 · Leave a Comment
This ran in the Campus Chronicle on Oct. 3. Enjoy!
In view is the Wachovia Center, the area’s tallest building. Modern buildings and revitalization projects surround the historical roots of Winston-Salem, N.C.
Old Salem is a destination for people looking to, “find themselves in another place and time,” as their slogan says. The Old Salem district is home to the historic town, the Museum of Southern Decorative Arts, the Children’s Museum, the Toy Museum and ten various gardens.
Old Salem is a historic Moravian neighborhood, founded in 1766. The town has many original or authentically restored buildings. Costumed interpreters take visitors back to the 18th and 19th centuries.
The destination can consume visitors’ time for hours or days depending on interests.
“The experience is really what you make it,” says Lauren Werner, director of marketing at Old Salem Museums and Gardens. “You could be someone with a passive interest in history and still find it very engaging because there is so much here to see. It’s visually very interesting.”
After starting in the modern visitor’s center, travelers walk over a covered bridge. The wooden bridge has the authentic look but glass on the sides to keep the weather from blowing in. The walk ends at the three museums. Visitors can then say goodbye to the 21st century and start to see how life was in the past.
Just past the museums, visitors can see the tree lined streets and brick sidewalks that flow through the historic district. On each curb are cars from residents that still call the area home.
Old Salem is the oldest functioning town in America. Mixed in with private residences are sites for visitors to enter and experience life from the past.
The heavy door of the first stop opens the gunsmith shop. A man works with the sunlight provided to make or repair guns. The smell of the burning wood oven fills the small shop. The sunlight peaks through the large windows on each of the walls.
A short walk down Main Street, visitors find the Tavern Meadow. The meadow was originally used for travelers to rest their horses. Presently, the area is used for special programs and multiple demonstrations.
Pow. Two men dressed in colonial uniforms fire their guns to demonstrate gun-powdered riffles. The sound causes visitors to cover their ears.
After hearing is restored, visitors enter the tavern adjacent to the meadow.
“Welcome brothers and sisters!” the man in costume greats everyone. While visitors are at the tavern, the interpreter keeps calling everybody either brother or sister just like the Moravians did.
Visitors walk up the creaking steps to the second floor where people can lie on a replica hay and pull string bed. The phrase, “sleep tight,” can finally make sense.
In the basement, costumed interpreters demonstrate cooking and display various common foods. The juice they made in colonial times is similar to Kool-Aid, minus the punch bowl jumping through walls.
The Blum House awaits visitors a short walk from the tavern. The building was originally a print shop and currently has exhibits on printers and photographers from Salem. On the walls are pictures and documents that chronicle Old Salem throughout the years.
Dodging tree trunks and enjoying the sunlight meandering through the branches, visitors walk to the Vogler House restored to the mid 1800s. The house is used to show the changes Salem underwent in the 19th century.
Visitors walk on the dark hardwood floors of the house to the silversmith room on the first floor. The rest of the home displays how a family lived over 150 years ago.
The joyful sound of children attempting old games comes from the block of lush grass, trees and stone walkways in the middle of the town. The area is named the Square, which originally hosted public functions and still does today.
After playing games with sticks and rings, the children move to demonstrating a fire. Unaware of what is about occur, parents watch interpreters douse their children with water. The face of the mother holding the little child is less than amused as her little one screams joyfully.
Home Church is just beyond the Square and is not owned by Old Salem Museums and Gardens. It is open during select hours with members from Home giving tours of the chapel. The members are very proud of their Moravian history, especially associated with their church. The congregation still has Sunday services and encourages visitors to attend.
The Single Brothers’ House across from the church is filled with “unmarried” interpreters. During colonial times, unmarried men would learn a trade before getting married or moving in with someone else. Moravian tradition is to have only married couples living on their own.
Visitors see various “brothers” learning trades in the small rooms in the basement. The lack of electric lights makes attempting to do work on one side of the building impossible. On the sunlit side, a man is shaping a newly made spoon in one room while the next has another brother making colored ink.
The Single Sisters’ House, across the Square, is owned and operated by Salem College and Academy. It is open select hours for visitors to wander into.
Further down Main Street visitors can find a second home opened for demonstration and also the C. Winkler Bakery. The bakery is 200 years old making it the oldest full operational bakery in America. The goods are cooked in a wood fired oven and baked fresh daily.
Werner, who also is a resident in the historic district, says, “Everybody has to come and try a sugar cake. It is the best thing in the world!”
After a day of strolling through the historic district travelers and snacking on sugar cakes, visitors can eat at the Salem Tavern Restaurant or venture into Winston-Salem, located only a mile down the road.
A day of Old Salem will be more pleasing to the mature in age visitors, Teresa Fleming a drive vacations specialist of AAA-Greensboro admits. It doesn’t appeal as much to the 15-30 years old age group but Fleming encourages the destination for students to take their parents to.
“Although Old Salem doesn’t seem much fun for me, it’s a place I think my family would enjoy,” says High Point senior Kimmy Freer.
The cost of a visit to the district is around $20 a person to visit every building and the other museums. For free, visitors can opt to walk around the town without entering all of the buildings.
Old Salem does give visitors the chance to wind down, walk around and enjoy the quaint life of the 18th and 19th century.
Driving away visitors still see the Wachovia Center and the various highways around, yet can always remember life from the past thanks to the Moravian tradition preserved in Old Salem.
