Wake Forest

by Jennifer Smart

Overview

Wake Forest Township got its start in 1834 when Calvin Jones sold his farmland to the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. The college began as a place for local boys to trade manual labor for a religious education. But the campus soon grew and so did the community, "surpassing any other neighborhood in refinement, good society, and wealth," according to one 19th-century account. By 1909, the town was incorporated. Not long after, with transformers trucked in from Raleigh, residents could read newspaper headlines touting Wake Forest's fame in sports, academics, and medicine by the glow of the town's new electric lights. For a time, the town and college seemed inseparable. But by 1956, the school had moved to Winston-Salem, dealing a devastating blow to local residents. For many years afterward, they waited for the world to rediscover Wake Forest. It seems that day has come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738553795
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	06/23/2008
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,065,750
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

The Wake Forest College Birthplace Society, the North Carolina State Archives, and the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary have kindly shared these beautiful images that have been organized into a photographic retelling of the town's history by journalist and Wake Forest resident Jennifer Smart. Birthplace Society leaders, volunteers, and local historians have graciously provided the facts to make that history come alive.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     6
Introduction     7
Five Towns     9
Town and Gown     21
Business and Industry     35
Progress     47
Schools and Education     57
The Seminary and Religious Life     67
Headlines     79
Characters and Legends     95
Historic Homes     105
Community Life     113