Washington Park

[Myles Away]

A look at Winston-Salem's Victorian Washington Park. These are from my friend Mathew.

This streetcar neighborhood was built by the Winston-Salem

Land Company. Washington Park is said to be the largest urban

park in North Carolina. Stone retaining walls unify the

hilly streetscape. The largest houses are located on the tall ridges,

taking advantage of Winston-Salem's Appalachian Foothills terrain.

Governor Terry Sanford granted the North Carolina School of

the Arts to the Washington Park neighborhood. It was the first

state supported university for art in the United States and it also

included a high school for gifted artists. Today NCSA is one of

the top five film schools in the United States and one of the top

performing arts schools in the country. Washington Park is also

home to the Vintage Theatre (Vintage Avenue), The second

largest collection of films in the world and the Moravian Music

Foundation (Cascade Avenue), which contains the largest

collection of 18th century European classical music in the world.

Well, lets look around.

I started from the backside of the neighborhood and worked

my way North, following the old streetcar lines.

Built in 1849, this is the oldest house in Washington Park.

It was featured in a wine and garden magazine and has a

small vineyard in the backyard.

A nice victorian house.

It was hard to get a good photo of this house, due to the sun's angle.

Henry Elias Fries House

Built by the Fogle Brothers in 1914. Fries was a former mayor,

trustee of Winston-Salem State University, the owner of Arista

Corp, a railroad developer and was the owner of the city's

electric company and transit system.

Henry Elias Fries House

Fries built this house after selling his electric company and

the streetcar system. When he died at his desk on the 22nd floor

of the Reynolds American Tower in 1949, the state legislature

adjourned in his honor.

I took these photos the day I got there.

Look how nice the weather was.

Winston-Salem was known as the city of a hundred millionaires

during the late victorian era and early 20th century. It was

"the state's richest city by far."

:eek: Matt's Pick: Best house in Washington Park! :eek:

David Reid House

This Victorian brick Queen Anne house was built in 1893.

David Reid House

If you look to the left, you'll see the skyscrapers! The view,

from this street, of the skyline was awesome! Just look how

the street slopes downward from the hill.

Register to vote and you can vote him out this fall.

Kerry - Edwards 2004! :tup:

These houses are nicely preserved. It is a very beautiful

neighborhood with a variety of architectural styles.

Burton Craige House

This is the second oldest house in Washington Park

A. H. Eller House

Designed by Northup & O'Brien for A. H. Eller.

An officer at Wachovia National Bank.

Burton Craige House

Built in 1850, this house was purchased by Salisbury lawyer

Burton Craige in 1928. He hired architect Luther Lashmit

to "update" the house. Thomas Sears was the

landscape architect. Craige moved his law firm to Winston-Salem in 1927.

Cicero Lowe House

Designed by Willard Northup and built by the Fogle Brothers.

Cicero Lowe was a salesman at Brown & Rogers, during the days

when Winston-Salem was home to the Southeast's largest

agricultural exchange.

:rock: Neighborhood pride!

My second favorite house.

There are a lot of nice houses along these streets.

Are you ready to tour the park?

Washington Park is a "dog park" where you are not

required to use a leash.

The old victorian neighborhoods in Winston-Salem are designed

with the park on the lowest land and the houses on the highest land.

This park has recently played host to a number of state and

regional sporting events. Strollways (bike and walking paths)

connect the park to Piedmont College, The Financial District and

the Arts District. The park features historic steel pedestrian

bridges over the waterways on the Strollway.

Plans are underway to expand Washington Park next year,

adding more athletic fields, a river walk with retail, condos, office

buildings and new strollways connecting the park to

Winston-Salem State University, Salem College and NCSA.

A family having a cookout at the park.

Winston-Salem is more than the "The City of the Arts", it's also

the city of historic structures and parks. This entrance is original

to the park.

The original bridges in Washington Park.

More of the old stone work.

I should do a tour using black and white photography sometime.

Eastlake Queen Anne

Built by the Fogle Brothers in 1890.

Of all the Victorian houses, Eastlake Queen Anne is my favorite.

This church has no place to park. It was a neighborhood church

served by the streetcars. Most of the houses in these threads

had no place to park. Some of the big houses I've shown you had

carriage houses around back. I'll show those later in the thread.

Free Classic Queen Anne

Instead of delicate turned spindles, these Victorian homes

have classical columns.

The brickwork on this house is awesome!

I went back for a few more photos of this house.

I thought it would look better in the morning sun.

Another view of the Free Classic Queen Anne.

Tudor

This style was popular from 1890-1940.

This was a very quiet and peaceful neighborhood.

Everybody Polka! (forget what I said above)

The Vintage Theatre

An art gallery and performing arts space. I like the huge tower

and of course the view of the skyline. I tried to access the tower

with the spiral staircase, but it's closed to the public.

Winston-Salem's famous Alban Elved Dance Company performs at

the Vintage theatre and the Fiddle and Bow Society holds

Folk Dancing at the Vintage Theatre.

Eastlake Queen Anne

This one isn't as colorful as some of the others. An older woman

owns this house. There's a yellow twin next door owned by a

Catholic church.

Eastlake Queen Anne.

Eastlake Queen Anne

A beautiful Victorian Home.

One of my favorites from this neighborhood.

One of the things I love about Winston-Salem.

The people there view the whole city as a canvas.

Swaim's Grocery

Swaim's Neighborhood Pub

The Carriage Houses

These carriage houses were used for horses or

early automobiles. This one was used for horses.

This one was used for early cars, but it's still called a carriage house.

Victorian windows on this "horse" carriage house.

And when you're finished riding your horse into town,

you may need this to clean your shoes. :uhh:

North Carolina School of the Arts

is described as the finest overall comprehensive performing arts

conservatory in the world, including schools of Dance, Drama,

Film, Music and Design & Production.

What an awesome view!

NCSA's film school was the first film school in the world to be

built inside a film set.

Watson Music Hall

Junk Sculpture

No, really. This type of art is called Junk Sculpture.

So how good is the view from the ridge tops in Washington Park?

This was the view from Vintage Avenue. Cascade Avenue is

higher in elevation and has even better views than this.

The forum members from Winston-Salem seem to prefer this

angle when photographing their skyline.

[Fruit Cove]

wow i was in that very park about a month ago when i was in winston....right where that stage is on the left with the red painted bathrooms on the far left of the pic...i was at the art school. brings back memories. thanks a lot

[Danny 4 Peace]

I grew up there! Parkland Highschool graduate, NCSA graduate, and lived in Washington Park for 21 years! Its the best of the city's old streetcar neighborhoods. As I said at SSC, this brings back some memories.

[Myles Away]

WP is great. I looked around for a house there last summer. This one queen anne was going for $399,900 which was out of my price range. It was 112 years old and perfectly restored near the park.

I think i'm starting to like queen anne. She's everywhere in this city.

[Allan]

What an awesome neighborhood! I love the historic feel.

[Danny 4 Peace]

I think i'm starting to like queen anne. She's everywhere in this city.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You need to visit Holly Avenue Historic District. The Queen is waiting on your arrival.

Winston-Salem has the most Queen Anne Houses in NC and we are doing a good job restoring them too! We talk a lot about our Moravian architecture but we also need to remember our victorian architecture.

[BrandonTO416]

Looks like a calm, slow paced neighborhood.

Great pics.

[DavePaulk]

Those pictures are real neat. That looks like a beautiful neighborhood.

[Delta]

Some of the arhcitecture is really quaint. Beautiful!

I could easily live in Burton Craige House.

Also the Queen Anne style is wonderful (We have many examples in Australia).

Thanks for sharing those with us Myles Away

[Myles Away]

Thanks for looking at Washington Park! Holly Avenue has one of Winston-Salem's best collections of Queen Anne homes. A misleading name since the Neighborhood is every street between the CBD and West End. Some of the neighborhood's best houses, apartments, and rowhouses are on Poplar Street, First Street, Cherry Street, Brookstown Avenue, and Shady Avenue. Holly Avenue is another fancy name for Third Street.

[intcvlcphlga]

Nice pictures. In addition to Washington Park, West Salem, Holly Avenue and West End, was there ever a comparable neighborhood to the East or North of downtown - perhaps one that was demolished to make way for US 52?

[Wordsmith]

I'm sorry I didn't get to see this before. A very lovely collection of photographs. Thank you for sharing.

WS

[AnEverydayJo]

This is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Winston. Another thing to mention, is it's connection to the city's greenway system. From Washington Park you can ride/walk the Salem Creek Greenway through the new Gateway Development, then chose to either go on the Downtown Strollway, or another several miles out and around Salem Lake. Washington Park also has a popular fenced dog park for our four-legged friends.

[ezcheese]

great pics! i didn't know about this neighborhood. i love the feel of it.

[DigitalSky]

Wow, I must make a trip to Winston sometime soon. AWESOME Pictures!!

[suburban george3]

This is an older thread, but I am becoming mesmerized by this neighborhood and the quality of life there. I really think it's in the midst of gentrification. I drove thru the neighborhood last weekend and took some snapshots (some are repeats from before, but I also LUV this neighborhood!)

As you can tell, there is a wide variety of housing stock in this neighborhood. However, since it is becoming a much more desirable address in W-S, properties up for sale are few. I am starting to seriously contemplating selling and moving there.. but I would like an older home that has decent 'bones' that I could put my mark on in updating/remodeling.

[twincity]

now i understand why they are opposed to the student housing project. beautiful tour!

[basket1058]

Washington Park is probably my favorite neighborhood in the city, its got a nice a row of mansion and some of the view best views to be found of the downtown area and the skyline. Suburban george3 you are also right about the gentrification of the area as many of the houses have seen a noticeable rise in property values, particularly after the announcements about the Gateway project adjacent to the neighborhood. I remember back around 1997 or 1998 when the big White house over on Park Avenue was on sale, 5,000 square feet for a little over $300,000!!! Granted property values have shot up considerably since then but it is still relatively affordable. The adjacent Southside community over around Sprague Street, while not necessarily a part of the historic district is a nice extension of the community and is where some good fixer-upper opportunities are to be found, especially along Sprague Street without Washington Park's steeper price tag. Either way the community is definitely on the up and up and should get a much needed infusion of commercial property when Gateway starts going up.

[krazeeboi]

Wow, now THAT'S what I call a real neighborhood!