WINSTON—SALEM 259  
district, dominated by the 22-story Reynolds office building, a set-back sky-  
scraper of vigorous design, and the 18-story Nissen Building. Winston’s ‘  
streets are comfortably wide and the houses are well set back.  
East of the city hall and extending north beyond the courthouse, the  
tobacco factories lie in solid masses, block upon block, with here and there *i
a textile mill. Here the pungent odor of tobacco and the whirring rattle of  
spindles and looms furnish a dominant note. 2
The newer homes of the wealthy are in suburbs such as Buena Vista and  
the Country Club section; in West Highlands, Southside, and Ardmore  
within the city limits. Many of the older families live in ancestral homes in  
Salem. To the north and east are crowded unpainted shacks, housing the  
bulk of the city’s large Negro population, 42 percent of the total. Between · L
these extremes are hundreds of homes of well-to-do whites and prosperous,  
educated Negroes. Along East 14th Street is a half-mile of Negro homes "
with neat premises and front yards adorned with shrubbery and flowers. A  
few fine houses are in this group.  
The Negroes of the city have their own schools, churches, hospital, Y.M. ,
and Y.W.C.A., library facilities, and professional and cultural activities.  
Many are employed in the Reynolds Tobacco Company in which a number of i
them own stock. Negroes operate an insurance company, a large bus business,  
and a weekly newspaper. The Twin City Glee Club and the Smith Glee Club g
are talented Negro singing groups, composed for the most part of factory -2
workers. The Winston-Salem Teachers College is developing choral music,  
chiefly Negro spirituals.  
‘ The minutely accurate records of the first Moravian settlers hold the key  
[ to an understanding of the modern city. In Ianuary 1753, a small party of  
Moravians from Bethlehem, Pa., led by Bishop August Gottlieb Spangen-  
~ burg, in their search for desirable land for a settlement, reached “the three E
* forks of Muddy Creek,” where they found a fertile country of forested hills. ,
From Lord Granville, the only one of the Lords Proprietors who had kept  
his share of Carolina, the Moravians bought 98,985 acres and called the tract  
· “der Wachau,” for the Austrian estate belonging to ancestors of Count g?
j Zinzendorf, patron of the Moravian Church. The name became Wachovia *
' when the English language was employed. The deed was made to ]ames {
_ Hutton of London “in trust for the Unitas Fratrum,” as the Moravians were L
called. To finance their settlements they organized a land company in which ..
[ each stockholder received 2,000 acres and bore his proportionate share of the _
expense of colonization.  
E On Oct. 8, 1753, I2 settlers set out on foot from Bethlehem with three  
_ guides who later returned. The records show that they were chosen for use-  
' fulness in a pioneer community. The little band arrived at the Wachovia
tract on Nov. 17, 1753, and stopped where there was an abandoned cabin
i and meadowland that could be cultivated for a quick yield of necessary Q
S food. For this shelter and their safety they “rejoiced heartily,” holding their
_ first Carolina Love Feast, or fellowship meeting. Thus was founded the first ;
i s settlement, Bethabara, House of Passage, sometimes known as Oldtown
S (see Toon 25), 3% miles from the present Winston-Salem. _ ;
They were welcome in a country that lacked ministers, doctors, and skilled _