The cityscape and architecture of Winston-Salem still show the roots of its settlement in the 1760s by the Moravians, a Protestant sect from what became the Czech Republic. At Old Salem, a living history museum, costumed interpreters re-enact that early way of life among original and restored buildings, including the Winkler Bakery. Candlelight tours at Christmastime draw people from all over the Piedmont and beyond. The smaller Historic Bethabara Park marks the site of the original settlement.
Winston-Salem prides itself as the City of the Arts. It’s home to the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, one of two state art museums in North Carolina; the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, with a collection that spans three centuries; and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Old Salem. The lively local arts community, boosted by the University of North Carolina School of Arts, regularly holds gallery hops and other public events in the Downtown Arts District along Trade Street.
Enjoying the outdoors in gardens and parks is a way of life in Winston-Salem. The 129-acre Reynolda Gardens, once part of tobacco baron R.J. Reynolds’ estate, features a spectacular formal rose garden and greenhouse, as well as fruit trees, vegetables and woodlands. The 1,100 acres of Tanglewood Park offer recreational activities such as golf, horseback riding and paddle boating, while accommodations range from campsites to Victorian gentility at the Manor House Bed and Breakfast. The gardens of Old Salem are a careful reconstruction of an American colonial landscape.
The minor league Winston-Salem Dash baseball team plays in a stadium, new in 2010, in the heart of downtown. Wake Forest University engages in heated Tobacco Road rivalries in basketball and football and, along with Winston-Salem State University, offers the full range of college athletics. Bowman Gray Stadium brings NASCAR stock car racing to town.
Winston-Salem lies along the Yadkin River Valley, home to 35 wineries and vineyards which are open to the public and regularly host special dinners, music festivals and tastings. On Memorial Day weekend, the North Carolina Wine Festival, the state’s largest wine festival, takes place in Tanglewood Park. It is quickly followed by the Salute! The North Carolina Wine Festival in downtown on the first weekend of June.
