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Came across this pic a few days ago. At the moment it does not fit into any particular story, but it is a great snapshot of the center of the Winston universe, circa 1910. A bit of the courthouse lawn can be seen in the foreground. The view is looking northward from there up Liberty Street, with Fourth Street crossing left to right.
At the center of the picture, between the foreground electric/telephone poles, is a sort of compendium of local transportation…a very nice carriage, and behind it, a streetcar, both headed north on Liberty Street, while to their left can be seen, parked at the curb, one of the city’s early horseless carriages.
On the right is Dr. V.O. Thompson’s drugstore, a fixture there for over 40 years. Dr. Thompson was a cigar aficionado, so also manufactured stogies in a small building on Third Street near the building used until recently by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department. Above the drugstore we can see J.H. Lawrence’s sign for his real state office. Other parts of that space were used as rooms and apartments for single men.
What is there now? The Downtown Deli, where I must confess I frequently stop for a delicious chili/slaw burger and a serving of their scrumptious sweet potato fries. The Deli is located in One West Fourth Street, a medium rise building that houses the offices of the law firm Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice. When you go down to get your own chili/slaw burger, be sure to look up at the elephant sculptures which support the awning over the main entrance.
At the left is another legendary business, O’Hanlon’s drugstore. As a neophyte pharmacist, Edward O’Hanlon worked in a pharmacy on the same site. When that building burned down in the 1880s, O’Hanlon acquired both the business and the site and built the building that we see here.
Next to the north is F.N. Day’s jewelry store, followed by the Meyers – Westbrook Department store which is undergoing a major renovation. They sold dry goods, notions, hats, shoes and furnishings. The store identified by the “books” sign was The Leader Department Store. Beyond that was the department store of A. Daye, a native of Syria and an important local leader. His store was known for its lady’s hats, which were made and sold by the misses May Vest, Mattie Winfree and Alix Daye’s daughter, Zhia Daye.
In the background can be seen the cupola of the new Federal Building on Fifth Street, which housed the post office and offices of federal judges and attorneys. It would soon be enlarged to become the building that we now know as the Millennium Center.
The O’Hanlon building in this picture burned in 1913, but not to the ground. Edward O’Hanlon located elsewhere, but in 1915 demolished this building and created Winston-Salem’s second “skyscraper”, which endures to this day. The old drugstore space is now occupied by Mooney’s Restaurant, which features excellent Mediterranean cuisine. My favorite is the shawarma, or maybe the tawook, always a difficult choice.
In 1910, Winston had at least four daily and weekly newspapers, but if you wanted to know what was really going on in town, you needed to stop in daily at the soda fountains in both the O’Hanlon and Thompson’s drugstores for the latest town gossip.
North Carolina Collection 