Downtown North Historic District

Just north of downtown Winston-Salem, this district of brick commercial buildings covers parts of eight blocks around Trade and Liberty streets. It developed as a workingman's downtown, where farmers selling tobacco and other products could also buy the goods they needed. Most of the 58 resources were built between ca. 1907 and 1952, with more than half erected in the 1920s, a period of strong local prosperity. Many are plain one- to three-story masonry buildings, some with corbeled cornices, stepped parapets, terra cotta and clay tile details. The most polished building is the former Post Office of 1914-15, a Beaux Arts design with a Corinthian colonnade, enlarged in 1936-37. Other notable examples include a Tudor Revival former church education building, a Moderne hardware company building with sunburst panels, and a former Pure Oil station in an English cottage style. Although many storefronts have been altered, upper floors largely survive, and about 80 percent of resources contribute to the district's character.