The Twin Cities of Tobacco and Faith — Old Salem's Moravian village (1766) is one of America's best-preserved colonial settlements, and the city's transformation from tobacco giant to arts hub has made it North Carolina's most surprising cultural destination
Winston-Salem is the fourth-largest city in North Carolina — a city of 250,000 in the Piedmont Triad formed by the 1913 merger of Winston (the tobacco and commerce town) and Salem (the Moravian religious community founded 1766). Old Salem is the star attraction: a meticulously restored 18th-century Moravian community that was one of early America's most sophisticated planned settlements, with original buildings occupied continuously since their construction, costumed interpreters demonstrating period crafts, and a bakery (Winkler Bakery, in its original 1800 building) famous for its Moravian…
Salem was founded in 1766 by Moravian (Unity of Brethren) settlers from Pennsylvania on land purchased from Lord Granville's Carolina grant — the Moravians planned and built the town as a religious community-enterprise, with communal ownership, a single street plan, and buildings owned by the congregation. It was one of early America's most literate and musically sophisticated communities. Winston was founded separately in 1849 as the Forsyth County seat, a few blocks north of Salem. RJ Reynolds established his tobacco company in Winston in 1874; by the early 20th century it was the largest t…