How did Wake Forest University come to be located in Winston-Salem?
Wake Forest University was founded in 1834 in Wake Forest, North Carolina as a Baptist college. Following World War II, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and named after R.J. and Katharine Smith Reynolds’ son, proposed that up to $350,000 a year from the foundation be given to Wake Forest College, providing that it relocate to Winston-Salem. In 1946, the proposal was accepted. The late Charles H. and Mary Reynolds Babcock provided a 320-acre campus site situated adjacent to the family home, now Reynolda House Museum of American Art, on property between University Parkway and Reynolda Road. On October 15, 1951, more than 20,000 people watched as President Harry S. Truman broke ground for construction at the site. Today, this private, liberal arts university serves more than 6,300 students.
