Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce is 75

It was 1948 in Wake Forest, and the town government, ordinary people, business owners and the Wake Forest College professors and staff were just about coming to terms with the 1946 news that the college was moving to Winston-Salem.
It had been more than a shock. It upended something that seemed as reliable as sunrise, as constant as the tides along the Carolina shore. Wake Forest as a town had grown up around the college, and now the college was leaving!
Of course it would take 10 years – until graduation day in 1956 – before the moving vans began flowing west with 120 years of history and what seemed like the soul and heartbeat of the town.
All the restaurants except Shorty’s closed, Ben Aycock closed his men’s store, the Bolus store remained open to cloth men and women but there were few customers left, and downtown went nearly dark and silent.
But in the 10 years left for a Wake Forest College in Wake Forest, there was a last burst of energy. The college itself was more prosperous than ever because of high enrollment caused by the G.I. Bill.
Burlington Industries built a new Wake Finishing Plant just south of town and would soon employ 600 men and women.
Looking toward the future, in 1948 several local men formed the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce. They included president J.D. Morris with G.V. Barbee, Jesse Hollowell, Henry L. Miller, W.L. Glover, W.W. Holding and Claude Matheny on the board of directors.
Miller was asked to inquire about “more up to date service” from the town’s first newspaper, Peter D. Jones’s The Home and Farm Digest, which shortly after was bought by G.V. Barbee and renamed The Wake Weekly.
We know that early chamber met at Bob’s College Inn or in the office of the Durham Loan and Trust Company and had an active agenda. They bought signs pointing to downtown, discussed the possibility of a hard-surfaced (paved) road to Knightdale, and, because farmers around Barham Siding Road were raising a lot of cucumbers, whether there could be a cucumber market in town.
They also bought Christmas decorations for downtown, hired someone to act as Santa Claus in downtown during shopping hours, and put up prize money for the best floats in the Christmas parade, which was organized by the college or the fraternities.
Those old names are largely unfamiliar and only a few can still put a face to a name. But their energy and focus remain in the chamber of today, now the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce with its office in the much remodeled gas station and car repair shop owned by Henry L. Miller and later the fire station for the town’s fire department after it had to leave the original town hall. The rural fire department – almost all the same men and matching equipment – was in the small white building immediately to the south, most recently home to Sweetie’s candy store.
In Wake Forest, we literally build on and in the past.
The celebration of old and new after 75 years will be held Thursday, June 15, from 5 to 7 p.m. at The Sutherland. Tickets are $60 for members and $75 for nonmembers. Food will be by Cook Shack and beverages will be by Pour Bar Services.
The State of the Chamber will celebrate its past and look forward to a bright future. Sponsors include Edward Jones, Fidelity Bank, Wake Forest Federal Savings & Loan, Town of Wake Forest and Cary Estate Planning.
Congratulations on 75 years of service to the Wake Forest community and here’s to another 75 years and more!
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