Explore WF’s history tomorrow night

Interested in learning more about the history of our town and area? Then go to the Wake Forest Renaissance Centre tomorrow night, Thursday, March 26, for a special “Writer’s Night in the Forest” that is free and will begin at 6:30 p.m.

You may hear about the first chartered railroad in North Carolina, the Raleigh & Gaston, which was completed, working north to south with slave labor, in 1840. The wooden rails topped with pig iron reached Forestville, then the commercial center of northern Wake County and the site of an original railroad depot, in March, and the village held “quite an entertainment” on March 19, 1840. There was a larger celebration in Raleigh about a month later.

You may hear about the separate Town of Royall Cotton Mill or the strike at the mill or the Wake Forest Normal and Industrial School on East Pine Avenue and surrounding streets, a school which was well known in northern states but is now gone without a trace.

There will be talk and information – offered by a number of people who were born and grew up here – about the men and women whose talents and contributions have made Wake Forest the gem of a small town that it continues to be.

There will be a reception and historical exhibit from 6:30 to 7 p.m. followed by a discussion by four panelists: Ed Morris is the director of the Wake Forest Historical Museum, Carol Pelosi is the author of “Connections . . . 100 Years of Wake Forest History, Durward Matheny grew up in town and remembers it both before and after the college moved to Winston-Salem, and Chip Russell, the town’s longtime planning director, will discuss the town’s recent growth and prospects for the future.

There will be short question and answer periods and, at the end, Pelosi will sign the book written for the centennial.

People are encouraged to pre-register. For more information, call the Renaissance Centre Box Office at 919-435-9458.