I am indebted to Murray Greason, a Winston-Salem lawyer and a man of many accomplishments who grew up in Wake Forest, for the following. His grandfather, George Greason, was the superintendent of the Royall Cotton Mill for over 30 years and his family lived in a house at the corner of Faculty Avenue and West Pine Avenue.
Murray’s father was also named Murray and was the Wake Forest College basketball coach for decades, one of the original four men inducted into Wake Forest’s University’s Sports Hall of Fame when it was established in 1970.
The Murray Greason family lived in one of the three small houses on North Avenue facing Gore Gym and across North College Street from the heating plant. They were torn down years ago. Murray’s memory is that the rent was free, part of his father’s compensation from the college.
“This was a very small house with three bedrooms, a living/dining room with a kitchen and a single small bathroom sort of tacked on the back like an afterthought. The house was heated by steam heat from the heating plant next door (which also heated the entire campus) and when the College closed for Christmas the heating system turned off. This left us with four fireplaces in the tiny house and a coal stove in the basement capable of heating water with a lot of work.
“I said that my house was small, but that didn’t keep my father from convincing my mother that we needed to contribute to the cause of the Athletic Department. Following WWII the College and the Town were flooded with returning veterans taking advantage of the GI Bill and places to stay were scarce. My father was only willing to help the athletic effort and as a result our third bedroom was occupied for a period of several years by a succession of athletes, all sharing one tiny house and small bathroom!”
Greason remembers Mr. and Mrs. Terry Gwynn, a football defensive back, as boarders as well as Mr. and Mrs. Buck Garrison. He was a two-way football lineman and All-American baseball player. Later, Athletic Director Gene Hooks boarded with the Greasons as well as another baseball player, Charlie Kersh.
When Greason was growing up in town, the magnificent magnolia trees on the campus “had sweeping branches that reached to the ground or nearly so, and at least two as I recall had convenient benches under the branches, creating great privacy for couples of either the high school or college variety. When the seminary took over the campus, the lower limbs of the magnolias were removed to a height making all activity under the tree visible.”
World War II halted construction on what is now called Binkley Chapel. “When the reconstruction restarted on the chapel after WWII I was about ten and ran with a crowd consisting of Tommy Holding (drug store), James Mackie (‘The’ doctor), Robert Herring (religion professor), Hubert Jones (math professor), Larry Harris (lawyer and about the only Republican in town), and Harry Holding (son of Harvey, who owned the Esso station and other business interests).
“One or more of this crowd on one or more occasions gained entry to the construction site and worked our way upwards, exploring all the various levels available, including above what would become the ceiling of the chapel auditorium and the chapel tower or steeple. It was a great adventure, but looking back, it is a miracle that no one fell to their death below!
“Speaking of Larry Harris’ father, Lawrence, there was a saying in town in those days that when Barney Powell cut Lawrence Harris’ hair they could have the Wake County Republic convention.”
#
