100 years of history by Carol Pelosi
People all over the country – and probably here in Wake Forest, too – were cursing Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the sweeping changes his New Deal policies brought.
But people were also on their knees, thanking him, for his programs like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps that gave jobs to men who had begun to lose hope of ever having a paycheck again.
For Wake Forest, the New Deal brought an impressive infusion of money. The first project was to improve and expand the water system. The federal government gave the town a grant of $31,000 while the town had to approve $38,000 in bonds.
Dr. D.B. Bryan put together a deal that benefited the town more. The town only had to scrape together $2,500 in cash and materials and the federal government and the State of North Carolina would spend $11,000 for a new gymnasium for the school on West Sycamore Avenue.
For another project, building the underpass and constructing Roosevelt Avenue, the town’s only participation was to condemn the needed land. That brought the town and its attorney right back into the courthouse, suing the college, Mrs. J.B. Carlyle, Minta R. Holding, Hattie B. Powers, the T.E. Holding estate, Hattie F. Reid and Dr. R.W. Wilkinson.
The underpass made a tremendous difference in the town’s landscape. In the past, South Avenue (the extension of Durham Road) had formed the southern boundary of the campus. On the east, it made a left turn onto Front Street, which still exists in altered form. From Front Street, you could turn right onto Wait Avenue, pass in front of President William Louis Poteat’s house (but owned by his wife, Emma Purefoy Poteat, inherited from her father, and now offices for Wake Forest Baptist Church) and cross the railroad tracks at the depot.
To make the underpass in 1936, the contractors had to dig a big hole at the college campus and rebuild Front Street in it, replace the arch at the college entrance and then build the short street that was named for President Roosevelt.
Just as there is a Front Street, there was a Back Street until 1937. There were a lot of unemployed people in the area that year, and federal funds gave them jobs to build the extension of Back Street from Durham Road to Sycamore. Shortly thereafter, the street was christened with a new name, Wingate, for an early college president.
Some ideas never really blossomed. Although the town commissioners wrote letters, a National Guard armory was never built and neither was a town auditorium.
By 1939, there was a war in Europe and a strong feeling in this country that we should stay out of it. The Depression, although easing, was still a fact of life.
In Wake Forest, the first woman ran for public office. Elva Sledd, a daughter of Dr. Benjamin Sledd who was just created a professor emeritus of English at the college, ran for the town board and received 49 votes but lost. Harvey Holding was elected mayor that year.
The following year, 1940, the WPA finally gave the Wake Forest Post Office a permanent home – it had always before either been in the postmaster’s home or in rented space. The simple Colonial brick building on South White Street was the post office from 1940 until the 1980s when a larger facility was built on the corner of South White Street and East Holding Avenue. The building now houses offices and the building’s finest feature, an original mural, is covered by wallpaper.
The mural was painted by Harold Egan but he had trouble even starting it because he could not reach J.R. Wiggin, the postmaster at the time. In despair, Egan wrote to the head of the Federal Works Agency Fine Arts Section in November of 1940: “I have repeatedly tried to get in touch with the Wake Forest postmaster, but he has failed to reply to my letters and telegrams. The only conclusion I can draw is that the postmaster is either dead or drunk, perhaps both.” This impasse must have ended because six months later Egan wrote that everyone, including Wiggin, were pleased with the design and it was nearly complete.
The town’s leading club was the Wake Forest Civic Club, and its members frequently appeared before the town board to urge actions like the rat extermination program John E. Wooten Sr. and Randolph Benton, a school principal, recommended. In the 1970s the rat problem was still a big concern, with them sighted all over town and down in Forestville.
In early 1940, it was Civic Club member Dr. Nevill Isbell who appeared, this time to recommend the town build a community center and swimming pool. The idea had been floating around for at least two years, but this time it became a reality.
The WPA agreed to build both, and again the town’s part was to purchase the land that had been the site for Dr. Solomon Holding’s home (after his death) and a foundry at a cost of $12,800. The WPA paid $67,117 for the pool and community house with its two imposing fireplaces, kitchen, bathrooms and office space above and dressing rooms for the pool below.
The town commissioners spent a good deal of time in 1940 fussing about the new pool and finally deciding that mill village children would be admitted. Admission was 20 cents for white children over 6 years of age and 25 cents for white adults, but they had to provide their own towels. George Owen was hired as the lifeguard at $30 a week.
(It would take until 1959 when a swimming pool for Black youngsters and teens, the Taylor Street Swimming Pool, opened. It was made possible because Bertha Perry had spent years trying to get ball fields and other youth recreation in the Black section of town. When Henry Miller was mayor he pushed and prodded until the pool was built. It was closed years afterward, and the Alston-Massenburg Center is on the pool site.)
The town board, Baptist to a man, I believe, allowed the college fraternities to rent the community house for $20 a night to hold their dances. If you remember, Baptists across the state had risen up in horror and anger four years earlier at the thought of dancing on the Wake Forest College campus, In 1941 College President Thurman Kitchin was to remind some athletes who planned a dance on campus that they would be expelled if they carried out their plan.
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