Dempsey Powell was an early resident of Wake County whose house once stood where the Meridian apartments are under construction. The house, part of it built in the mid-1700s, burned in 2006. It overlooked a large tract of land that was divided between his sons, Jesse and Caswell, after his death ca. 1793. Jesse Powell inherited 318 acres from his father and accumulated much more before he died in 1842. When he decided to build a house on the then-main Raleigh to Oxford Road, the present owner says it was a long-range and meticulous plan because the heart pine used had been seasoned (cut and allowed to dry thoroughly before it was used), all the windows are of the same exact size, the floors have not warped in two centuries, and the rooms with their fireplaces remain intact. It is a large Federal-style house with an unusual floor plan with

Letter: Plan for skate park in the wrong place To the editor: The town of Wake Forest has plans to build a skate and pump (bike) park and 80-seat amphitheater at the intersection of Brooks Street and East Holding Avenue to the tune of $4.4M. This parcel sits east of the Northern Wake Senior Center and the Brookdale Retirement/Nursing/Memory Care home, and across the street from the public library. I am a member of the Neuse River Hawks, a chapter of the NC Wildlife Federation, and we’re hoping to convince the town that this location for a park of this type is inappropriate. Not only will the parcel’s trees be clear-cut (one of the last remaining stands of trees in downtown Wake Forest), the parcel serves as a habitat for many creatures, including a deer herd along with a multitude of birds and other critters. One of our biggest concerns

By Ed Morris (Ed Morris, the retiring director of the Wake Forest Historical Museum, says he wrote this for The Wake Weekly and the Wake Forest College Birthplace Society’s newsletter in January of 2009, the year of the town’s centennial.) Today Wake Forest University is a nationally known university with a reputation for its many achievements in science, medicine, business, law and; this week I would be amiss, not to mention the number one basketball team in America. However, in its 175-year history it first entered the national spotlight in the 1920s. Dr. Charles E. Taylor had served admirably as its sixth president and oversaw the establishment of the law school and the school of medicine; however, Taylor was very much a man of the nineteenth century. The first Wake Forest president of the twentieth century was Taylor’s successor Dr. William Louis Poteat (1905-1927), who would serve though some of

It is a Wake Forest tradition: The rural firemen holding a fish fry in April – and until the department became more stable – again in October. Everyone liked the crispy fish fried in the grassy plot next to the rural department’s building on South White Street (most recently Sweetie’s Candy Shop). One year some volunteers had to take over a bit because most of the firemen had jumped into their trucks and gear to fight a string of fires caused by a hot box wheel on a train. And they were all volunteers. This year’s Wake Forest Fire Department’s Fish Fry will be on Friday, April 28, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. or until they run out of fish. The location is Fire Station #1 at 420 Elm Avenue. The various fire trucks will be pulled out of the garage to accommodate the crowd that prefers to eat

A local Beatles tribute band, Revolution, will be on the stage for the first of the 2023 Six Sundays in Spring on Sunday, April 30, in the E. Carroll Joyner Park Amphitheater beginning at 5:30 p.m. The popular music series sponsored by the Town of Wake Forest and ARTS Wake Forest will be in the park on consecutive Sundays rain or shine from April 30 through June 4 and from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Featuring free, live musical entertainment, Six Sundays in Spring offers residents the opportunity to enjoy a variety of local and region al performers in a beautiful outdoor setting. In addition to Revolution, other acts scheduled to perform this year include Big Bang Boom on May 7, Miss Mini and the Sandman Band on May 14, Conjunto Breve on May 21, The Magnificents on May 28, and Sensory Expressions on June 4. A variety of food and