Old Roads: Maps from 1760s onward of this area now online

By: Tim Clodfelter | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: July 29, 2009

Talk about a trip down memory lane.

A selection of Winston-Salem-related maps and city directories from the North Carolina room of the Forsyth County Public Library have recently been scanned and made available online.

There are 22 maps of Forsyth County available, which can be seen on the North Carolina Maps section of the UNC Chapel Hill University Libraries Web site (www.lib.unc.edu). The earliest dates to the 1760s ("Tractus I der Wachau in Nord Carolina") and the most recent is from 1968. Viewers can scroll around on the site and magnify the maps to get a better look at details, though some are too blurry to read easily.

To go straight to the Forsyth County maps, go to tinyurl.com/bro6g8.

There are more than 10 volumes of city directories available at www.archive.org. The earliest is from 1879, Chas. Emerson & Co's Winston, Salem & Greensboro Directory, which sold for $3 in 1879, enough for a two-year subscription to the Winston Sentinel newspaper -- "A Democratic Newspaper, Devoted to General, State and Home News" -- one of the many advertisers featured in the book. The directory lists people, their occupations and their addresses. It also includes a directory of businesses.

The most recent directory is from 1922, by which time the cost of a city directory had skyrocketed to $9. To go directly to the directories, go to tinyurl.com/klk5bc.

■ Tim Clodfelter can be reached at 727-7371 or at tclodfelter@wsjournal.com.