Wake Forest, Images of America

Wake Forest Township got its start in 1834 when Calvin Jones sold his farmland to the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. The college began as a place for local boys to trade manual labor for a religious education. But the campus soon grew and so did the community, �surpassing any other neighborhood in refinement, good society, and wealth,� according to one 19th-century account. By 1909, the town was incorporated. Not long after, with transformers trucked in from Raleigh, residents could read newspaper headlines touting Wake Forest�s fame in sports, academics, and medicine by the glow of the town�s new electric lights. For a time, the town and college seemed inseparable. But by 1956, the school had moved to Winston-Salem, dealing a devastating blow to local residents. For many years afterward, they waited for the world to rediscover Wake Forest. It seems that day has come.