Old Salem Museum & Gardens

Old Salem Museum & Gardens Review

Founded in 1766 as a backcountry trading center, Old Salem Museum & Gardens is one of the nation's most well-documented colonial sites. This living-history museum, a few blocks from downtown Winston-Salem, is filled with dozens of original and reconstructed buildings. Costumed guides explain household activities common in the late-18th and early-19th century Moravian communities. Tours include a stop by the 1861 St. Philip's Church, the state's oldest-standing African-American church. Old Salem also has a toy museum, a children's museum, and a restaurant. Don't miss the "world's largest coffeepot," a 12-foot-tall vessel built by Julius Mickey in 1858 to advertise his tinsmith shop. Having survived two car-coffeepot collisions, it was moved to its present location at the edge of Old Salem in 1959.