Living in Winston-Salem

The physical location of the School of Medicine, in a residential neighborhood, offers a pleasing environment for living and studying. The School of Medicine’s Bowman Gray Campus is within easy walking distance of the tennis courts, track, and playing fields of Hanes Park, maintained by the city of Winston-Salem, as well as the Winston-Salem YMCA and YWCA. Ten miles west, just off Interstate 40, is Forsyth County’s Tanglewood Park, with its PGA championship golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pool, picnic grounds, horseback riding, paddle boats, and playing fields. Winston-Salem is about an hour away from Hanging Rock and Yadkin-Pilot Mountain State Parks and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Driving time to the Carolina beaches varies from four to five hours.

Winston-Salem, a city of approximately 220,000 people, is located in Forsyth County in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. The climate is moderate, with an average summer temperature of 73.9 degrees and an average winter temperature of 45.3 degrees. Rainfall is well distributed throughout the year, with a few days of snow. The city has an average of 110 clear days a year.

Medical students may use the recreational facilities on the Reynolda Campus of Wake Forest University, located four miles from the Bowman Gray Campus. Through the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Student Activities program, medical students may attend the Secrest Artist Series on the Reynolda Campus and obtain tickets to athletic events. The university is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference and plays its home football games at Groves Stadium. Home basketball games are played in the 15,000-seat Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The city is the home of the North Carolina School of the Arts, a member of the state university system and the only state-supported school for the arts in the nation. Tickets for its excellent theatrical productions, recitals, concerts, and dance performances may be obtained at low cost. Also in the city are the Winston- Salem Symphony Orchestra, Piedmont Opera, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), Reynolda House with its gardens and American art collection, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), and Old Salem, the site of the Moravian town founded in 1766, from which the present city grew. Old Salem has been authentically restored and is open for tours. Salem College, the oldest private girls’ school in the United States, is in Old Salem. Winston-Salem State University and Forsyth Technical Community College are also located in the city.

The city’s downtown area is undergoing revitalization. The Stevens Center for the Performing Arts and the Sawtooth School for Visual Arts form the core of a downtown Arts District. Condominiums and apartments, restaurants, art galleries and music venues are bringing people back to the center city. Next to the Arts District, the Piedmont Triad Research Park (PTRP) is under construction. For more information visit: www.winstonsalem.com.

See also: Housing