OLD SALEM VISIT
“Old Salem” is located in North Carolina, rather than in New England as many people may suppose.
It is that part of the city of Winston-hyphen-Salem. Both ends have been leading cigarette brands over the years because that has been the root of culture in the area for many years.
The Salem section of the city dates from 1716 when members of the Moravian Church, having migrated from their homeland in that section of today' Czech Republic, worked their way south to the Carolina Piedmont area seeking a definitive location where they could carry on their traditions apart from others.
The restored area includes four distinct museums dedicated to different facets of living in the 1700' .There are restored dwellings and public use buildings to provide a good representation of the manner of living of the
Moravian people both here in America and of their European heritage. They have .been expanded to include those elements of Old South living as well - elements which became a part of the Moravian's new world culture in the 1700's.
My first visit to the area many years ago came through a chance opportunity to see the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (conveniently shortened to “MESDA ) It is the largest of the four museums in the area.
The presentation there pleased all of us. It takes place in what I have been told was formerly a super-market site. It has been divided into a chronological series of rooms containing - not restorations or reproductions - but the actual, authentic furnishings of each room lifted up physically and relocated on the south edge of the Old Salem area. One room is a reproduction that of the Poindexter home in Virginia with its unique window glass feature. That is the one exception. All the others you see are “the real thing” physically transported to the present location intact. Many of these rooms have thus been preserved, some of which would have,long ago have, fallen to the auctioneer's hammer and been broken up and forever lost. The rooms you visit are the original in every detail - furniture items and “decorative arts”items. All represent the way people lived years ago; including those things they enjoyed, having with and about them. What you see is authentic in detail. historic evidence of good living from many years ago.
Your docent opens the first door leaving the Reception area and you step into the actual living room area of a log cabin from early settler days. Now that I try to set it down I cannot say how many such room one visits, but it is a complete study in reality - decade by decade - with rooms from historic homes in Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The display concludes with a visit to a golden-era Dining Room in the ante-vellum days of Charleston, South Carolina.
Strictly speaking, is is logical that one would have to agree that the MESDA is not exactly a part of the Old Salem theme. It is, however an exceptional “bonus” to such a trip.. I get carried away when I think of it. It may be that we can talk more about “Old Salem” the next time we meet.
A.L.M. March 2, 2004 [c553wds]
