WAKE FOREST COLLEGE BIRTHPLACE

This simple provincial house was built before 1820. For some years it was the home of Dr. Calvin Jones, a founder of the North Carolina Medical Society, major-general in the War of 1812 and Grand Master of the Masonic Order in North Carolina. He was for 30 years a trustee of the University of North Carolina. In 1832 Dr. Jones sold his home and plantation at Wake Forest to the Baptist State Convention. On February 3, 1834, Wake Forest Institute, as it was called until 1838, was opened in the building with an enrollment of 16 students. The dwelling house was used as the residence of the first President of the College, Samuel Wait, and for classroom purposes. The carriage house was used as a chapel. The seven “good substantial log cabins” were used as dormitories. The house, now on its fourth site, was moved from its original location in the center of the campus in 1835 to make way for “The College Building,” and later to a third location on Wingate Street. It is now restored to the 1830 period.