The Nissen Building, Winston-Salem, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Nissen Building at 310 N Patterson Avenue in Winston-Salem began as the workshop of wagon maker Samuel Jacob Nissen, in the middle of the city's tobacco district. Its wagon-wheel windows still point to that trade, and the old paving in front of it tells part of the same story. It is a small stop, but a good one for seeing how the tobacco economy shaped the streets.

The story behind it

According to the route research, Samuel Jacob Nissen made and repaired wagons here from 1894 until 1929, when motor trucks put him out of business. Wagons mattered enormously in a tobacco town. Farmers, wholesalers and manufacturers all depended on them to move their product, so a wagon shop on a busy commercial street was well placed.

The street itself carries a second layer of history. The cobblestones are described as Durax pavement, laid in 1915 to cope with heavier wagon loads and growing traffic. Its fish-scale pattern and thin joints made for a sturdier, quieter road, one more sign of a city growing fast in the early twentieth century.

What to look for

• The wagon-wheel windows on the facade, which advertised the trade that once went on inside.
• The fish-scale pattern of the Durax paving underfoot, so look down as well as up.
• The thin joint lines between the paving stones, a detail that shows how the road was built for wheeled traffic.
• The wider streetscape of the old tobacco district around Patterson Avenue, and how the buildings sit close to the road, as a working street would.

Tips for your visit

• Plan a short stop of ten to fifteen minutes. The interest is in the exterior details and the pavement, so it works best as part of a longer walk.
• Go in daylight, when the windows and the pattern of the paving are easiest to make out.
• Treat it as a street-side stop. If you hope to go inside, check current opening hours and access first.
• Combine it with other places in the surrounding district, which is easy to cover on foot.

See it on a quest

The Nissen Building is one stop on Highlights of Winston-Salem: A Tobacco Trail, a self-guided walk themed around the city's tobacco past. You reach the building on foot as part of a longer route through the area, the app tells you about the place when you arrive, and you solve a puzzle based on what is in front of you. That makes you look closely at the windows and the street, which most people walk past. The quest is paid, and one ticket covers the whole group. You can start any time, with no guide and no group to join.