Friday's Internet Edition, July 04, 2008.
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Finished in 1898, the station powered the industrialization of Winston-Salem and served as a model for America’s growing appetite for electricity. Even inventor Thomas Edison took note of it.
That historic station — in disrepair for years since a fire — may be destroyed unless historic preservationists can win a stay.
The City/County Utilities Commission will discuss the site’s fate November 13 at 2 p.m. in the Winston-Salem City Hall. The commission last month decided demolition would be the best fate.
Clemmons historian Janet Banzhof and others have encouraged saving the building that most area residents have never seen. A fence has long prevented public access.
For decades, it was a popular site for lovers and picnickers who rested in the shadows of the Southern Railway trestle and watched water spill over Idols Dam.
John Larson, vice president for architectural restoration for Old Salem, said Monday the site is an industrial icon with profound historical importance.
“It was one of the great engineering marvels of its time,” he said. “This was a project that created a lot of interest in the electrical world ... Thomas Edison was clearly engaged in this project and invested in it. People would come out from Winston-Salem and picnic.”
The dam had overland transmission wires that sent electricity all the way to Winston-Salem — a first for that time. The electricity powered the city’s trolleys and new factories. Old steam engines were replaced by clean electricity.
“Winston-Salem was on the cutting edge of electricity,” Larson said. “The various mills and lighting and everything would launch Winston-Salem into the forefront of North Carolina towns by the 1920s. This was really the platform that did that. Nobody else was doing this sort of thing — especially transferring power over lines long distance.”
Idols Dam’s function now serves to form a pond for the City of Winston-Salem’s water intake. Silt is forming behind the dam because the turbines and sluice are no longer in use.
Duke Power took over operation of Idols Dam in 1914, and it produced electricity for nearly a hundred years. Several entrepreneurs considered rehabilitating the plant over the years, but that ended with the fire in 1998.
It now sits in ruins.
“It’s a beautiful site,” Larson said. “The dam and the ruins that are there now are very evocative and an important symbol of the energy and creativity that Winston-Salem had in the early 20th century that would propel it almost into the 21st century.
“Those of us interested in historic preservation recognize this as a real landmark in the community’s history. We would hope to find a way to respect what has been given to us from the past and continue to use the site for the future.
“What people are hoping to find is a way to allow that to continue to occur without the loss of the buildings on this site.”
The Utilities Commission will have to weigh the expense or rebuilding or destroying the site.
“I’m not sure how you put a value on history,” Larson said. “Hopefully we can find some common ground. We’re trying to accommodate modern needs and value historic preservation.”
Utilities Commission member Paul McGill said the board’s action last month was without the knowledge of the historical significance of the building.
“I want to see that wonderful structure saved,” he said. ‘I was appalled they did not reveal to us the wonderful history of the property and the historical significance of it.”
He said he had not seen the building when he voted last month, but he has now.
“It is a wonderful structure, 16 inch walls of solid handmade bricks. It needs to be restored and saved. It would be a crime not to save it.”
The utility commission is getting prices on what it would cost to put a roof back over the building.
“It needs to be stabilized as a landmark,” he said.