Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission

Silver Hill
Early African-
American residents
of Silver Hill
began to build a
community in Old
Town Township,
west of the City of
Winston, at the end
of the nineteenth
century. The later Cross have been incorporated into residential lots. At the
neighborhoods of time Franklin filed the plat, one lot was already improved
West Highlands with a square structure, perhaps the home of an early res-
and Buena Vista ident. H.D. Shutt filed a plat for six additional lots east of
developed to the Franklin’s land around 1908.
south and north-
west, respectively. By 1910,
Before 1893, a the Census
20’ by 45’ wood- recorded
framed, African- twelve fam-
American Baptist church was built on Holiday Street. The ilies living
church had several names over the years, including “Old in Silver
Ironsides”, Primitive Baptist Church, and finally, Antioch Hill; half of
Baptist. the families
were white
Newspapers report that Silver Hill got its name from local and half
folklore. Legend holds that the hill was once home to an were
William Blackburn House
African-American witch doctor. People who wanted his African-
services had to pay in the form of silver coins, hence the American. Lucy Conrad, John Harrison, Charlie Cain,
name. A slight variant claims that people offered silver Frank Harrison, John Hunt, and Flora Johnson headed the
coins to ward off witches they believed lived in the area. African-American families, while James H. McMillan,
James L. McMillan, Arnold McMillan, John Nelson,
In 1894, realtor W.E. Latonius Hilton, and Jonas Kline headed the white house-
Franklin filed a plat for holds. The Hunt family, Flora Johnson, and Latonius Hilton
Silver Hill with the Reg- owned their land, while the other families rented. At the
ister of Deeds. His plat time, most of the men living in Silver Hill worked in
shows thirty-three lots laid Winston’s tobacco factories while women worked as
out along Holiday Street servants for private families.
and Lincoln Avenue with
Cross Street providing By 1930, the racial composition of the neighborhood had
an east-west connection changed and only African-American families were recorded
between the two streets. in the Census. The Hunt and Frank Harrison families con-
Today, Lincoln Avenue has tinued to live in the neighborhood, as did descendants of
been renamed Biscayne Flora Johnson. Five of the eleven families listed as living
Avenue, and the original in Silver Hill owned their homes, with values ranging from
William Blackburn, last resident locations of Holiday and $700 to $1,000. Several of the men worked in tobacco
factories, but others had jobs as brick masons, gardeners, known burials took place in the cemetery. There are likely
auto mechanics, truck drivers, and one as a theater porter. other unknown burials; newspaper articles mention grave-
The women who worked remained in service with private stones dated as early as 1895. The grave markers are now
families. all gone, and the quiet cemetery is owned and maintained
by United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church.
An itinerant preacher conducted services at the neighbor-
hood Baptist church on Holiday Street about once a month. In the 1950s, Silver Hill’s streets remained unpaved even
Silver Hill resident William Cain recalled that the Baptists as houses for white families were built along neighboring
“did foot-washin’. … They still had communion, too, but Carolina Avenue. In 1976, a Winston-Salem Journal article
that came along with it.” The church caught fire on Easter on Silver Hill reported that Wiley Avenue remained un-
Monday of 1942 and burned down. Fire Department paved and only three houses in Silver Hill were occupied,
records note that the “old church building [was] of no one by William Blackburn. Blackburn, who had worked at
value.” It had not been in regular use at the time, and it was the B.F. Huntley Furniture Factory, purchased his home at
not rebuilt. The congregation later founded the West End the northern corner of Wiley Avenue in 1947. The house
Baptist Church, before merging with First Institutional was known in deeds at the old home place of Jack Brooks,
Baptist Church to found United Metropolitan Baptist an employee of Southern Railway. Brooks had built the
Church in 1965. home about 1920; it is one of two remaining houses from
Silver Hill’s years as an African-American neighborhood.
The church sat in front of an African-American cemetery, The other is located at 432 Wiley Avenue. Today, Silver
an additional parcel of land adjoining the church lot having Hill’s streets are paved, and most of the small original lots
been purchased in 1906. Between 1901 and 1951, 558 have been combined into larger lots for modern housing.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Company Map, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Volume 2, Sheet 212, 1928,

1
Sanborn maps compiled by Fearnbach History Services, Inc. / October 2016
CEMETERY

updated 1950

Silver Hill, Winston-Salem, Forsyth County

Silver Hill with houses marked in red.

This information is also available

at the Forsyth County
Historic Resources Commission web site:
www.ForsythCountyHRC.org