Old Salem Museums & Gardens Administrative Offices — Attraction in Winston-Salem

Overall this was a great place to visit. It was interesting, their interpreters are passionate and knowledgeable, and they have some cool things to talk about. Some good & bad things but definitely worth a visit.

The bad: their map is not great! It’s so large as to be unusable, does not clearly mark what is open what days, and doesn’t do a good job orienting you to where things are. it is hard to tell what is visitable & what is a private residence as many private residences have old signs showing what they once were. Please use CW’s model and put out flags or something easily visible from down the street. For both your visitors and for anyone who lives in those houses! one older, non-costumed staff woman was incredibly rude about the younger staff. We went into the Single Brothers house on 2/4/23 at about 3.30pm and there was an older woman in non-historic clothes with a name tag on a long pearl lanyard. We ended up talking to her and some (amazing) costumed interpreters but the older woman was disgustingly rude about young staff at Old Salem. Unprompted Talking about how they “didn’t care to learn trades” and “were lazy about new skills”. This was offensive for several reasons: 1. We had spent hours talking to incredibly knowledgeable, passionate, and skilled tradespeople who cared. They were young and new, but they’re working hard! 2. Why on earth would you be so foolish as to bad-mouth your staff to visitors? This clearly shows her appalling attitude, arrogance, and lack of training. She should not be allowed to interact with guests until she is taught how to not speak negatively of her coworkers and make every visitor in the room deeply uncomfortable. I tried to read her name but after she saw I was unimpressed with her rude comments about younger staff members, she hid her name tag. If it weren’t for the great costumed interpreters in that building who made sure to talk to us after the horrible lady left, we would have gone home with a terrible impression of the place. She truly was that rude.

The good: the costumed staff are amazing. They’re so clever and were a joy to talk to. Most notably were Jordan Jones who put up with mine & my husbands questions for far too long and showed us around the brick church. He’s amazing and I wish all interpreters were as knowledgeable and kind as he is! The young man in the gun shop answered the crazy-in-depth questions my husband had with skill & patience. The costumed staff in the Single Brothers house were fantastic and answered every question we had. We spent so long with them we had to run to the bakery to get some food before they closed! the buildings are great to walk around the museums are well staffed, and have good signs as well. Always a winning combo. the cookies from the bake shop were pretty good!

All-in-all, this is a great historic site and one I learned a lot at. I am excited to see what their passionate and knowledgeable interpreters & staff do in the future as they hone their skills both with trades & with talking to people. I hope they fix their problem with the rude old woman as she gave a terrible impression but every other staff member we interacted with was amazing. Definitely...

There are 3 things, no 4 things to pay attention to when planning a visit to Old Salem! 1.) Visitor's Center (becoming a member is well worth the cost if you go more than once and gives the society a tiny boost to maintaining the historical environment) 2.) MESDA is the museum at the end of the bridge on the Old Salem side, it kinda looks like just administration bldg. but dont let it fool you! Furniture, paintings, and pottery dating as far back as the 1770s, maybe further! When viewing the pottery, imagine the fingerprints that are probably in the clay of the potter that lived almost 300 years ago- before the US existed! 3.) It is a walk to view all the bldgs open with interpreters, but that is why tickets are TWO DAYS! "Mosey" through the town, sit when you can, EXPLORE the gardens, the barn at the tavern. 4) Hidden Town Project! This is a project that is to raise awareness of the impact free and enslaved African-Americans had on developing the foundations and early economy of Winston and Salem. Their role is significant and its past the time to share their story. The log church at the end of Church St. has exhibits and an interpreter that will walk you through some of it. There are also displays and exhibits along the tour throughout Old Salem to remind you of the huge, but up until now "hidden" culture at the heart of our...

I was super disappointed in Old Salem. My husband and I went to Old Salem on a Wednesday morning when it first opened. We wanted to make sure that we had lots of time to walk around and go into each of the historic buildings. FYI, if you want to just walk along the streets, it is free, but going onto the buildings cost money. There were two plans, one plan that was for entering only two buildings, and one that allowed you to go into ALL of the buildings. I wanted the whole experience, so we went all in and spent $20 + tax each ($42+ total). As we walked along the street, we found almost NONE of the buildings were open except the shops that were selling stuff (bakery, sewing shop, and gift shop). Only the pottery shop, museum, heirloom seed building, woodworking, and school were open that morning. I felt completely ripped off.

In my opinion, if all or most of the buildings aren't going to be open, then they need to discount that $20. Maybe do a weekday price when most of the buildings aren't open, and a weekend price when everything is open. (I plan to contact the Old Salem business office and make this suggestion once we return home from vacation.)

WheelchairS and strollers would have difficulty...