Hanes Park is a public park located in the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. It is centrally located in the city, bordered on three sides by the historic West End Neighborhood. Peters Creek runs for approximately one-half mile through the central portion of the park, representing the northern boundary of the West End Historic District. The park is equipped with a playground, 20 lighted tennis courts, (14 clay and 6 hard surface), 2 open play fields, a ¼ mile (400 meter) all-weather running track, and a 1.1 mile walking trail along Peters Creek. It is also home to R. J. Reynolds High School tennis, football, softball, track and field, and baseball. The land comprising Hanes Park was originally owned by manufacturer and civic leader P. H. Hanes Sr., on which operated his "West End Dairy Farm" whose prize Holstein Friesian cattle won numerous awards throughout the state. In 1919, the land comprising the West End Dairy Farm was donated by Hanes "to be used as a park for the benefit and pleasure of the citizens of Winston-Salem."
History
Colonial era
Peters Creek One of the first waterways to be named in the area, Peters Creek or "Petersbach" as it was originally known, initially appeared on maps drawn by Moravian settlers in 1766. Hans Peterson, for whom the creek is believed to have been named, was born in Holstein (Denmark). Records indicate that he was a tailor, who later founded the first school in Wachovia along with his wife Elizabeth.
The Shallowford Road Shallowford Road, which crossed-over the Petersbach and formed the western edge of the property that would become Hanes Park, was the primary road traveled by the Moravians when they initially entered Wachovia to establish settlement. The road stretched from "Shallow Ford" in the Yadkin river that allowed for passage; and by 1772 ended in the area that is today Burke Street. Years later, two large sections of the road were renamed "Country Club Road" and "First Street."
Hanes Park's beginning
Grace Court
Four blocks up the hill from Hanes Park at the other end of Glade Street sits Grace Court. This small tract of land was originally set aside for park purposes by developers in 1905. In the summer of 1919, the Twin City Sentinel newspaper reminded the citizens of Winston-Salem why Pleasant Henderson Hanes, Sr. could be termed "the father of the park system."
"Mr. Hanes was a stockholder and director in the old West End Land Company which laid out the first residential development of real estate as the city grew westward. In that development a tract of land was set apart for park purposes, known as Grace Court. In later years this fact was lost sight of and the property was cut up in lots and was to be sold for building sites. Mr. Hanes protested and at his own expense backed a litigation which protected this...municipal park...and turned it back to the city for that purpose. But for this act on the part of Mr. Hanes the people of the community would not have enjoyed the evenings that have been possible in Grace Court, and that attractive green would now be covered with buildings..."
West End Dairy Farm
The land comprising Hanes Park prior to donation was primarily occupied by the "West End Dairy Farm," owned by P. H. Hanes, Sr. In the years before its donation, the farm was a model of ideal dairy production. As one writer from the prestigious "Holstein-Friesian Register" of Battleboro, Vermont noted after visiting the farm: "The magnificent specimens of dairy animals in the herd are enthusiastically commented on by all who have visited the selection of the county, and as everything is conducted on a scientific, yet practical basis and everything on the farm is of modern construction, it is little wonder that the Hanes herd of Holsteins under such ideal conditions as those existing in the West End Dairy, must mean not only a great amount of pleasure, but also an excellent return of the original investment."
The President of the association remarked that he "had never seen a better collection of individuals and that the cattle produced by Hanes in Forsyth county are as well bred cattle as he has seen." The Western Sentinel reported that "the Holsteins exhibited by the P. H. Hanes Dairy and Stock Farm and the Jerseys exhibited by the Reynolda Farm, presented splendid types of dairy stock..."
In 1919 when the decision was made to donate the dairy farm as a public park, it was considered by the Winston-Salem Journal "to be without a doubt the finest piece of real estate in Winston-Salem at this time." The farm itself was located at the foothill of the affluent West End Neighborhood, largely consisting of grand residences rising hundreds of feet upon the hills above. Central to this neighborhood was Summit Street, which later boasted sweeping views out over Hanes Park. Today the base of Summit Street is not marked, although its splayed entrance at the park's northeastern corner is still a vibrant part of the city.
An early visit from Chautauqua
The "Chautauqua" grew from a group of Methodist Sunday-school teachers who originally took their name from a lake in New York. A welcome and prolific source of education and entertainment for towns across America in the late 19th and early 20th century, they evolved into multiple traveling entities, many with massive tents and various entertainers and speakers who lectured on various subjects. Notable Americans who spoke and traveled with the Chautauqua included Booker T. Washington, William Jennings Bryan, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Roosevelt and Emilia Earhart. On July 13, 1919, W.E. Vaughan-Lloyd, the first director of playgrounds and parks, reported to the Winston-Salem Board of Aldermen that the tennis courts in Hanes Park would be getting back stops, and "the Chautauqua used this ground and left it in miserable condition, however, steps are being taken to put in first class order in the near future."
Flooding in Winston-Salem in the 1920s
The Western North Carolina mountains are the highest in the Appalachian Mountain range, and the city of Winston-Salem is situated in their foothills. In the middle of Winston-Salem, in the valley of the Peters Creek basin, runs the "Hanes Park Branch of Peters Creek." That problematic hydrological setting initially put Hanes Park at the center of flooding issues in the City for over a decade. In May 1927, work began to culvert "Peters Brook" throughout Hanes Park and much of the creek began to go underground.
This only partially worked. The flooding continued and it was reported on July 10th of 1928, that "Hanes Park presented the appearance of a good size lake being filled with water from bank to bank." 3.70 inches of rain then fell a month later, and "Of course, Hanes Park is flooded. The greater part of the playground space is under several inches of water and the section near the intersection of Glade Street and Hawthorne Road seems to have a covering several feet deep. The present system of drainage, constructed during recent years, apparently is unable to care for the flow..."
As this weather report from the Winston-Salem Journal on July 10, 1928 shows, flooding in a metropolitan area in the 1920s brought hazards that were no laughing matter:"The heavy rain raised Peters Creek to the greatest flood in the past year and a half. Lightening blew fuses on street cars and did slight damage in a number of places over Winston-Salem. Numerous automobiles were flooded and traffic in general was held up temporarily. No wind accompanied the rainfall of sufficient force to do damage."In July 1931, once again "Hanes Park was turned into a lake..." This time the steel truss foot bridge on the southern side of the Park washed out, and it took several days to drag it back upstream with tractors (the remnants of the ordeal can still be seen today). A National Geodectic Survey was conducted in 1932. This work was performed in conjunction with multiple drainage projects that culminated in the excavation of Peters Creek for 2 ½ miles from just before Hanes Park through the middle of the city to Salem Creek. By January 1936, "In Hanes Park for the first time in history, the grounds were wholly clear of any overflow from Peters Creek. The drainage project completed the previous year with CWA funds worked 'Like a charm'" and "was regarded by public works officials yesterday to have stood the "acid test.""
Also included with these projects was the construction of a three-barrel box culvert bridge over Reynolda Road. The "Peters Creek Bridge" was part of the "Forsyth County State Project No. 7471 built by" the "North Carolina State Highway and Public Works Commission with Federal Aid" and was completed in 1934. It spans Peters Creek at the Northeast corner of Hanes Park, and is still a highly traveled corridor today.
Gifted names The names "Hanes Park" and "Richard J. Reynolds High School" have always been the designated names of each facility since the beginning. However, in the years following the founding of R. J. Reynolds High School and Hanes Park, for the reference purposes of the common reader at the time, the newspapers sometimes referred to the school as "Winston High School," or a baseball game would be played at, "Hanes Field." This is not to be confused with the conflagration that was Winston-Salem City High School on Cherry Street downtown, or the old Hanes Field in Durham named in honor of P. H. Hanes Jr., where the Bulls played their home games from 1913 to 1925, the location of which is now Williams Field at Jack Katz Stadium, the home of Duke University Field Hockey.
Early athletics
Tennis
The sport of tennis and the care for its game and those who play it have been of paramount importance in Hanes Park since its inception. The original courts were "constructed of twelve inch timbers" with "a specially mixed soil and sand composition which will provide a splendid surface for the courts at all times, but it is hoped, at least by next season, to provide a permanent surface 6 or 8 inches deep..." In the summer of 1922, the grading of the play surfaces were deemed unsatisfactory, and the courts were rebuilt. Drinking fountains were installed, and "two arbors were erected for the protection of the players against the sun and rain, and vines were planted to cover them" as "the courts are crowded almost the whole day thru (sic)." By May 1922, reservations for the courts began being directed through the downtown Y.M.C.A., as the volume of calls coming into the Parks and Recreation department grew too large to manage properly. That year, a citywide tournament was held. This "was a gala day at the tennis courts at Hanes Park," and first prize for "singles champion of the city" was a "Dayton steel racquet" donated by the Twin-City Sentinel newspaper. When the United States retained the Davis Cup in 1922, a picture of the Cup made the paper.
Baseball