Molly Grogan Rawls

Winston-Salem, one photograph at a time.

A downtown Winston-Salem street in the 1950s, cars parked along both curbs and a church steeple at the end of the block. A parade of new 1955 Chevrolet convertibles with riders waving, passing the Modern Chevrolet showroom. Kimel's diner, a small building with a round rooftop sign and windows advertising doughnuts and plate lunches. A rooftop view over downtown Winston-Salem toward the tobacco factories and a water tower. Taxis lined up at the curb outside the streamlined Union Bus Station, with a tall hotel behind. A brick warehouse with an iron fire escape beside a rail siding, boxcars at the loading dock.

Downtown in the 1950s, looking toward the church steeple at the end of the street.

    Five books on Winston-Salem

    All published by Arcadia Publishing, and all built from photographs in the library's collection. Each title links to the publisher's page.

    1. Winston-Salem's Historic Salem Cemetery 2016
    2. Old Salem and Salem College 2010
    3. Winston-Salem: Then and Now 2008
    4. Winston-Salem: From the Collection of Frank B. Jones Jr. 2006
    5. Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards 2004

    Local bookshops and the Old Salem visitor center usually keep copies on hand. For a signed copy, write to the author.

    Writing and press

    Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and a group of Winston-Salem men posed outside Forsyth Country Club in August 1918.
    The travelers and their hosts outside Forsyth Country Club, August 29, 1918.

    Edison visits Winston-Salem

    On the morning of August 29, 1918, a call came from Statesville: travelers near Mocksville needed a part for their car. By lunchtime Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone were at Forsyth Country Club, and by evening hundreds of people had shaken Edison's hand on Main Street.

    Read the full story

    Selected press, 2015 to 2016

    3. Molly Grogan Rawls, Photo Archivist Yadkin Valley Living Magazine
    7. 2015 Archie K. Davis Award Wachovia Historical Society
    8. Profile of Molly Grogan Rawls (no longer online) Yadkin Valley Living Magazine

    About the author

    Molly Grogan Rawls is a second-generation native of Winston-Salem. She graduated from North Forsyth High School and from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she majored in English and earned a Master of Science in Library Science.

    Since 1990 she has been the photo archivist for the Forsyth County Public Library. Her work there, sorting and identifying the library's photographs, is where each of her books began. In 2015 the Wachovia Historical Society gave her its Archie K. Davis Award for that work.

    She also writes the Winston-Salem Time Traveler column for Forsyth Woman magazine and keeps a companion site at winstonsalemtimetraveler.com.