1539 Waughtown Street, Nissen Wagon Works, c. 1919 (demolished)

The Nissen company was begun in 1834 by John Philip Nissen (grandson of Denmark native Tycho Nissen who apprenticed with Bethania wagon maker Philip Transou in 1771), gradually becoming nationally known for its superior wagons and playing an important economic role in the development of Waughtown. By the mid-1870s, the industrial complex was spread over a 600 acre tract on the north side of Waughtown Street, employing about one hundred men. In 1876, two years after the death of John P. Nissen, his sons George Elias and William M. were producing 427 wagons a year at an average price of $120, realizing a profit of about $13,000. By 1917, the plant was listed as George E. Nissen and Company Wagon Manufacturers, now conveniently located just south of a rail spur.

The company was sold to longtime employee F. B. Reamy in 1925, continuing to produce wagons until 1948. It was then leased by Western Electric into the 1960s. Sportswear manufacturer Salem Company, Inc. bought the property in 1968, constructing the 1978 concrete-framed Modernist building to the left that now serves as the Winston-Salem Police Department District 2 Office Complex. Unfortunately, the roof of the main remaining building collapsed under a heavy snowfall in December 2018. Much of the structure was still intact, but the building was ordered demolished. What remains sits vacant, a target for graffiti.

At the time of the Waughtown-Belview NR nomination (2004), the brick one-story structure was still standing and featured a low-pitch gable roof; a stepped parapet with corbelled corners; bricked up windows with segmental arch heads; and exposed beams.This building had been built after a 1919 fire destroyed the original wagon works building and had survived almost a century. Its place in the history of Forsyth County was significant.

Smokestack, c.1880

A brick, polygonal smokestack with a decorative, star-shaped mouth. It appears on 1895, 1907, and 1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, pre-dating the 1919 fire. As such, it holds great historic significance for Forsyth County.