On this day in 1957, the Professional Building opened for public inspection at Cloverdale Avenue and Melrose Street. At this time, the location was considered to the on the “outskirts” of town, and the builders were following a national trend of moving out of the downtown business area, such as with new shopping centers.
Several local physicians began talking four years ago about locating their offices out of the downtown area. The Winston-Salem Professional Building Inc. was incorporated with approximately 20 charter members. Local architects were hired, and the prime contractors were local as well, including the company that provided the financing. All subcontractors were from North Carolina, and many of them were from Winston-Salem.
Built on a sloping lot, the $750,000 Professional Building offered one solution to a downtown problem, and that was plenty of available and free parking. Five dentists and twenty-five physicians made up the initial group who had offices in the new building. All of the offices and suites were individually owned by the physicians, or rented through the association. The doctors had a part in the design and decoration of their individual offices.
The building housed a clinical laboratory, pharmacy, radiological facilities and a doctor’s lounge that were shared by the owners.
There was plenty of expansion space if additional buildings were needed in the future.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
My pediatrician Dr. William Hershey Davis had his office there. The whole building was torn down last year to make space for expansion by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.