On this day in 1914, the North Carolina Firemen’s Association opened their annual meeting in Winston-Salem.
This is the third time the association has selected Winston-Salem as the location of their meeting. The other meetings were held here in 1894 and 1905.
In 1914, meetings took place on the first day, and the next three days were devoted to parades, contests, races, gun shoots and baseball games.
The parade was arranged to show the evolution of firefighting apparatus, and leading the parade was the first fire engine imported by Salem in 1785.
Many of the races involved horse-drawn hose wagons.
The racetrack, on Cherry Street between Fourth and Fifth Streets, is shown in the photo above. Cherry Street was considered ideal because it was paved and had many shade trees.
Courtesy of Old Salem Inc.