Wayback Wednesday: SNOW, 1960-Style

The winter of 1960 is recalled by seasoned Winston-Salem residents as the winter that it snowed…and snowed…and snowed! If you were living in Winston-Salem on February 13th, 60 years ago, you would have awaken to snowy scenes, such as those featured in this post. Two inches of snow were announced in the forecast, but seven inches of snow fell, accompanied by 55 m.p.h. winds, and the snow was covered with sleet.

The snow fell in the early hours of Saturday morning. The photo above shows two women trying to cross Fourth Street at Trade Street. Notice that one woman is wearing dress shoes while the second woman wears galoshes. They are both carrying the distinctive bag and boxes from Dewey’s Bakery, with the store shown in the background. At least they’ll have delicious treats when they reach their destination.

This man came prepared for snow and sledding. He is standing across from Thalhimers Department Store on West Fourth Street. Or, he may have just purchased the sled at the Bocock Stroud Store, which was located on the same side of the street where he is standing. Some happy children will have a brand new sled to enjoy their snowy weekend.

Speaking of snow days, the photo shown above is Brunson Elementary School. The city schools opened on Monday following the snow on Saturday, but the Forsyth County schools were closed because of hazardous road conditions. In the photo, snow covers the banks of the creek. Today, the vegetation covers the banks of the creek, making the school nearly invisible from the street.

Snow definitely makes travel difficult, even for the Greyhound buses that traveled from Interstate 40 to the Union Bus Depot on North Cherry Street. The buses entered the station from Cherry Street, deposited their passengers, took on more passengers, then exited the building onto Marshall Street, and traveled back to Interstate 40. City bus service was suspended on February 13th, but the taxicabs operated.

The snow scraper shown above is traveling down N. Marshall Street toward W. Fifth Street. The Robert E. Lee Hotel is at the right.

The woman in the photograph shown above is crossing West Fourth Street near North Trade Street, in front of Arcade Fashion Shop. She is carrying a bag, probably containing groceries. Many of the city’s stores closed at noon on February 13th, and others did not open.

When the snow falls during the day, a scraper comes in handy to clear the windshield before driving. It looks like quite a bit of snow has fallen since the man parked his car on West Fourth Street, in front of Thalhimers.

Snowy roads result in few cars on the streets, such as seen in the photo above. There are a few pedestrians shown on N. Spruce Street, walking between the YMCA and the Thalhimers building.

All of the above photographs were taken by Winston-Salem Journal photographer, Frank Jones. For the photograph above, Frank just had to walk out his front door and snap this view on Brookstown Avenue, near Spring Street, looking toward N. Broad Street.

Highways were open on February 13th, although traffic was moving very slowly. Flights at Smith Reynolds Airport were cancelled. The 7″ snowfall in Winston-Salem did not break the record established in December 1930, when 29″ fell during a three-day storm.

As inconvenient as this snowstorm was to the city, it was a just a forewarning of the snow disaster that North Carolina would endure in March of 1960.

Photographs courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.