Since 1837
A charming getaway in Winston-Salem
Whether you are in Winston-Salem for business, a family vacation, or to visit someone at a local college, the Historic Brookstown Inn is built for a memorable stay. Raised in 1837, this non-smoking hotel blends historic character with free hot breakfast, WiFi and parking. It sits off US-52 and I-40, twenty-three miles from Piedmont Triad International, and minutes from Old Salem Museums and Gardens and the Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
History of the inn
The site was first home to the Salem Manufacturing Company, a mill built in 1837 by Francis Fries. Over the years it changed names and owners and had its share of hard times, but it continued as a milling company until 1942, when it became warehouse space.
The Brookstown rehabilitation project began in 1978. The inn opened in 1984 with forty-one rooms and restaurant space, and thirty more rooms followed in 1991. In 2013 renovations began on the Main Building, creating the Brookstown we know now.
The history exhibit
Commissioned on 24 September 2013, the exhibit in our lobby is an extensive display of interpreted photographs and archival items. It tells the complicated story of two cotton factories built nearly fifty years apart by succeeding generations of the Fries family. One became a flour mill for fifty years before joining the other.
The family made its first money in a factory across the street that no longer stands, and remnants of the second factory’s boiler still sit in the Visit Winston-Salem offices. The Fries family also helped build six other mills, three railroads, and what would become the fourth largest bank in the country.
The City of Arts and Innovation
Winston-Salem is known for its commitment to the arts, healthcare and technology. Old Salem, established in 1766, is the city’s best-known historic district and a living history museum, and it sits footsteps from our front door. The city is also home to Krispy Kreme, Texas Pete, the Reynolda House, and an arts district that takes in MESDA, Piedmont Opera, the Milton Rhodes Art Center and SECCA.
Area attractions
- Old Salem Museums & GardensFootsteps
- Reynolda House Museum of American Art
- Innovation Quarter
- The Ramkat
- Winston-Salem Dash Baseball
- Yadkin Valley Wineries
Craft beer
North Carolina’s first microbrewery opened in 1774 at the Single Brothers’ House in Old Salem.
- Small Batch Beer Co.0.6 mi
- Foothills Brewing0.8 mi
- Fiddlin’ Fish Brewing1.1 mi
- Incendiary Brewing1.1 mi
- Wise Man Brewing1.3 mi
- Hoots Beer Co.1.4 mi
Colleges and universities
The inn sits in the middle of five of them.
- Piedmont International University0.4 mi
- Salem College and Academy0.5 mi
- UNC School of the Arts1.4 mi
- Winston-Salem State University1.4 mi
- Wake Forest University4.1 mi
