The Historic Brookstown Inn
History & art
From Salem Manufacturing Company in 1837 to the inn you know today.
A living museum of history, art and treasure
Few hotels can say their walls once spun cotton, milled flour and served a tobacco company. The Historic Brookstown Inn began as one of the South’s early textile mills, was saved from demolition in the 1970s, and was carefully restored into the inn that welcomes guests today.
Its story, and the art that fills its halls, are part of every stay.
Timeline
Nearly two centuries in the making
- 1766The town of Salem is foundedMoravian settlers establish Salem, and a weaver sets up a hand loom in the town’s first house.
- 1835Salem Manufacturing CompanyFrancis Fries and thirty Moravian businessmen raise around $50,000 to organize the company.
- 1837The mill risesConstruction begins on the cotton mill that still forms the heart of the inn.
- 1856Wachovia Flour MillsF. and H. Fries acquire the struggling mill, and it becomes the Wachovia Flour Mills.
- 1880The Arista Cotton MillFrancis H. Fries builds the Arista Mill next door, one of the first Southern factories lit by electricity.
- 1903Arista Mills CompanyThe mills are joined under one company.
- 1942New tenantsThe complex serves Brown and Williamson Tobacco, then Western Electric, then a warehouse.
- 1976Saved from demolitionFacing the wrecking ball, the mill is rescued with the help of Old Salem and the town.
- 1977National RegisterThe building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- 1984The Brookstown Inn opensThe restored mill welcomes its first guests with 41 rooms.
- 1991Room to growThe 1880 Arista Mill is remodeled and the inn grows to 71 rooms.
- 2013A careful renovationRenovation of the Main Building begins, creating the Brookstown guests know and love today.
In the lobby
The History Exhibit
Opened in 2013, the exhibit in our lobby gathers photographs and archival pieces that trace the inn’s layered past: two cotton factories built nearly fifty years apart by succeeding generations of the Fries family, a flour mill that ran for half a century, and a family whose ventures helped build six other mills, three railroads and what became the nation’s fourth-largest bank.
The collection
Paintings by Leland Powers
The work of local artist Leland Powers hangs throughout the inn. Painting in oil in his signature photographic realism, Powers captures iconic and historic places across Winston-Salem and North Carolina, each canvas an invitation to go and find the real thing during your stay.
A souvenir like no other
The Art-o-mat®
In the lobby stands our Art-o-mat®, a retired cigarette vending machine given a new purpose: it dispenses original art. Pull the knob and leave with a small work by one of more than 400 artists from ten countries.
Guest words
In their words
“We hosted our wedding at the Brookstown Inn and had the best experience we could have asked for.”
Frances A.“What a beautiful historic structure! They really put a lot of attention into making the place welcoming and presentable.”
J.M. Sanderson“If you get bored with the same old cookie cutter chain hotels, Brookstown Inn is for you.”
Debra H.In the press