501 4th Street Revamp in Downtown Winston-Salem, Part 1

8/17/2022

Ad from the Twin City Sentinel in 1963, offering tours of the new home office for Security Life and Trust Company. Source: North Carolina Collection of the Forsyth County Public Library

Working at the 500 W 5th building in Winston-Salem, NC has given me a unique perspective in downtown Winston-Salem's growth over the last few years. One of my first jobs was working as an usher at the Steven's Center, when I was in high school back in the '90s. Now that I'm back downtown, and cell phone cameras are ubiquitous, I've been snapping pictures of new and old things over the last few years. Several LINK apartments have become a part of our landscape, and the newest one is directly behind 500 W 5th. I've been chronicling the space since August 2019 and now three years later to the month, Link Apartments 4th Street will welcome their first residents next week.

The start of the project included demolition of the smaller building that stood behind the former GMAC building (now 500 W 5th). Built as the home office for Security Life & Trust in 1963 (with an address of 420 North Spruce Street), an open house on June 14, 1963 invited the public to take a 30 minute tour for the Grand Opening that would "show you the highlights of this ultra-modern building". Security Life was one of the first companies to completely computerize their records, and the 6 story windowless building, clad in aluminum, protected the huge mainframe computers with temperature and air quality control. (Source: North Carolina Collection of the Forsyth County Public Library)

In 1969, Security became Integon, an umbrella for their many operations. In 1978, ground was broken behind the Security Life building for an 18 story skyscraper, which would be known as the Integon Building when it opened in 1980. After an acquisition by General Motors, it became the GMAC building. In 2017, Flow Companies purchased the former GMAC building and their headquarters are now housed on floors 15-18.

This is part 1 of a series in the demolition and rebirth of the 420 North Spruce Street/501 4th Street space. This first part begins in 2019 with the removal of the rooftop paneling in August through partial demolition of the building by the end of the year.

August 8, 2019