Wake Forest
A historic downtown, Falls Lake, and the town that gave a college its name.
Life in Wake Forest
Wake Forest is home base for Moving The Triangle, and the town has a way of making newcomers feel like they have lived here for years. You get a walkable historic downtown along White Street, parks and greenways in nearly every direction, and Falls Lake a short drive away, all within Wake County and an easy reach of Raleigh.
Wake Forest highlights
Wake Forest Historical Museum
Housed in the Dr. Calvin Jones House, built in 1820, the museum covers the history of the town and the college with photos, books, documents, and memorabilia.
Historic districts
Downtown Wake Forest, the Wake Forest Historic District, and the Glen Royall Mill Village are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
E. Carroll Joyner Park
One of the town’s ten parks and community centers, and the home of the Wake Forest Dance Festival each fall.
Falls Lake
Falls Lake State Recreation Area pairs a 12,000-acre lake with 26,000 acres of woodland for boating, fishing, camping, and trails.
A growing town
Wake Forest grew from 30,117 residents in 2010 to 47,601 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census.
How Wake Forest began
In 1823 Dr. Calvin Jones became the area’s postmaster and started heading his letters “Wake Forest,” a name drawn from the Forest District around his land. Nine years later the North Carolina Baptist Convention bought his 615-acre plantation for $2,000, and Wake Forest Institute opened there in February 1834 with 72 students enrolled by the end of the first year. The school became Wake Forest College in 1838.
The Raleigh & Gaston Railroad reached the east side of campus in 1840, and when the college trustees paid to move the depot from Forestville to Wake Forest in 1874, White Street grew into the commercial street that downtown still centers on. The community was incorporated on March 26, 1880, as the Town of Wake Forest College, the Royall Cotton Mill became the town’s first industry in 1899, and the General Assembly renamed the community the Town of Wake Forest in 1909. After Wake Forest College moved to Winston-Salem, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, which began classes on the original campus in 1950, took over the entire campus.
See what is for sale in Wake Forest
Every listing in Wake Forest lives on movingthetriangle.com, our sister site, where you can save the homes you like and get alerts when new ones hit the market.
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