Journal photo by David Rolfe ---12/7/2012---- Giant water turbine components lie rusting in tall weeds near the burned-out shell of the old Idols Dam power station on the Yadkin River near Clemmons, NC, Fri., Dec. 7, 2012. The Idols Hydroelectric Station opened in 1898, and supplied power to factories, lighting, and streetcars in Winston-Salem. The building burned a century later. 2 of 6
Fries Manufacturing & Power Company, Idols Station, Yadkin River, Clemmons, Forsyth County, NC from the Historic American Buildings Survey.
Historic photo of Fries Manaufacturing & Power Company, Idols Station, Yadkin River, Clemmons, Forsyth County.
Historic photo of Fries Manaufacturing & Power Company, Idols Station, Yadkin River, Clemmons, Forsyth County. Older turbine connecting gears to a large generator in the main building was the original configuration.
Historic photo of Fries Manaufacturing & Power Company, Idols Station, Yadkin River, Clemmons, Forsyth County. Older turbine connecting gears to a large generator in the main building was the original configuration.
JoAnn Sieburg-Baker photo via Library of Congress, August 1977. OVERALL VIEW THE DAM. - Fries Manaufacturing & Power Company, Idols Station, Yadkin River, Clemmons, Forsyth County, NC from the Historic American Buildings Survey.
JoAnn Sieburg-Baker photo via Library of Congress, August 1977. VIEW OF THE FRONT. - Fries Manaufacturing & Power Company, Idols Station, Yadkin River, Clemmons, Forsyth County, NC from the Historic American Buildings Survey.
JoAnn Sieburg-Baker photo via Library of Congress, August 1977. VIEW OF SOUTH FACADE. - Fries Manaufacturing & Power Company, Idols Station, Yadkin River, Clemmons, Forsyth County, NC from the Historic American Buildings Survey from 1977
JoAnn Sieburg-Baker photo via Library of Congress, August 1977. CLOSEUP VIEW OF POWER GENERATOR. - Fries Manaufacturing & Power Company, Idols Station, Yadkin River, Clemmons, Forsyth County, NC from the Historic American Buildings Survey from 1977. Large horizontal wheeled generators were from 1914 upgrade of equipment by Duke Power.
JoAnn Sieburg-Baker photo via Library of Congress, August 1977. VIEW OF INTERIOR OF BUILDING. - Fries Manaufacturing & Power Company, Idols Station, Yadkin River, Clemmons, Forsyth County, NC from the Historic American Buildings Survey from 1977. Large horizontal wheeled generators were from 1914 upgrade of equipment by Duke Power.
Journal photo by David Rolfe ---12/7/2012---- Kelly Mitter, a member of Preserve Historic Forsyth, peered through a ruined doorway of the old Idols Dam power station on a tour of the site Fri., Dec. 7, 2012. Members of the PHF group visited the station, which burned in 1998, to get a first hand look at what was one of Winston-Salem's first power generating sites. Now owned by the city of Winston-Salem, the group may consider promoting the site as a limited access public park. LEDE PHOTO 1 of 6
Journal photo by David Rolfe ---12/7/2012--- David Bergstone, a member of Preserve Historic Forsyth, was in the group of PHF members who took a tour of the ruined Idols Hydroelectric station on the Yadkin River, Fri., Dec. 7, 2012. "It's got a lot of potential," Bergstone said of the site, now owned by the city of Winston-Salem. "Perhaps as a limited-access public park, or a river access point." 6 of 6
Journal photo by David Rolfe ---12/7/2012--- Members of Preserve Historic Forsyth toured the old Idols Hydroelectric station on the Yadkin River near Clemmons, NC, Fri., Dec. 7, 2012. Members got a good look inside the shell of what was once the generating room, destroyed by fire in 1998. 5 of 6
Journal photo by David Rolfe ---12/7/2012--- Members of Preserve Historic Forsyth toured the old Idols Hydroelectric station on the Yadkin River near Clemmons, NC, Fri., Dec. 7, 2012. Among the group visiting the ruins of the 1898 power station were, l-r, David Bergstone, Jeff McIntosh, and Kelly Mitter. 4 of 6
Journal photo by David Rolfe ---12/7/2012--- Water from the Yadkin River surges through a reworked portion of the old Idols Dam hydroelectric station, Fri., Dec. 7, 2012. The 1898 station, a brick portion of which still stands, rear, burned in 1998. 3 of 6
In 1898, when Forsyth County was at the dawn of its manufacturing heyday, it was the Idols power station that made the light.
Idols, now a ruin on the Yadkin River just west of Clemmons, was the first commercial hydroelectric generating station in North Carolina to use long-distance transmission of alternating current. No less a luminary than inventor Thomas Edison was an early investor.
David Bergstone, a member of the group Preserve Historic Forsyth, wants to see Idols’ historic structures preserved and its story told to generations who can scarcely imagine life without electricity. He organized a tour recently to persuade the group’s board to officially take on the project.
“It’s a great location because of the history of it and what it meant for the community,” said Bergstone, who is the director of architecture at Old Salem Museums and Gardens.
Architect David Gall, another board member, said the Idols station shows Forsyth County at the forefront of industry modernization across the Southeast. “That site has an important story to tell,” he said. “To be able to move forward, you have to have an appreciation of history.”
Idols’ story began with Henry Elias Fries, whose family owned several textile mills and a grain mill, among other enterprises. Fries saw the potential of electricity and formed a company, Fries Manufacturing and Power Co., to put the power of the Yadkin River to work for the community.
The Fries family “was like the Andrew Carnegie of Winston-Salem,” said Catherine Hendren, who is the president of Preserve Historic Forsyth.
The station opened on April 18, 1898, with Fries’ young daughter, Marguerite, there to flip the switch for the first time.
Power from the plant was an impressive 10,000 volts in 1898 and “long-distance” at the time meant 13¼ miles to Salem – the separate towns of Winston and Salem hadn’t yet merged.
But the electricity from the new station would power textile and fertilizer mills, the electric railway and electric street lighting, all of which would help Winston-Salem become the largest city in the state by 1920.
The Idols station continued to generate power until a fire on Feb. 8, 1998, apparently caused by a mechanical failure in a generator.
The station’s wooden wheel room, which sat above a stone structure housing the turbines, was destroyed and the brick generator room gutted. The granite dam, exterior of the generator room and brick walls of the wheel pits remain. Early 20th-century machinery such as a flume, turbines and rotor now sit in the grass at the site.
Ownership of the site changed hands several times over the years, passing to the City-County Utility Commission in 2002. For security reasons, the site is not open to the public: the commission operates a water intake at Idols Dam for the municipal water supply.
Initially, the commission considered tearing down the historic brick structure as part of improvements planned for the water intake. The building was spared, though, at the urging of preservation advocates.
David Saunders, the city-county utilities director, said that while historic preservation is outside the commission’s role, “I don’t think there’s anyone on the commission that’s opposed to something positive happening in the way of preservation of the site.”
Bergstone hopes the board of Preserve Historic Forsyth will decide at its January meeting to embrace the project. The group would try to work out an access agreement with the utility commission, then seek grants for a project to preserve the site for the public.
One possibility is an educational center, where people could learn about the early development of hydroelectricity, along with a park that would allow them to enjoy the natural environment of the area. Adding to the scenery is a truss bridge across the river just to the north.
“It’s very undeveloped,” Hendren said. “It’s really beautiful land.”
Another step would be pursuing inclusion on the National Register of Historical Places; the site has already been determined to be eligible, Bergstone said.
“I’m really proud that we have this site that of was national significance,” Hendren said. “It’s beautiful -- and inspiring.”
