Wake Forest is 20 minutes north of downtown Raleigh and it has the thing most of the fast-growing towns around here lost: a real downtown with a Friday night. The university that gave it its name left for Winston-Salem in 1956, but the campus stayed, the brick storefronts on White Street stayed, and the town kept building around them instead of past them. This is what I do there.
Quick orientation: Downtown Wake Forest is centered on South White Street, a few blocks off Capital Boulevard. The old campus (now Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) sits on the hill just north of it. Parking downtown is free.
The best things to do in Wake Forest
Friday Night on White
The town’s signature event: free concerts on South White Street on the second Friday of the month, April through September. Bring a chair, the restaurants set up outside, and half the town shows up. If you only do one thing in Wake Forest, do this.
E. Carroll Joyner Park
One hundred seventeen acres of rolling meadow, three miles of paved trails, a restored 1800s farmstead, an amphitheater and a pecan grove. It is the prettiest park in Wake County and almost nobody outside Wake Forest knows it. Go at golden hour. Free.
Downtown White Street
Two blocks of brick storefronts with the kind of businesses that make a downtown work: a coffee roaster, an independent bookstore, a long-running toy store, boutiques and restaurants with patios. The Wake Forest Farmers Market sets up Saturday mornings nearby year-round.
Falls Lake
The north end of the Triangle’s big reservoir is on Wake Forest’s doorstep. Sandling Beach and Beaverdam have swimming and picnic areas in summer; the Falls Lake Trail (part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail) has long shaded sections for hiking. Boat ramps are all over the lake.
The breweries and the Renaissance Centre
Wake Forest has a handful of small breweries within a short drive of downtown, and the Wake Forest Renaissance Centre on Brooks Street books touring music, comedy and community theater in a 250-seat room. Check the posts below for what is pouring and playing now.
The old campus and the Historic District
The original Wake Forest College campus is open to walk: magnolias, brick paths and the 1830s-era buildings that started it all. The surrounding Wake Forest Historic District along North Main Street is a Victorian house tour you can do from the sidewalk.
Wake Forest Historical Museum
Small, free and well done, on the old Calvin Jones House at North Main Street. Twenty minutes tells you why the town and the university share a name and why the university left.
Events to plan around
- Friday Night on White, second Fridays, April through September.
- Meet in the Street, the first Saturday in May, downtown’s big street festival.
- Six Sundays in Spring, free concerts at Joyner Park’s amphitheater, April and May.
- Fireworks Spectacular, early July at Heritage High School.
- Dirt Day, fall, at Joyner Park with the farm animals and hayrides.
- Wake Forest Christmas Parade and Lighting of Wake Forest, early December, downtown.
Neighborhoods to know
Downtown and the Historic District are the walkable core. Heritage is the big golf-course community east of Capital with its own shops. Traditions and Holding Village are the newer neighborhoods north of downtown. Wakefield is technically Raleigh but functions as Wake Forest’s southern edge, with the mall-style shopping.
Latest from Wake Forest
Nothing filed under this town yet. New posts land here automatically as soon as they publish, so check back or browse the whole blog in the meantime.
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