Former YWCA Condos Nearly Ready For Residents

In his youth, Bill Benton was a regular visitor to the YWCA on Glade Street in Winston-Salem's West End, whether it was to swim in the pool or to get a piece of his favorite, chicken pie.

“My mother especially liked the cafeteria, which was on the first floor," he says. "We came every Sunday.”

Now Benton is a co-owner of the building and the land surrounding it. The new neighborhood is called The Glade at West End. The original building now houses seven condos.

Benton's company bought the property in 2012 for $1.5 million dollars. He says he could see the possibilities in the architecture; interior elements such as the original herring-bone parquet floors, and brickwork by noted local brick maker George Black.

“All the brickwork including all the decorative brickwork , none of that was detailed in the plans, it was worked out on the site," Benton says. "It's one of those they literally don't make ‘em like that no more.”

The YWCA closed the Glade Street location four years ago. Since then, a pool and gym built in the 1950s were torn down, as was a heated pool and an old steam station with its distinctive smokestacks. The land is graded to make way for as many as 14 single-family homes. Construction on them should begin by the end of the year.