About Our Branch

The Malloy/Jordan East Winston Heritage Center is truly unique in the Forsyth County Public Library system. Customers experience a traditional library setting, but the resources available are from the African-American perspective. The Heritage Center’s mission is to preserve African-American heritage, history, and culture.

The Library Manager at M/JEWHC is Wright Adams. The 5,800-square-foot building is located in downtown Winston-Salem at 1110 East Seventh Street. Over 36,000 visits were made by members of the community, and nearly 5,000 of them are registered borrowers. The small Friends of the Library group was first organized in 1948.

The Heritage Center offers a full range of library services. It offers many programs to the community, such as:

• Shades of Forsyth oral history program
• An annual community Kwanzaa celebration.
• Red Stiletto Book Club
• “String of Pearl Storytellers” calls the Malloy Jordan East Winston Heritage Center their community library. This group of women has adopted the library branch and continues to organize storytelling programs that share pearls of history, culture and tradition with the community.
• Annual Black History, May Fest and Kwanzaa programs for preschool children
• Story time Training for Preschool Educators – State approved literacy training that awards clock hours and credit to preschool educators.

A permanent display of historic photographs is housed at the Heritage Center. The photographic collection includes the majority of the Atkins High School graduation class photos from the 1930s to 1971.

This branch is the home of the Children’s Outreach Department of the library system. Two youth-oriented mini-libraries are managed from the Heritage Center.

Malloy/Jordan East Winston Heritage Center History

A library branch to serve African-American residents of Winston-Salem opened on February 15, 1927. For four years, it occupied quarters in the Chestnut Street Branch of the YWCA. The Library was named for famous African-American poet, George Moses Horton.

In 1931, the city rented one room for a library at 216 East Sixth Street, formerly a store. The Library remained there until 1937 when another room was rented and the space was doubled.

In 1953, Dr. H.D. Malloy, Sr., Dr. H. Rembert Malloy, and Dr. J.C. Jordan donated land for a new library facility on East Seventh Street. It faced the Kate B. Reynolds Memorial Hospital.

On November 14, 1954, the East Winston Branch Library was dedicated and opened to the public the next day. The building was designed similarly to the newly finished Central Library on West Fifth Street.

In 1998, the branch was designated a Heritage Center. On January 12, 2004, the Forsyth County Commissioners changed the name to the Malloy-Jordan/East Winston Heritage Center. The dedication program was held on April 25, 2004.

Those who have managed the Library over the years include: Mary Hairston, Nell Wright, Bennie Moore, Margaret Allen, Mary Bruce, JoAnn Shihabi, Dothula Butler, Jane Steele, Barbara Anderson, and Tim Jackson, Jr.