Winston-Salem is known for its rich history, from its roots as a Moravian settlement to its legacy as a tobacco industry hub. Many of those stories are preserved in local museums. But some believe parts of the city’s past are still buried — literally.
Listener Adam Leonard asked WFDD:
“Is there any truth to the rumors that there are a lot of tunnels underneath Winston-Salem?”
For years, theories about a network of secret tunnels have circulated around town. WFDD’s April Laissle tracked down those rumors for this edition of Carolina Curious.
The fact-finding mission began with Michelle McCullough, Winston-Salem’s Historic Resources Office. She met us near Old Salem to explore the one tunnel she knew of — one she hadn’t visited in years. The entrance, tucked beneath a vine-covered brick arch off the main path, is barely visible from the trail above. Reaching it required a trek down a steep, overgrown slope to a stream.
The tunnel was cool and dark inside — a sharp contrast to the sweltering summer air. Its walls were lined with graffiti, and the stream echoed as it flowed along the floor. McCullough believed the other end might be sealed off, making any real exploring here too dangerous.
Even with her role at the city, McCullough couldn’t say for certain what it had once been used for, or if it was connected to a broader network.
But she did have some theories.
“What I've heard — I'm going to call it folklore — I have heard Reynolds had a number of tunnels, a tunnel system under where the headquarters was. It went all the way down to where the factories were, went to Wachovia, so they could go to the bank,” she said. “And I heard they would push a little cart with gold coins to pass out on paydays to employees and things like that.”
She’s talking about the early days of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, known now as Reynolds American. If you’ve lived in Winston for a while, you’ve probably heard something like this too, maybe with some other embellishments. There are tales of a man with a machine gun escorting that money cart through those tunnels, factory fires fueled by tunnel backdrafts, and even a secret pond beneath the city.
McCullough said it was unlikely the tunnel she led us to had any connection to Reynolds. But as no official map of the rumored system has ever surfaced during her work with the city, she couldn’t say for sure.
As we left though, we found a clue. Above the tunnel’s entrance was a brick engraved with a date: 1880.
That detail pointed to a more mundane explanation. Martha Hartley, an archivist with Old Salem Museums & Gardens, located an architectural survey from the 1990s referencing the structure. It described a “round arch brick culvert with an 1880-dated keystone ... built to support the road, with concrete reinforcement.”
Hartley said in other words, the structure was likely built to redirect the stream underground to allow for development above, not to carry money between Reynolds' buildings. Still, Hartley didn’t rule out the possibility that the Reynolds tunnels existed elsewhere. And she knew for sure of other tunnels unrelated to the company that were built in the city. One connected an Old Salem school to a recess yard — it’s since been destroyed. Another still runs beneath R.J. Reynolds High School, she said.
A 1982 Sentinel article revealed that tunnels also exist beneath Reynolda Village. Phil Archer with Reynolda House confirmed that those tunnels were built during the construction of the Reynolds family estate under the direction of Katharine Smith Reynolds. They housed power and water lines.
“She wanted to give the feeling of an English Hamlet or little English kind of village, so she didn't want to see any of the utilities,” he said.
The network ran from the greenhouse to Reynolda Church and beyond. Though parts of the system have collapsed and entrances were sealed, Archer says much of it is still intact.
“I remember students at Wake would always try to get down into the tunnels,” he said. “I don’t know how many succeeded.”
Archer suspects the Reynolda tunnels may have been conflated with stories about Reynolds tunnels downtown. He pointed us to Tim Flinchum, who began working at Reynolds all the way back in 1975.
Flinchum confirmed: those Reynolds Tobacco tunnels really did exist. And he worked in them. He serviced the utility lines located in the system, which connected Buildings No. 8, 256-9, 60 and Bld. 64 to the R.J. Reynolds Headquarters — now the Kimpton Hotel.
“When Mr. Reynolds built them, when he paid people from one plant to the other, he actually transferred the money from the Reynolds building to where they were working at through those tunnels,” he said.
He also verified one of the more unusual rumors: apparently there really was a pond inside the tunnels, built for fire protection.
As for the stories involving armed guards and machine guns underground?
“I have no knowledge of that,” Flinchum said with a laugh. “But I wouldn’t be surprised.”
According to Flinchum, the tunnels were taken out of service when Duke Energy moved utility lines above ground. Officials have sealed off the entrances, saying they were unsafe to explore. Shutting down the rumors about them has proven a bit more difficult.