History

Located in what was once an industrial area flanked by the historic Moravian town of Salem (now known as Old Salem Museum and Gardens),  Salem College (the first woman's college in the country), the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (the first public arts conservatory in the country), and the thriving, diverse West Salem neighborhood, the Bahnson Company building occupies most of a 1.8-acre tax parcel. Winston-Salem State University and Center for Design Innovation are also adjacent.

From its construction in 1924 through 1985, the Bahnson Company, once a leading supplier of air handling and HVAC & exhaust systems, used the building to support its manufacturing and its research and development functions. Fred Bahnson patented the Bahnson Humidifier which in 1922 brought them local clients including R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and P. H. Hanes Knitting Company, as well as businesses in twenty-nine states and international locations including Australia, Belgium, England, France, Japan, Norway, Spain and South Africa.

Agnew Bahnson, Jr. became President of the company in 1947. An executive, novelist, inventor, composer and adventurer, he was a man of many talents of interests. As the company took a deeper dive into supporting the textile industry and the building added on, there was a little known anti-gravity lab installed that Bahnson operated. Following a discussion of gravity at a party after a pack of cigarettes fell to the floor, he operated his own private anti-gravity lab at 1001 and established the the Institute of Field Physics at the University of North Carolina.  

In 1985, Winston-Salem Business and Technology Corporation leased the building, converting it into a business incubator, the first of its kind in North Carolina. Though the ownership of the Bahnson Company building has changed hands several times since 1985 and the building has experienced substantial deterioration, the building has continued to provide wrap-around services to Winston-Salem entrepreneurs and small businesses.