Winston-Salem's oldest surviving house, built in 1815, where a reported curse and the ghost of a woman named Mary have trailed successive tenants for two centuries.
901 W 4th St, Winston-Salem, NC 27101
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Full-service restaurant; dinner prices typical of an upscale local establishment. See website for current menu and hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored historic house converted to restaurant; interior may have threshold variations typical of 19th-century structures.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1815 · Oldest surviving house in Winston-Salem, built 1815 by Vannimmen Zevely · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places · Federal-style Moravian construction representing early 19th-century Salem residential architecture · Continuously occupied structure spanning two centuries and multiple uses
The Zevely House was constructed in 1815 by Vannimmen Zevely, a craftsman in the Moravian community of Salem, making it the oldest intact residential structure in what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Federal-style brick building reflects the architectural standards of early nineteenth-century Moravian construction in the Carolina piedmont — a period when Salem was still a tightly organized congregation town under Moravian Church oversight.
The house's longevity across two centuries of ownership changes and shifting neighborhood contexts is itself notable. While much of historic Salem was preserved through the Old Salem Museums & Gardens initiative, the Zevely House survives independently of that preservation district, having passed through private hands before being adapted for commercial use. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which formalized its status as a document of early Winston-Salem residential construction.
The building now houses Bernardin's Restaurant, which operates in the adapted historic structure. The conversion to restaurant use preserved the historic exterior and interior character of the house while adapting it for modern food service. The Zevely House is cited in Visit Winston-Salem's official tourism materials as one of the city's most haunted historic sites, and the Winston-Salem Journal covered the building's ghost reputation in a 2014 feature on local haunted history.
Sources
The Zevely House carries two parallel ghost traditions, both documented in local Winston-Salem media and tourism content. The first is an atmospheric 'curse' said to hang over the property, a persistent piece of neighborhood lore attached to the building's long history of changing tenants and occupants. The second is more specific: the ghost of a woman identified only as Mary, understood to be a former resident who has remained associated with the house.
Accounts of Mary's presence describe footsteps heard on the staircase when no one is on it, a felt sense of a person occupying a room, and an atmospheric quality in certain parts of the house that staff and visitors interpret as a haunted presence. The Winston-Salem Journal's 2014 coverage of local ghost tales included the Zevely House among the city's documented haunted-history sites, treating the Mary tradition as established local lore rather than a recent invention.
No historical record has been located in available sources identifying a specific Mary connected to the Zevely House by name or circumstance. The ghost is presented here as a local tradition attached to the building rather than a historically documented individual. Visit Winston-Salem's official tourism content names the Zevely House as one of the city's haunted sites without elaborating on the specific identity of Mary beyond her role as a former resident.
Notable Entities
Dine in the 1815 Zevely House, the oldest surviving structure in Winston-Salem. Staff accounts of footsteps on the stairs and an atmospheric presence attributed to a former resident known as Mary have circulated since the building entered commercial use.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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