Wake Forest University Webcam – See Wait Chapel and the Quad

The Wake Forest University Webcam looks out from Reynolda Hall across Hearn Plaza, the main quad of the university’s campus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Wait Chapel closes the far end of the long lawn, its white-columned portico and clock tower topped by a slender steeple. Brick residence halls with gray roofs and tall chimneys run along the right side behind a line of trees, and a footpath cuts straight across grass mowed in neat stripes. Students cross and play on the lawn between classes, and after a big athletic win the trees around the plaza can end up hung with streamers of toilet paper, a campus tradition this camera has caught.

About Wake Forest University and Hearn Plaza

The university’s own webcam page places the camera on Reynolda Hall, the administration building at one end of the main quad, with Wait Chapel standing at the far end. The two buildings are roughly 240 meters (790 feet) apart, and the camera faces northwest along the length of the plaza. Hearn Plaza was completed in 1956 and is named for Thomas K. Hearn Jr., the university’s 12th president, who served from 1983 to 2005. A path runs around its edge and another bisects it, and six upperclass residence halls, Huffman, Poteat, Kitchin, Davis, Taylor and Efird, frame the long sides. Commencement is held here, along with Project Pumpkin, a Halloween event first held in 1988, and Hit the Bricks, a relay race of eight to ten hours around the plaza that raises money for the Brian Piccolo Cancer Fund.

Wait Chapel is named for Samuel Wait, the college’s first president. Its steeple reaches 65 meters (213 feet), the building houses the Janet Jeffrey Carlile Harris Carillon of 48 bells, and the university lists its seating at 2,227. The chapel hosted presidential debates in 1988 and 2000, and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke there on October 11, 1962.

The campus itself is a transplant. Baptists founded the college in 1834 in the town of Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, and it moved to Winston-Salem for the fall 1956 term after Charles Babcock and Mary Reynolds Babcock, a daughter of R. J. Reynolds, gave about 134 hectares (330 acres) of fields and woods from their Reynolda estate. Fourteen buildings went up between 1952 and 1956 in the Georgian style that still defines the campus. Today the Reynolda Campus covers about 138 hectares (340 acres), and the university enrolled 9,121 students in fall 2023, 5,471 of them undergraduates.

The toilet paper has a history too. Rolling the Quad follows major athletic victories and dates from the late 1960s. On the old campus, students celebrated by ringing the bell in Wait Hall, but the new chapel had bells and no bell rope, so they found another way to mark a win.

Weather and Climate in Winston-Salem

Winston-Salem sits about 241 meters (791 feet) above sea level and has a humid subtropical climate, with cool winters and warm, humid summers. NOAA normals put the average January high at 49 F (9 C) and the low just below freezing at 31 F (-1 C). By July, afternoons reach about 88 F (31 C) and nights stay near 69 F (21 C). April and October are the mild months, with highs around 71 F (21 C) and lows of 48 to 49 F (9 C). The city averages about 1,097 millimeters (43.2 inches) of precipitation a year.

On camera, the seasons show mostly in the trees. Through the summer the canopy around the lawn is solid green and the stripes on the grass stand out. By early October the first red and orange leaves appear at the edges of the frame, and once the branches are bare in winter more of the brick halls show through. A winter snowfall, when one comes, turns the lawn white against the red brick of the chapel.

Things to Do Near Wake Forest University

Reynolda, the Reynolds family estate that gave the campus its land, lies beside the university in the Reynolda Historic District. Reynolda House Museum of American Art occupies the country home that Katharine Smith Reynolds and R. J. Reynolds, founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, built in 1917. It has been an art museum since 1967, with a collection of American art from the colonial period to the present. Reynolda Gardens adds a public garden, walking trails and wetlands, and Reynolda Village puts shops and restaurants into many of the estate’s original buildings. The whole estate covers about 69 hectares (170 acres).

On campus, a walk from Reynolda Hall to the chapel steps follows the line the camera looks along, and the Z. Smith Reynolds Library holds the main collection of books and documents for the Reynolda Campus. About 6 kilometers (3.8 miles) southeast, Old Salem preserves the Moravian settlement where the first tree was felled for the new town on January 6, 1766. Its public buildings are grouped around a central square, the typical layout of a Moravian congregation town.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Wake Forest University Webcam located?

It is mounted on Reynolda Hall at the southeast end of Hearn Plaza, on the Reynolda Campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It looks northwest up the quad to Wait Chapel.

What can you see on the Wake Forest University Webcam?

The long lawn of Hearn Plaza with its paths and trees, Wait Chapel and its steeple at the far end, and brick residence halls along the right side, with students crossing the quad through the day.

What is the weather like in Winston-Salem?

Winters are cool, with January highs near 49 F (9 C) and lows around 31 F (-1 C). Summers are warm and humid, with July highs near 88 F (31 C). Spring and fall are mild, with highs around 71 F (21 C) in April and October.

What is the tall steeple on the Wake Forest campus?

It is Wait Chapel, named for Samuel Wait, the first president of the college. Its steeple rises 65 meters (213 feet).

Why is there toilet paper in the trees at Wake Forest?

Students, alumni and fans roll the Quad after major athletic wins, throwing rolls of toilet paper into the trees of Hearn Plaza, a tradition dating from the late 1960s.

Is Wake Forest University in the town of Wake Forest?

Not anymore. The college was founded in 1834 in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, and moved to its current Reynolda Campus in Winston-Salem in 1956. It kept the name of its original home.

Which presidential debates were held at Wake Forest?

Wait Chapel, the building at the far end of the camera’s view, hosted the 1988 debate between George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis and the 2000 debate between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Source: Wake Forest University