Before The Grounds: Ziggy's, Baity's and the Lost Music Strip Behind Wake Forest's Stadium

TL;DR

• The land around Wake Forest's football stadium began as a gift: Charles Babcock — R.J. Reynolds' son-in-law — donated the fairgrounds site in 1949 and the ballpark site that opened in 1956.
• From 1955 to 1989 the old Memorial Coliseum made it the city's arena row. The football stadium joined in 1968; the Joel Coliseum replaced the old arena in 1989.
• For 25 years, tiny Baity Street was a rock-club strip. Baity's Backstreet Music Garden (1982–1993) booked R.E.M., Guns N' Roses and the Ramones, then burned down. Ziggy's booked Dave Matthews, Phish and Hootie, played its last show Nov. 25, 2007, was sold to Wake Forest and demolished.
• That same ground is now The Grounds: 100 acres, a $250 million first phase, first five tenants named Sept. 16, 2026, retail village opening fall 2027.
• No music venue has been announced. The plans show a central lawn and gathering space. Whether live music comes back to Baity Street is the open question.

If you've sat in game-day traffic on Deacon Boulevard lately, you've seen the cranes. Behind the football stadium, across from the Joel Coliseum, a new district called The Grounds is going vertical — apartments, offices, restaurants.

What the construction fence doesn't tell you is what used to be there. For about 25 years, a short side street in the middle of that site was where you went to see a band on its way up.

Here's how a family land gift became the city's playground, how a rock strip grew in its shadow, and what is actually planned for it now.

1. It started as a gift

Almost everything in this part of town traces back to one family. Charles H. Babcock was married to Mary Reynolds Babcock, daughter of R.J. Reynolds, and the couple gave Wake Forest the estate land that became its Winston-Salem campus after the college agreed in 1946 to move here.¹

The same generosity shaped the land a mile east. In November 1949, Babcock offered the fair — then outgrowing its old home — a new site near Cherry Street Extension and 30th Street, at no charge. The first fair on the present fairgrounds was held in 1951.² It became the Dixie Classic Fair in 1956 and has been the Carolina Classic Fair since 2020.²

Babcock also donated the natural bowl next door where the city built a ballpark. Ernie Shore Field opened in April 1956, named for the East Bend native who pitched for the Red Sox — and who, in 1917, relieved Babe Ruth after one batter and retired the next 26 men in a row.³ Wake Forest plays baseball there today as David F. Couch Ballpark.³

One piece of trivia for the fairgrounds side: a half-mile dirt oval there hosted two NASCAR Grand National races in 1955. Lee Petty won both.²

2. Arena row

The building that turned the area into a destination opened on September 19, 1955: the Winston-Salem War Memorial Coliseum, 8,200 seats, home of Wake Forest basketball from 1956 until 1989.⁴

It was also where the big tours stopped. Fan-compiled concert records for the building list Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, B.B. King and Bill Haley and His Comets in its early years, the Monkees in 1967, Van Halen in 1978, and a long country run in the 1980s — Conway Twitty, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, George Strait.⁵ Treat the individual dates as fan memory rather than box-office record; the overall picture — three decades of touring acts — is not in dispute.

Football arrived in 1968. Wake Forest had been playing at Bowman Gray Stadium since moving to town, waiting out a fundraising effort that took nearly twenty years; Groves Stadium finally opened that September with a loss to N.C. State.⁶ It has carried five names since — Groves Stadium, BB&T Field, Truist Field, Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium and, as of this season, Allegacy Financial Stadium, after the credit union rebranded in April.^{6 7}

The old coliseum came down in 1989. Its footprint is now parking beside its replacement, the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which opened that August and is named for the Winston-Salem Army medic awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Vietnam.^{4 8} The Joel kept the tours coming — Garth Brooks, Elton John, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan.⁸ In 2013, Wake Forest bought the coliseum and 33 surrounding acres from the city for $8 million.⁸

So by the late 1980s you had an arena, a stadium, a ballpark and a fairgrounds within a few hundred yards of each other. What you did not have, inside any of them, was a place to see a band before it could fill an arena.

That happened on Baity Street.

3. Baity's: "The Thunderdome"

In 1982, Tim Mabe and three partners bought a bar called the Oak Cooler on Baity Street and started renovating. Mabe eventually bought the partners out with help from his mother, Peggy "Ma Baity" Ring, and his stepfather, Jim Ring — and Baity's Backstreet Music Garden was in business.⁹

That history comes from Ed Bumgardner, the longtime Winston-Salem music writer and musician, who reconstructed the club's story for YES! Weekly in 2015.⁹ By his account, Baity's started with room for a few hundred people and grew to hold a few thousand once Mabe built an outdoor stage, roofed in burlap tarps and nicknamed "The Thunderdome."⁹

The booking pace was relentless: two or three national acts a week at first, then four or five nights a week, sometimes seven. Thursdays were a showcase night — $5 at the door, free draft beer.⁹

The list of who came through reads like a used-record bin: Ricky Nelson, the Ramones, R.E.M., Guns N' Roses, the Plasmatics, George Thorogood, Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, the Black Crowes, The Band, Blue Öyster Cult, Little Feat, Johnny Winter, the Smithereens.⁹ And one Thursday-night act that nobody thought much about at the time: "Nine Inch Nails played on Thursday before they got famous," Bumgardner wrote.⁹

It ended on May 14, 1993. Investigators traced the fire to old wiring in the club's basement; when it reached the liquor, the building, in Bumgardner's telling, "blew like a bomb."⁹ Baity's never reopened.

4. Ziggy's: "You were not going to have a bad night"

The other club on the street outlived it by fourteen years.

Ziggy's began life around the corner — as the White Horse, on Deacon Boulevard — and moved to Baity Street in 1988, according to the Winston-Salem Journal's retrospective on the two clubs.¹⁰ Jay Stephens bought it in the early 1990s and ran it until the end.^{10 11}

The name, for the record, has nothing to do with Ziggy Marley — though Marley did play there.¹²

Where Baity's peaked in the '80s, Ziggy's owned the '90s and 2000s. It was a semi-open-air room under a circus-tent awning, and it caught an absurd number of bands on the way up.^{10 13} Wake Forest Magazine's list: Ben Folds Five, Phish, the Black Crowes, Dave Matthews Band, Rusted Root, George Clinton, Bo Diddley, Tenacious D, Burning Spear, Hootie and the Blowfish, Bill Monroe.¹² Triad City Beat adds Public Enemy, Derek Trucks Band, the Wailers, Donna the Buffalo and Peter Rowan — and says the club had achieved "near mythical status."¹¹

Bumgardner, who played the room as well as covering it, put it more simply to Triad City Beat: "If you played there, you were not going to have a bad night."¹¹

The university's own magazine called it "a WFU musical tradition" and put its run at 27 years.¹²

5. The last supper

Ziggy's closed after Thanksgiving in 2007.¹² The final show, on November 25, was billed as "The Last Supper," with Georgia jam band Perpetual Groove.¹⁰

The property was sold to Wake Forest University, and the building was demolished.¹⁰ YES! Weekly later described Stephens as having been "muscled off Baity Street by Wake Forest University expansion" — that's the paper's characterization, not a finding, but it matches how a lot of regulars remember it.¹³ What is documented is the outcome: the club's property went to the university, and six years later so did the coliseum across the street.^{10 8}

Stephens spent years looking for a new room. On August 5, 2011, a bigger Ziggy's opened in a former tobacco warehouse at the north end of Trade Street downtown.¹² It lasted until February 2016, when the landlord declined to renew the lease.¹¹ That room reopened in 2018 as The Ramkat — which means the clearest line from Baity Street to live music in Winston-Salem today runs through Trade Street.

6. What's planned now

In September 2024, Atlanta developer Carter and Winston-Salem's Front Street Capital — in partnership with Wake Forest University and the City of Winston-Salem — announced The Grounds: a 100-acre mixed-use district surrounding the stadium, the Joel Coliseum, Couch Ballpark, the Wake Forest Tennis Center and the fairgrounds.^{14 15}

Ground was broken in December 2024.¹⁵ According to the developers, the first phase — which they put at $250 million — includes:^{15 16}

• a 42,000-square-foot retail and dining village with 22 loft-style condos above it
• a 229-unit residential community (the student-oriented Creekside at The Grounds, which broke ground in July 2025)
• a 130,500-square-foot office building leased by Wake Forest
• road work, a restored stretch of Silas Creek and a paved multi-use trail, funded in part by a $35 million state grant¹⁷

On September 16, the developers named the first five tenants: The Jimmy, a Mediterranean restaurant; Fieldhouse Tavern, a sports bar; Bagels & Co.; the Pilates studio TREMBLE; and Allegacy Financial — whose name is already on the stadium next door.¹⁸ The retail village is scheduled to open in fall 2027, with some first-phase pieces opening earlier that year.^{15 18}

The trail is already finished. The Grounds says it will open for public "sneak peeks" during major events this fall, while construction continues around it.¹⁶

The plans center the retail village on a lawn beside a new "Deacon Walk," a pedestrian approach to the stadium.¹⁷ At the announcement, Front Street Capital's Coleman Team said the project "has the opportunity to become Winston-Salem's living room."¹⁷

And the developers know what they're building on. Their own announcement describes The Grounds as the evolution of an area with a rich history as the home of storied music clubs on Baity Street.¹⁷

What is not yet known

• Whether live music is part of the plan. As of September 21, 2026, no music venue, stage programming or concert operator has been announced for The Grounds. A lawn and a "living room" are not a rock club.
• Whether anything will mark the site. No plaque, naming or other acknowledgment of Baity's or Ziggy's has been made public beyond that one line in the announcement.
• Exactly where the old clubs stood relative to the new buildings. The developers have not published an overlay, and we have not yet matched the old parcels against the site plan.
• The rest of the tenant list. Five names cover only part of a 42,000-square-foot village.

If you saw a show at Baity's or Ziggy's — or have a ticket stub, flyer or photo — we'd like to hear about it. The record of who played that street lives mostly in people's memories, and those are worth writing down.

Heading out that way this fall? Check what's happening this weekend or the full events calendar.

FAQ

What happened to Ziggy's in Winston-Salem?

The original Ziggy's, on Baity Street just off Deacon Boulevard near Wake Forest's football stadium, closed after Thanksgiving 2007. Its final show, billed as "The Last Supper," was November 25, 2007. The property was sold to Wake Forest University and the building was demolished. Ziggy's reopened in a larger room on Trade Street downtown on August 5, 2011, and closed again in February 2016; that space reopened as The Ramkat in 2018.

Who played at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem?

Acts named in Wake Forest Magazine and Triad City Beat include Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Hootie and the Blowfish, Ben Folds Five, The Black Crowes, George Clinton, Bo Diddley, Bill Monroe, Burning Spear, Ziggy Marley, Public Enemy, Tenacious D and Derek Trucks Band.

What was Baity's Backstreet Music Garden?

A music club on Baity Street that Tim Mabe and three partners opened in 1982 in a former bar called the Oak Cooler. It grew from a few hundred capacity to a few thousand with an outdoor stage nicknamed "The Thunderdome," and booked acts including R.E.M., Guns N' Roses, the Ramones, The Band, Bonnie Raitt and a pre-fame Nine Inch Nails, according to a 2015 YES! Weekly history by Ed Bumgardner. It was destroyed by fire on May 14, 1993.

What is The Grounds in Winston-Salem?

The Grounds is a 100-acre mixed-use district being built around Wake Forest's football stadium, the LJVM Coliseum, Couch Ballpark and the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds by Atlanta developer Carter and Winston-Salem's Front Street Capital, in partnership with Wake Forest University and the City of Winston-Salem. The first phase includes a 42,000-square-foot retail and dining village, apartments, condos and an office building leased by Wake Forest.

When does The Grounds open?

The developers say initial pieces of the first phase open in early 2027, with the retail and dining village opening in fall 2027. Ground was broken in December 2024. The first five tenants, announced September 16, 2026, are The Jimmy, Fieldhouse Tavern, Bagels & Co., TREMBLE and Allegacy Financial.

Will there be a music venue at The Grounds?

None has been announced as of September 21, 2026. The plans describe a central lawn and public gathering spaces next to a new "Deacon Walk" leading to the stadium, and the developers' announcement acknowledges the area's history as the home of music clubs on Baity Street — but no dedicated music venue or concert programming has been made public.

What was there before the LJVM Coliseum?

The Winston-Salem War Memorial Coliseum, an 8,200-seat arena that opened September 19, 1955. It was home to Wake Forest basketball from 1956 to 1989 and hosted touring concerts for three decades. It was demolished in 1989; its site is now parking beside the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which opened in August 1989.

Footnotes

1. "History," Wake Forest University; and "A Tale of Two Campuses: How Was the Second One Built?" Z. Smith Reynolds Library, 2021. The 1946 agreement to relocate the college to Winston-Salem, and the Reynolda campus land as a gift of Charles and Mary Reynolds Babcock. ↩

2. "Winston-Salem Fairgrounds," Wikipedia, accessed Sept. 21, 2026, drawing on the fair's own published history, "Echoes From the Past" (Carolina Classic Fair). Babcock's November 1949 land offer, the 1951 move, the 1956 and 2020 name changes, and the two 1955 NASCAR Grand National races won by Lee Petty. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. "May 23, 1956: Ernie Shore Field is Dedicated," Winston-Salem Time Traveler; and "David F. Couch Ballpark," Wikipedia, accessed Sept. 21, 2026. Babcock's donation of the ballpark land, the April 1956 opening, Ernie Shore's East Bend roots and the 1917 combined no-hitter, and the park's current name. ↩ ↩²

4. "Winston-Salem War Memorial Coliseum," Wikipedia, accessed Sept. 21, 2026. The Sept. 19, 1955 opening, 8,200 capacity, Wake Forest basketball's 1956–1989 tenancy, the 1989 demolition, and the site's current use as parking beside the LJVM Coliseum. ↩ ↩²

5. "Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum Concert Setlists," setlist.fm, accessed Sept. 21, 2026. A fan-submitted database; used here for the general run of acts, not as confirmation of individual dates. ↩

6. "Allegacy Financial Stadium," Wake Forest University Athletics; and "Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium," Wikipedia, accessed Sept. 21, 2026. Bowman Gray Stadium as the Deacons' home from 1956, the long delay before the stadium was built, the September 1968 opening loss to N.C. State, and the sequence of names through 2023. ↩ ↩²

7. "Our New Brand," Allegacy Financial, April 16, 2026; and Wake Forest Athletics' Aug. 26, 2026 opening-night announcement, which uses the name Allegacy Financial Stadium. ↩

8. "Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum," Wikipedia, accessed Sept. 21, 2026. The August 1989 opening, the Lawrence Joel namesake, listed concerts, and Wake Forest's Aug. 1, 2013 purchase of the coliseum and 33 surrounding acres for $8 million. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Ed Bumgardner, "They all played Baity's: Digging up the Music Garden," YES! Weekly, Dec. 9–15, 2015. The 1982 purchase of the Oak Cooler by Tim Mabe and partners, Peggy "Ma Baity" Ring and Jim Ring, the capacity growth and "Thunderdome" outdoor stage, the booking pace and $5 Thursday showcase, the list of acts, the Nine Inch Nails quote, and the May 14, 1993 fire and its cause. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

10. "Rock 'n' Roll Retrospective," and "Last call: Ziggy's going out with parties, performances," Winston-Salem Journal. Ziggy's origin as the White Horse on Deacon Boulevard, the 1988 move to Baity Street, Jay Stephens' purchase, the Nov. 25, 2007 "Last Supper" with Perpetual Groove, and the sale to Wake Forest University and demolition. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

11. Jordan Green, "Closing of Ziggy's marks the end of an era," Triad City Beat, Nov. 18, 2015. Additional acts, the "near mythical status" description, the Ed Bumgardner quote, Jay Stephens' ownership, and the downtown club's February 2016 closing after the landlord declined to renew its lease. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

12. Maria Henson, "Ziggy's: A WFU musical tradition," Wake Forest Magazine, Aug. 5, 2011. The 27-year run "just off Deacon Boulevard," the closing after Thanksgiving 2007, the list of acts, the Ziggy Marley namesake note, and the Aug. 5, 2011 downtown reopening. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

13. Jeff Sykes, "The Rise and Fall of the New Ziggy's: Roots Rock & Resentment," YES! Weekly, originally published Oct. 18, 2015. The "muscled off Baity Street" characterization. ↩ ↩²

14. "Carter and Front Street Capital announce 'The Grounds,'" Wake Forest News, Sept. 10, 2024. ↩

15. "About," The Grounds, accessed Sept. 21, 2026. The partners, 100 acres, the December 2024 groundbreaking, first-phase components and sizes, and the early-2027 and fall-2027 opening targets. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

16. "News," The Grounds, accessed Sept. 21, 2026. The $250 million first-phase figure (June 2, 2026), the July 2025 Creekside groundbreaking, and the Sept. 1, 2026 notice of public sneak peeks of the completed multi-use trail. ↩ ↩²

17. "New Entertainment Destination The Grounds Coming to Winston-Salem's Deacon Boulevard Area," The Grounds (reprinted from YES! Weekly), Sept. 10, 2024. The central lawn and Deacon Walk, the $35 million state grant and Silas Creek restoration, the Coleman Team quote, and the reference to the area's history of music clubs on Baity Street. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

18. "The Grounds unveils first five retail and dining tenants," 88.5 WFDD, Sept. 16, 2026; see also the Winston-Salem Journal's same-day report. The five tenants and the fall 2027 opening. ↩ ↩²