Alston-Massenburg Center

The Alston-Massenburg Center is a Town of Wake Forest community building on North Taylor Street, in the Northeast neighborhood. Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources runs it, and residents rent it for meetings, receptions and private parties.

The land has served the Northeast community since 1865. A public school stood here first, and the site later became home to the Colored Volunteer Fire Company of Wake Forest, formed on May 7, 1942. The Town added Taylor Street Pool on the corner in 1950, and the pool closed in 1993 and was filled in the following year.

What to know

• The hall rents on Saturdays and Sundays in half-day or full-day blocks.
• Seated without tables, the room holds about 104 people, and fewer once tables go in.
• Rental fees, room dimensions and floor plans are published by the town.
• African American volunteers ran Fire Department #2 until 1979, merging with Department #1 in 1982.
• The Rosenwald Fund helped pay for a new school building on the block in 1928.