Short answers, pulled from the story.
The US federal government designated Winston-Salem a port of entry because R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company imported such large quantities of French cigarette paper and Turkish tobacco for Camel cigarettes that the volume required official customs designation. The city sits 200 miles from the ocean yet ranked as the eighth-largest port of entry in the United States by 1916.
Winston and Salem were officially incorporated as a single city called Winston-Salem in 1913, following a public referendum. The United States Post Office had been using the combined name since the 1880s, and a formal Winston-Salem post office was established in 1899.
The Reynolds Building, completed in 1929 and designed by William F. Lamb of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, is the direct predecessor and prototype for the Empire State Building. Lamb's firm completed the Empire State Building in New York City in 1931, two years after finishing the 314-foot, 21-floor Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem.
R.E.M. recorded its debut EP, Chronic Town, at Drive-In Studio in 1981. The studio, owned by musician Mitch Easter and set up in his parents' garage, also hosted Pylon, Suzanne Vega, Game Theory, and The Connells between 1980 and 1994.
The Moravian Easter sunrise service at Salem Square and God's Acre Cemetery has been held every Easter morning since 1772. The service is sponsored by all Moravian church parishes in the city and draws thousands of worshipers each year, including visitors from overseas.
Winston-Salem is the birthplace of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (1875), Hanes textile brands, Texas Pete hot sauce (1929), Krispy Kreme doughnuts (first shop opened 1937), Piedmont Airlines (1948), and Wachovia Bank (merged into its modern form in 1911). McLean Trucking Co., founded there in 1934 by Malcolm Purcell McLean, became the second-largest trucking firm in the nation.