If you’ve ever grabbed a coffee or sandwich from Washington Perk and Provision Company on Fourth Street, you've stood in a piece of Winston-Salem’s history.

The Chatham Building — home to Washington Perk and the atrium of a/perture cinema — could become Forsyth County’s 146th historic landmark.

An ordinance designating the building as a local landmark will go before City Council this fall, after its General Government Committee reviewed it earlier this week. The Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission unanimously recommended landmark status back in May.

Spanning nearly the entirety of Fourth Street between Cherry and Marshall, the Chatham was completed in 1931 and designed by prominent local architect Harold Macklin. It was built for textile manufacturing mogul R. Thurmond Chatham and his wife, Lucy Hanes Chatham.

According to the landmark designation application, the building “blended Stripped Classicism and Art Deco styles in what was one of [Macklin’s] last works before the significant impacts of the Great Depression hit the architecture profession."

From its opening through the 1980s, the building housed several retailers, including local men’s clothing store Frank A. Stith Company and national women’s clothing store Montaldo’s.

In 2025, the second floor was converted into apartments, and several historic features were retained and restored. This floor was redesigned in the mid-1980s as office space.

If designated as an official landmark, the owners of the Chatham Building would be eligible for a property tax break up to 50%. They would also be required to seek approval from the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission to make any alterations.

The building is owned by Cleveland-based GBX Group and managed locally by Meridian Realty.