We saw 603 East Green Street here and here.
Below are photos of the Washington Wilkins house taken circa the mid-1980s for the East Wilson Historic District nomination report.
603 East Green today.
N.87-12-360-362, Washington Wilkins House, 603 E. Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office; photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, July 2026.
Wilson Daily Times, 7 July 1948.
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601 East Green is described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District: “ca. 1950; 1 1/2 stories; stone-veneered cottage with Neo-Colonial motifs.”
This house, built for physician William C. Hines and his family in the late 1940s, was a latecomer to the 600 block of East Green. It was demolished more than 20 years ago.
601 East Green, today.
Wilson Daily Times, 12 June 1951.
Contact sheet frames from N.87-12-363-375, Dr. William Hines House, 601 E. Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office; photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.
The Depression derailed businesses like Isaac A. Shade‘s pharmacy, sending him into bankruptcy in 1935. Shade bounced back though, and operated his drugstore until his death in 1953.
My conventional, performative patriotism probably hit peak when I was 12. I spent the Bicentennial summer in western Massachusetts, and who celebrated 1976 more fervently than small-town New England? Consensus builder Gerald Ford was president, the Reflecting Pool sparkled, and the U.S. was not (anymore) bombing anybody. Though I was called “ni**er” for the first time in my life that summer, the world — my world — seemed simpler, and I could uncritically, unselfconsciously, wave a tiny stars-and-stripes.
These days, I’m more likely to observe Independence Day with a rereading of Frederick Douglass’ astonishing, searing, stirring “What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?” and a reflection on all that my people have done, in spite of, to make this country worth shooting fireworks over. Black Americans have believed in America, in American ideas and ideals, with an incandescent intensity. And yet here we are at the Semiquincentennial, ‘buked and scorned high and low.
I’ll take some time today to remember the ancestors, to vibe to our world-spanning culture, to acknowledge this country’s jaw-dropping natural beauty, and to demand better.
“For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.” James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Marchers in Alabama cross the horizon on the march from Selma to Montgomery on 21 March 1965. Matt Herron, photographer.
Happy birthday, America. Happy birthday.
From veterinarian Elijah L. Reid to Oliver N. Freeman and the Freeman-Harris extended family of carpenters, brickmasons, and stonemasons to Dr. Joseph H. Ward to numerous alumni, Wilson County’s historical links to Tuskegee University are strong. Today we celebrate its Independence Day founding 145 years ago!
Hat tip to Karen Stanley for the image.
I sent Inez Dickerson Bell a card for her 101st birthday last month, but decided to pop in to see her, too. She was enjoying a little quiet time in her room, but was happy to see me, and we spent a pleasant half-hour or so chatting about the old neighborhood. She marveled at her great age (“That’s a lot of birthdays! I must have done something right”); spoke fondly of my parents (“Beverly is so pretty. And so sweet. She looks good, and she acts like she feels good.” “Rederick! We miss him! He wouldn’t ask for nothing, and next thing you know that garbage can is in the back. Who did it? Rederick! He was doing something good all the time. I’m a witness to that!”); praised me and my sister for our good comportment; reminisced about the Belette Women’s Club; shared tips (“The Bible says ‘do unto others!'”); and philosophied (“I’ve had a good life if I go ‘way from here tomorrow.”) Finally, as I stood to leave, she motioned to her side table: “Take one of these. Enjoy it! ‘Cause I’m gon enjoy mine!”
As always, thank you so much, Mrs. Bell! See you next time!
I visited the State Archives in Raleigh for the first time in a couple of years yesterday. The front desk person asked if I’d been before, and I thought back over the past 41 years and smiled — “yeah, about a million times.”
I’ve been wanting to examine the photographs taken for the Historic Register nomination report for East Wilson, so I headed over to the State Historic Preservation Office while Archives staff pulled my records requests. A handful of photos were appended to the nomination document, and I knew there were more images available, but not hundreds more! A big shout-out to Renee Gledkill-Earley and Chandrea Burch for going out of their way to accommodate my drop-in visit. Next time, I’ll know to request files in advance.
Most of the copies I made yesterday will be posted as follow-up to the house or business histories I’ve featured since the blog began, but some will warrant brand-new entries. I grew up seeing these buildings, but not paying any particular attention to them, and so many disappeared in the 1990s and early 2000s.
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I’ve posted about Cockrell’s Grocery at the corner of East Green and Pettigrew several times. The building has housed churches for the past 40+ years, and its exterior is now heavily modified. These photos, however, show it when its original windows and recessed double doors were still exposed.
402 East Green Street.
N.87-12-250-252, 402 E. Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office.
Last month, a New South Associates archaeologist reinterred the fragments of the marble vault-like structure disturbed in Vick Cemetery’s ditch bank in December. I placed new flowers today in honor of this unknown ancestor.
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, July 2026.
