The twelfth in a series of posts highlighting buildings in East Wilson Historic District, a national historic district located in Wilson, North Carolina. As originally approved, the district encompasses 858 contributing buildings and two contributing structures in a historically African-American section of Wilson. (A significant number have since been lost.) The district was developed between about 1890 to 1940 and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/American Craftsman, and Shotgun-style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District: “ca. 1913; 1 story; J.D. Reid Tenant House; double-pile, hip-roofed, side-hall cottage with patterned-tin roof and turned-post porch; built by Reid for tenant, including bank clerk Harry Stanback.”

J.D. Reid wore many hats — school principal, banker, hospital administrator, real estate investor. In the 1922 and 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories, 210 Pender is shown occupied by carpenter Nathan Boyette and wife Emma.

Virginia native Harry Sylvester Stanback arrived in Wilson in the easily 1920s to serve as cashier of the black-owned Commercial Bank. He is shown in the 1925 and 1928 Wilson directories residing at 210 Pender. Two years later, landlord and tenant were convicted of embezzlement, forgery and other bank fraud crimes and sent to the state penitentiary.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory for 1930 shows 210 Pender occupied by barber Mack D. Cannon and his wife Bettie, a maid at the “Federal Building.” They were recent arrivals, as the 1930 census of Wilson shows them sharing a duplex nearby at 527 Church Street. 210 Pender is not listed in the directory and may have been vacant.

Mack D. Cannon died 15 December 1938 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he resided at 210 Pender; was married to Bettie Cannon; was employed as a barber; was born in Oxford, North Carolina, to Henry Cannon and Mary Dinger; and was buried in Wilson. Marie Mathews was informant.

Bettie Cannon remained in the house until her death in Wilson on 17 February 1963. Per her death certificate, Bettie Elizabeth Cannon was born 1 August 1879 in Brunswick County, Virginia; worked as a laborer at the post office; and was widowed. Lula Sims, of the home, was informant.

[The empty lot at the right of the photo is the former site of the Clinton Bess house at 208 North Pender.]

Photograph by Lisa Y. Henderson, November 2016.