Cross-referencing the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory and the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson reveals the specific locations of Black-owned businesses just after the turn of the century.
This block of East Nash Street fronts the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad’s passenger station. In 1913, it contained four storefronts, all housing Black-owned businesses, and a large house. Just a few years later, all were demolished to make way for the Terminal Inn, the two-story, multi-bay building that for decades was anchored by Terminal Drug Store and Star Credit Department Store and still stands today.
Moses Brandon operated an eating house next to the Atlantic Coast Line tracks. His death is reported here.
Austin Neal‘s barber shop was next door at 409 East Nash. The business later moved to the 500 block of Nash Street.
The business at 407 was labeled “cobbler.” The city directory listed Bud Wiley, bootblack, as proprietor.
John G. Corbin‘s pool room rounded out the storefronts. In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: street laborer Brazell Winstead, 48; dressmaker Ada, 22; sister-in-law Martha Corben, 31, laborer; and brother-in-law John, 34, farmer. [Braswell Winstead was, in fact, a college-educated teacher turned barber who had been an assistant to postmaster Samuel Vick. It seems unlikely that Martha Corbin was a laborer or John a farmer.]
The house at 401 East Nash was occupied by white millhand J. Frank Johnson.
My first job as a teenager was a soda clerk at Terminal Drug Store in 1968. It was also the place that I met my husband of now almost 48 years ago. I didn’t know that my forefathers were here first…their aura blessed me.