The one hundred-forty-sixth 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, this building is: “ca. 1930; 1 story; shotgun with engaged porch; bungalow-type pmts; shingled gable; fine example of the type.”

These blue and white enameled house numbers were once ubiquitous in East Wilson. 

As a shotgun house, this dwelling has no interior halls; one room opens directly into the next. The view through the front door shows that the original tongue-and-groove ceiling survives, as does the wooden mantel and surround around the gas fireplace.

A second mantel and surround in the adjoining room. Plaster has begun to flake away from the walls in sections, revealing the laths behind it.

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In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Parker Harkless (c; Sarah) firemn h 206 N East

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Evans Thomas (c; Cora) h 206 N East; also Evans Sidney (c) h 206 N East

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: paying $13/month rent, oil mill laborer Thomas Evans, 32; wife Cora, 39, tobacco factory laborer; and son Sidney, 7.

In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Kendall Charles (c; Margt) janitor h 206 N East

In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Kendall Charles (c) jan ACC h 206 N East

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, January 2022.