209 South Vick Street.

The one hundred-seventy-ninth 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. 1913; 1 story; hip-roofed, double-pile cottage with turned porch posts.”

This house was demolished, along with nearly all others in the triangle bounded by Nash, Pender and Hines Streets, to make way for Wilson’s Freeman Place redevelopment project, which has constructed more than one hundred affordable houses in the area.

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On 14 April 1914, Kenyon Howard paid Boykin-Townsend Realty Company $200 for a parcel on Second [South Vick] Street [between Robeson and Wiggins Streets] adjoining another of Howard’s lots, another of Boykin-Townsend’s lots, and a lot belonging to Jonah Wilson. This property appears to be 209 South Vick. Howard was a prosperous farmer in western Wilson County, and it does not appear that he ever lived at the address.

Deed book 26, page 329, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Hines Windsor (c; Fannie) lab h 209 S Vick

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Hines Windsor (c; Fannie) hlpr h 209 S Vick

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 209 South Vick, rented for $20/month, Winsor Hines, 53, junkyard laborer; wife Fannie, 47; daughter Margaret, 20; daughter Ada Hemery, 22; son-in-law John Hemery, 27, junkyard laborer; grandchildren Winsor, 4, and Jim L. Hemery, 3; and mother-in-law Jennette Corbett, 96, widow.

Winger Hines died 22 August 1930 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 51 years old; was married to Fannie Hines; was born in Pitt County, N.C., to Wiley Hines and Nancy Barnes; lived at 209 South Vick Street; and worked as a common laborer.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 209 South Vick, Connie Batts, 59, oil mill laborer; wife Mattie, 51; children Beatrix, 27, Ruth, 25, both tobacco factory laborers, and Lula, 23, private housekeeper; grandchildren Susan, 7, Elizabeth, 5, Carl, 4, and Rudolph, 9 months; and son James, 21, grocery store deliveryman, and his wife Louise, 19.

Geather Connie Batts died 10 May 1941 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 60 years old; was born in Wilson County to Redman Batts and Celester Battle; was married Mattie Batts; lived at 209 South Vick; worked as a laborer; and was buried in Rountree cemetery.

In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Batts Mattie (c; 4) tob wkr h 209 S Vick

Mattie Batts died 17 June 1944 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 15 July 1890 in Nash County, N.C., to John Ford and Lettie Jones; was the widow of Gorther C. Batts; and lived at 209 South Vick. Lettie Ruth Batts was informant.

In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Bell Jerry (c; Eileeza) farmer h 209 S Vick

Wilson Daily Times, 2 March 1948.

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