Business

Historic Black Business Series, no. 21: Robert Kearney’s grocery.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

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The 1912, 1916, and 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories list Robert Kearney as proprietor of a grocery store at 330 South Street. The site, at the corner of South and Lodge, is now a vacant lot.

The 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson shows Kearney’s store in the Little Washington neighborhood near a church we’ve studied before and across Lodge Street from Imperial Tobacco Company. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church and school stood across South, off this map.

Detail from 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.

Historic Black Business Series, no. 20: Coley & Taylor’s barbershop.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

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Though they spent most of the careers working for Walter S. Hines, David H. Coley and Roderick Taylor Sr. briefly joined forces to open their own barbershop in the mid-1920s. They set up at 105 South Goldsboro Street, as shown in the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory. By 1928, however, the partnership had dissolved.

1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.

Historic Black Business Series, no. 19: Ada’s Modeste Parlor.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

By 1925, Ada Davis Winstead‘s dressmaking business, Ada’s Modeste Parlor, was booming at 108 West Nash Street, upstairs in the Wilson Theatre building at the heart of downtown. She employed at least five dressmakers catering to the fashion needs of her white clientele, including her sister-in-law Ella Davis, Louise Wilson, Lovella Cotton, Eliza Best, and Lessie Locust.

1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.

Colored barber wanted.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 1 June 1925.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 29 August 1938.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 25 September 1947.

Walter S. Hines Barber Shop regularly advertised for barbers in the Raleigh News and Observer. Hines died in 1941, but his son Carl W. Hines continued to manage the business. By 1947, Hines’ ad touted the availability of housing — likely in the family’s large real estate portfolio — for a family man.

Historic Black Business Series, no. 18: Neverson Green’s Grocery.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

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Neverson Green owned a series of grocery stores in the 400 block of South Spring [now Douglas] Street in the early 20th century. We know he was in business as early as 1906, when he paid $57.50 for a computing scale, but the earliest address for which we have evidence is 410, a location taken over for Agnes Taylor‘s eating house.

On 24 December 1906, Neverson Green agreed to purchase a #10 Computing Scale from The J.H. Parker Co. of Richmond, Virginia, for $57.50 payable in installments. Deed Book 72, page 205.

Neverson Green’s first name was occasionally mistaken as “Nelson.” 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.

In 1909, Green’s grocery was burgled by the son of a rival grocery storeowner, Jacob Tucker.

City directories appear to show Green’s grocery store sliding up and down South Spring every year, which doesn’t seem probable. In 1912 and 1916, he is at 412 South Spring. In 1920, at 424. In 1922, he’s at 420, but in 1924, he’s back at 424. In 1925 and 1928, he’s at 400 South Spring.

Detail from 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson.

Remnants of the old Norfolk Southern tracks, seen in the map above, are still visible in the asphalt of Douglas Street. They offer a glimpse of the chaotic landscape of early 20th-century downtown Wilson.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: grocery merchant Neverson Green, 58, grocery merchant; wife Isabella, 54; daughters Lula, 21, Bessie, 16, and Eva, 12; and roomer Willie Ward, 19.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: grocery store merchant Nelson Green, 72; wife Isabella, 65; daughters Lula, 30, and Eva, 23; and grandchildren Lila R. Barnes, 12, and Lissa Strickland, 12.

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Green Nelson (c; Isabella) gro 400 Spring h 502 S Lodge

Rats? No rent.

Los Angeles Evening Herald, 19 January 1928.

In January 1928, attorney Charles S. Darden went into court to defend himself against a suit filed by his landlord for non-payment of rent. Darden asserted that the Central Avenue office space was uninhabitable because it was overrun by rats. His attempts to combat them with a cat called Jack Dempsey had failed, and Darden and his stenographer Viola Lambert had abandoned the premises. The judge was not swayed and entered judgment for the plaintiff landlord.

Historic Black Business Series, no. 17: Jenkins Café.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

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WhirliDogs Café, which sells fancy hot dogs and empowers young people who have disabilities, opened a couple of weeks ago in downtown Wilson in the space once occupied by Jenkins Café.

The Jenkins (brothers? father and son?), James and Wesley, operated their restaurant only briefly.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1920).

The directory lists James Jenkins‘ address as 713 Viola and Wesley Jenkins‘ as 705 Viola. Webster Jenkins, who also lived at 705, was listed as a cook. Webster Jenkins was in Wilson as early as 1910, and his occupation is listed as cook in the 1912 and 1916 city directories, but I have found no other trace of James and Wesley.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2024.