This empty lot is just outside the bounds of East Wilson Historic District. However, the streets southeast of present-day Hines Street, including Hadley Street, have been an African-American residential area since platted in the early twentieth century.
A large two-story house once stood at 500 Hadley Street, at the corner of Rountree Street. According to Herman McNeil, who grew up there in the 1940s, the church across the street owned the house. The church, though sometimes called Weeks Chapel for Rev. Alfred L.E. Weeks, was formally named Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. During the pastorship of Rev. Charles T. Jones, which began in 1938, its name was changed to Ebenezer Missionary Baptist.
Per deed descriptions, the lot is on the southwest corner of Hadley Street and Bardin Avenue [now Rountree Avenue] and part of lots 5, 6, and 7 of Block #14 of the plat of the “Singletary Land.”
In History of the American Negro and His Institutions, North Carolina Edition, published in 1921, A.B. Caldwell noted that Rev. Weeks arrived in Wilson in 1915 (actually, 1914) and, by time of his writing, had “firmly established the Tabernacle Baptist Church and built a home.” That home, I suspect, was the two-story house at 500 Hadley.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson township, Wilson County: on Hadley Street, Alfred Weeks, 44, a church minister; wife Annie, 44; daughter Marie, 14, and sister Bessie, 26.
In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory:
The 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson shows a two-story house with a wrap-around porch at 500 Hadley.
Detail from 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.
On 27 December 1922, William Gay, 52, son of Charlie and Emma Gay, married Gertrude Magette, 45, daughter of Jerry and Lucy Magette, in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minster A.L.E. Weeks performed the ceremony in the presence of J.A. Parker, 211 East Spruce Street; Mary L. Moore, 314 South Stantonsburg Street; and Annie E. Weeks, 500 Hadley Street.
In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Weeks Alfred L E Rev, pastor Tabernacle Baptist Church h 500 Hadley
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Williams Frank W (c; Emma) cement fnshr h 500 Hadley
In the 1930 city directory, the house is shown as vacant.
Detail from 1930 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.
By 1939, the house was in the hands of Dailey Realty Company, which offered it for sale for $3000.
In 1940, Mathew McNeil Jr. registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 17 January 1919 in Saint Paul, N.C.; his contact was Ola Bell McNeil, wife [sic; she was his mother]; he lived at 500 Hadley Street, Wilson; and worked at the Atlanta Coastline Station.
In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, at 500 Hadley: Esther McNeil, maid; Mathew McNeil, laborer at City Light Plant; Mathew McNeil Jr., laborer; and Olabelle McNeil (with five children), maid.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 20 January 1947.
In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, at 500 Hadley: Christine McNeil, nurse; David McNeil, laborer for Town of Wilson; and Mathew McNeil, fireman with City of Wilson, and wife Olabell.
In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 500 Hadley, Mathew McNeil Jr., 31, proprietor, truck for hire; wife Lucy, 28; children Theron, 5, Leatrice, 2, and Jannie, newborn; mother Ola Bell, 52, widow; siblings Beatrice, 22, Rebecca, 19, David, 17, Herman, 16, Joseph, 12, and Romain, 10; nephews Carl W. Hamilton, 4, and Tyrone McNeil, 4.
The house at 500 Hadley Street caught fire just after Thanksgiving in 1984. It was badly damaged and subsequently torn down.
Wilson Daily Times, 29 November 1984.
