The tenth 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: “ca. 1893; 1 story; two-room house with flush eaves and chimney in east gable end; among oldest in district.”

Information about this tiny house is hard to come by. In 1925, however, it was occupied by a cook named Narcissus Boylan.

Hill’s Directory of Wilson, N.C., 1925. 

Unlike many of the grander homes on East Green Street, 503 has withstood time and decline and remains inhabited today.

Photograph by Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2017.