Cannon

724 East Green Street.

The one hundred thirtieth 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 East Wilson Historic District, 724 East Green was built circa 1950 and is a one-story, aluminum-sided, L-plan cottage. It is “non-contributing,” meaning that it did not meet the criteria  However, the house depicted above has asbestos, rather than aluminum, siding, and is plainly shown in the 1922 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson.

Detail from 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map.

In 1918, Charles Robert Cannon [Jr.] registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 9 July 1898; lived at 654-25th Street, Newport News, Virginia; worked as carpenter for Boyle-Robinson Construction, Newport News; and his nearest relative was Stattin E. Cannon, 651 East Green.

In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, at 724 East Green, Cannon, Charles, carpenter; Cannon, Lavalier, domestic; and Cannon, Stattie, dressmaker.

In the 1925 and 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Cannon, Stattie (c) smstrs h 724 E Green

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 724 East Green, rented for $20/month, Stadie Cannon, 51, seamstress, widow; son-in-law Bennie Lee, 30, cleaner at dry cleaner plant; daughter Ruth, 28; and lodger Herbert Page, 39, cleaner and dryer at dry cleaning plant.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 724 East Green, rented at $6/month, Roscoe Harvey, 32, barber; wife Helen, 28; and daughter Catherine, 9.

In 1940, Roscoe Lee Harvey registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he resided at 724 East Green, Wilson; was born 5 July 1905 in Lumberton, N.C.; his contact was wife Helen McMillan Harvey; and was self-employed at 114 East Barnes.

In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Rosser Nettie Mrs (c) h 724 East Green.

210 North Pender Street.

The twelfth 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.

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As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District: “ca. 1913; 1 story; J.D. Reid Tenant House; double-pile, hip-roofed, side-hall cottage with patterned-tin roof and turned-post porch; built by Reid for tenant, including bank clerk Harry Stanback.”

J.D. Reid wore many hats — school principal, banker, hospital administrator, real estate investor. In the 1922 and 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories, 210 Pender is shown occupied by carpenter Nathan Boyette and wife Emma.

Virginia native Harry Sylvester Stanback arrived in Wilson in the easily 1920s to serve as cashier of the black-owned Commercial Bank. He is shown in the 1925 and 1928 Wilson directories residing at 210 Pender. Two years later, landlord and tenant were convicted of embezzlement, forgery and other bank fraud crimes and sent to the state penitentiary.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory for 1930 shows 210 Pender occupied by barber Mack D. Cannon and his wife Bettie, a maid at the “Federal Building.” They were recent arrivals, as the 1930 census of Wilson shows them sharing a duplex nearby at 527 Church Street. 210 Pender is not listed in the directory and may have been vacant.

Mack D. Cannon died 15 December 1938 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he resided at 210 Pender; was married to Bettie Cannon; was employed as a barber; was born in Oxford, North Carolina, to Henry Cannon and Mary Dinger; and was buried in Wilson. Marie Mathews was informant.

Bettie Cannon remained in the house until her death in Wilson on 17 February 1963. Per her death certificate, Bettie Elizabeth Cannon was born 1 August 1879 in Brunswick County, Virginia; worked as a laborer at the post office; and was widowed. Lula Sims, of the home, was informant.

[The empty lot at the right of the photo is the former site of the Clinton Bess house at 208 North Pender.]

Photograph by Lisa Y. Henderson, November 2016.

Wilson news.

NY_Age_9_9_1922_H_Colvert_visits_Atl_City

New York Age, 9 September 1922.

  • Mrs. Jasper Coley —  Laura (or Laurena) V. Coley, daughter of Isaac and Penny Coley, married Jasper Allison Coley on 6 June 1912 in Wayne County. A native of Pikeville, Wayne County, like her husband, Laura died 12 May 1923. She was a teacher. Jasper Coley was the son of Phillip R. and Annie Exum Coley. He is listed in Wilson city directories in the early 1920s as a carpenter, a plasterer and a bricklayer, and lived at 401 North Vick Street.
  • Mrs. William Hines — Ethel Cornwell Hines (1894-1983) was a South Carolina native.
  • Roberta Battle, Glace Battle, Georgia Burks and Henrietta Colvert
  • Mrs. B.P. Coward — Sarah Adelaide Brown Coward (1867-1946) was the wife of A.M.E. Zion minister Bryant Pugh Coward.
  • Mrs. Stattie Cannon — In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Charles Cannon, 35, barber in a “white shop”; wife Statie, 34; and children Charles, 11, Ruth, 9, and Statie Benton, 13. In the 1922 Wilson city directory, Stattie Cannon is listed as a dressmaker and Charles Cannon as a carpenter; both resided at 724 East Green Street. In the 1940 census of Newark, Essex County, New Jersey: Charles Cannon, 44, mother Stattie Cannon, 65, brother-in-law Fred Langford, 29, and sister Ruth Langford, 33. All were born in North Carolina and described as “white.”
  • A.N. Darden — Arthur N. Darden (1889-1948) was a son of Charles H. and Dinah Scarborough Darden and worked in his father’s undertaking business.
  • John Clark
  • Mrs. C.L. Darden — Norma Duncan Darden (1895-1987), a native of Montgomery, Alabama, was married to Arthur Darden’s brother, Camillus L. Darden.
  • Rev. A.H. George
  • Mrs. S.L. Bowser — Burt Bowser, born in Halifax County, married Sarah Rountree, daughter of Peter and Lucinda Rountree, on 4 December 1888 in Wilson. Reddin S. Wilkins, A.J. Lindsay and James W. Parrington were witnesses to the ceremony. In the 1900 census, Burt L. Bowser is described as a bar tender and in 1910 as the conductor of a pool room. Sarah is described as a dressmaker. Burt Landers Bowser died in 1920; Sarah Bowser, in 1935.
  • John Spells — In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Pender Street, carpenter John E. Spell, 50, wife Martha A., 39, and son John E., Jr., 16. (John’s death certificate lists his middle name as Stephen.) Martha A. Spell, a native of Guilford County, died in Wilson in 1966.
  • Wesley Rogers — Per the city directory, in 1922, John Wesley Rogers lived at 548 East Nash Street and worked as a porter at Oettinger’s department store. His wife,  a native of Johnston County, was Mary Elizabeth Thomas Rogers (1878-1950). Rogers was born in Durham County in 1870 and died in Wilson in 1951.
  • Deby Harper — Deborah Harper Swindell was the daughter of Argent Harper. She was briefly married to Louis Swindell.
  • Dr. DuBissette
  • Dr. and Mrs. J.B. Darden — Pharmacist James Benjamin Darden was a brother of Arthur and Camillus Darden. After a brief partnership with his brother John W. Darden, a doctor in Opelika, Alabama, he settled in Petersburg, Virginia.
  • Mrs. A.B. Bowser — Astor Burt Bowser, born 1896, was a son of Burt L. and Sarah L. Bowser, above. He married Deloris Harvey of Alamance County on 17 August 1921 in Wilson. Rev. B.P. Coward officiated. In the 1930 census, the couple and their children, Astor B., Jr., and Sarah, are listed in Chicago, Illinois. Astor worked as an artist in his own studio and Deloris as a saleslady in a millinery. Astor died in Hennepin County, Minnesota, in 1981.