This corner store at Hines and Daniels Street once marked a boundary between black and white sections of West Hines Street. Daniel Street was the dividing line. Houses to the east — from Tarboro to Daniel — had white occupants; houses from Daniel to Warren were black-occupied rentals; and west from Warren, they were white again.
The three black-occupied blocks were on the northern edge of Daniel Hill neighborhood. The 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory clears shows the sharp racial demarcations — African-American households are designated (c) — and Bartholomew’s Grocery as the gatepost at 411 West Hines. Note that the rules of segregation would not have prevented black customers from crossing the street to patronize, though they would have had to follow deference protocols inside.
For an aerial view of the neighborhood in 1940, see here.
The one hundred-tenth in a series of posts highlighting buildings inEast 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, 109 North Vick Street is “ca. 1922; 1 story; double-pile, hip-roof cottage with wraparound porch; intact classical porch posts; fine local example of late Queen Anne cottage” and 111 North Vick (formerly 109 1/2) is “ca. 1950, 1 story; Vick St. Grocery; concrete-brick corner grocery.”
The 1922 Wilson, N.C., Sanborn fire insurance map shows the house at 109 standing alone. The store was essentially grafted onto the northern edge of the front porch. I have never been inside either building, but I assume there was an interior entrance from the house into the grocery.
Though labeled 213, this is the house now known as 109 North Vick depicted in the 1922 Sanborn map.
In 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Burton Hazel (c) student 109 N Vick and Burton Sadie sch tchr h 109 N Vick
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Farmer Wm (c; Eula) bellman Hotel Cherry h 109 N Vick
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson county: Will Farmer, 43, hotel “bell bob”; wife Eula, 40; and daughters Annie D., 19, nurse, and Sadie, 14.
In the 1941 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Moore Linwood (c; Ruth; 4) gro 102 N Vick h 109 d[itt]o. Moore is also listed at this address in the 1947 and 1950 city directories. Neither indicates an adjacent grocery. However, the 1951 directory lists Moore’s Grocery at 109 1/2 North Vick:
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Park Avenue, gardener Abram Horne, 40; wife Ella, 33; and children Abram Jr., 16, David, 7, and Dazella, 4 months.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: David Horne, 29, living alone, fertilizer plant laborer.
David Horne died 20 September 1980 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 29 February 1912 in Wilson County to Abram Horne and Ella Mae Barnes; resided at 300 North Reid Street, Wilson; was married to Beatrice Batts Horne; and worked as a laborer.
