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 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.
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.
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
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.
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!
The fantastic Wilson Arts Center now occupies the footprint of New Briggs Hotel. Paragon Shaving Parlor opened in a storefront space of the hotel at what was then 213 East Nash Street. The barbershop was located in the area of the “short,” far-left section of the arts center’s facade.
After apprenticing with barber John A. Gaston, Walter S. Hines joined with Noah J. Tate and Jacob Astor Tabron to open Paragon Shaving Parlor in a storefront at the New Briggs Hotel circa 1903. (Not 1912, as my little sign says.) In 1906, Tate, Hines, Tabron sold the shop’s furnishings to another barber, Richard Renfrow, suggesting a complete upgrade of Paragon’s interior.
Tabron soon left the partnership to start a barbershop with his brothers. Hines and Tate continued the business, which was described this way in the 1912 Wilson, North Carolina, Industrial & Commercial Directory: “The Paragon Shaving Parlor is located at 213 East Nash street in Briggs Hotel Block, and it can truthfully be said that it is the most popular Tonsorial parlor in the city of Wilson. It is owned and managed by N.J. Tate and W.S. Hines, both of whom are skilled barbers of long experience. Their genial manner and high class work have won for them the liberal share of the best patronage of the city. Their shop is fully equipped with all the latest appurtenances, and a short visit to this establishment will after passing through their hands, convince you of what the modern, up-to-date barber shops can do to put a man in good humor with himself and the rest of mankind. The shop is equipped with five chairs, each in charge of a professional barber. Go there for your next shave.”
Wilson Chamber of Commerce’s Facts About Wilson, North Carolina, published in 1934, featured a full-page for New Briggs with a photo of the hotel’s street-facing exterior. At lower left, Hines Barbershop is identifiable by its barber pole.
A close-up reveals two African-American men standing in front of the shop’s large window.
Walter S. Hines Barber Shop, early 1940s. Left to right: David H. Coley, Joe Knolly Zachary, Edgar H. Diggs, Roderick Taylor, and Sidney Boatwright.
Contrary to the passage below, which was lifted from the nomination form the Central Business-Tobacco Warehouse Historic District, Hines himself did not move the barbershop from the Briggs Hotel in 1955. Walter Hines died in 1941, and his family continued running the business for nearly 40 more years.
Barbers and bootblacks who worked for Walter S. Hines included Hiram A. Faulk, Walter Mainer, Roderick Taylor, David Barnes, Herman N. Grissom, Floyd Pender, Hubert Mitchner, Lonnie Barnes, Charles C. Chick, Edgar H. Diggs, Mancie Gaston, Elmer Gordon, Golden Robinson, James Smalls, Alonzo Barnes, David H. Coley, Sidney Boatwright, and Joe Knolly Zachary.
Williamson, born enslaved in the Rock Ridge area, came to Wilson shortly after Emancipation. His wife, Ann Jackson Williamson, learned blacksmithing and horseshoeing from him and worked alongside him and their son Charles Williamson.
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!
Of more than a dozen cleaning and pressing clubs operating in Wilson in the first few decades of the twentieth century, only a few set up business west of the tracks. AlonzoTaylor‘s Citizens Pressing Club at 124 South Goldsboro Street (and later 213 South Goldsboro) was one.
1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.
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On 20 November 1907, Alonzo Taylor, 23, son of Jane Taylor, married Annie Henry, 21, daughter of George Hines and Mary Henry, in Wilson. Rev. N.D. King performed the ceremony in the presence of Henry Tart, Samuel Plummer, and Leroy Brown.
In the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Taylor Alonzo propr Citizens Pressing Club h 547 E Nash
On 5 November 1912, Alonzo Taylor, 23, son of Jordan and Jane Taylor, married Maggie McRae, 20, daughter of Samuel and Diana McRae, in Wilson.
In the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Taylor Alonzo cleaning and pressing 213 S Goldsboro h Hotel Union
Alonzo Taylor died 15 April 1917 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 17 February 1889 in Wilson County to Jordan Taylor and Mary Lane; was married; worked in “close cleaning”; and was born in Wilson [likely, Masonic, Vick, or Odd Fellows Cemeteries.] Mary Jane Sutzer [his mother] was informant.
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!
Lemon Taborn (later spelled Tabron) was born free about 1834 in Nash County, North Carolina, to Celia Taborn. He moved to the town of Wilson before 1860 and soon established a barbershop — the earliest known Black-owned business in Wilson.
E.B. Mayo noted Taborn’s shop into his 1872 map of Wilson on Tarboro Street just north of Vance Street. Taborn owned a large parcel of land in this block. (The house above was built after the family sold the lot.)
The Wilson Advance, 24 September 1880.
His barbershop also is drawn into the 1882 map of the city.
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!
Of a photograph taken about 1920, my grandmother said: “Yep, that’s me standing up there, and [my sister] Mamie sitting in the chair. And that little arm [of the chair] off there, it was Picture-Taking Barnes, they called him then. You were gon have your pictures made, you went to Picture-Taking Barnes.”
Mamie Henderson (1907-2000, seated) and Hattie Mae Henderson (1910-2001).
I have seen that telltale chair in photo after photo – a light-colored wicker chair with a high rounded back and just one arm rest, the one on the left.
Per Stephen E. Massingill’s Photographers in North Carolina (2004), George W. Barnes was perhaps the first of three African-American photographers operating in Wilson in the early part of the twentieth century and, in the 1908 city of directory of Wilson, he is working with white photographer Orren W. Turner in a studio at 105 West Nash.
By 1916, Barnes had his own studio. On the second floor of what was then 113 1/2 [later 114] East Barnes and is the site of a parking lot adjacent to P.L. Woodard Hardware, Barnes settled his clients into his one-armed chair.
Picture-Taking Barnes’ Barnes Street studio, Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C. (1922).
In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: south of the Plank Road, farmer George Barnes, 41; wife Anna, 34; and children Hardy, 19, Reny, 17, Jessee, 12, Edmonia, 11, George, 9, Minnie Adeline, 6, Joshua and General, 3, and William, 1 month.
In the 1900 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: George A. Barnes, 60, farmer; wife Annie, 53; children George, 23, teacher, Joshaway, 22, farmer, and Jenerl, 22, teacher; grandson Paul, 11; son Harda, 32, and daughter-in-law Nancy, 30.
On 30 January 1905, George Barnes, 29, of Wilson, son of George and Annie Barnes, married Mary Jane Green, 23, of Wilson, daughter of Nelson [Neverson] and Isabella Green, at Neverson Green’s residence in Wilson. Baptist minister Fred Davis performed the ceremony in the presence of A.J.C. Moore.
In the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Geo W (c) photographer O W Turner h e Green nr Vick
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: George W. Barnes, photographer-home gallery; wife Mary J., 29; and children Jessie, 4, Lala Rook, 2, and Isabella A., 6 months.
George W. Barnes’ occupation in the 1910 census.
In the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Geo W (c) photo Orren V Foust r 654 E Green
In the 1916 and 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories: Barnes George W (c) photo 113 1/2 e Barnes r 702 e Green
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 702 East Green, George Barnes, 49, photographer in own shop; wife 38; and children Jessie, 14, Alma Gray, 10, Elizabeth, 6, and Lila Rook, 2 [named for her elder sister?].
In the 1922 and 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories: Barnes George W (c) photographer 114 e Barnes r 803 e Green
1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Geo W (c) photo 114 E Barnes r 803 E Green
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Geo W (c) photog r 803 E Green
George Washington Barnes died 13 April 1936 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 65 years old; was married to Mary Barnes; was born in Wilson County to George A. Barnes and Annie Battle; lived at 803 East Green Street; and was a photographer.
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!
Hardy & Holland’s livery stable was wedged, improbably, between a wholesale grocery and a garage with a second floor print shop.
1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., City Directory.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: livery stable laborer Jim Hardy, 32; wife Lizzie, 31; sons James, 8, and Lovelace, 6; and boarders Lincoln Sellers, 29, widower and brick yard laborer, and [blank] Batts, 37, water works laborer.
Wilson Daily Times, 13 May 1910.
Per the Wilson, North Carolina, Industrial & Commercial Directory, published in 1912, “JAMES HARDY, SUCCESSOR TO HARDY BROS. — Feed and Livery Stables. This business is located on South Goldsboro street between Nash and Barnes streets and the business has been established for the last four years. The proprietor has succeeded in building up a good patronage. He is very prompt in answering calls and his prices for Livery are very reasonable. Telephone Number 9. Hack and Dray work solicited. The proprietor wants your patronage and guarantees the right sort of treatment. He is a colored man and has the good wishes of all.”
Hardy’s business partner was Thomas Holland, a Wake County, North Carolina, native. The brother with whom James Hardy did business earlier may have been John Hardy, who is listed in the 1908 city directory as a livery worker and was a witness to Jim Hardy’s 1901 marriage to Lizzie McCullen in Wilson.
Thomas Holland died 4 January 1914 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 23 November 1882 in Wake County to Benjamin Holland and Charity Jones; lived on Goldsboro Street, Wilson; was single; and worked as a livery stable day laborer. Charity Parker was informant, and he was buried in Wilson [likely, Oakdale, Rountree, Odd Fellows or Vick Cemetery.
James P. Hardy died 20 April 1914 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 27 April 1879 in Greene County to Petter Hardy and Jane Foreman; was married; lived at 508 Vance Street; and was a livery stable employer. Lizzie Hardy was informant.
Both Holland and Hardy died of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Today, the site of Hardy & Holland has been transformed into Bankers Plaza.
