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!

(I missed last Sunday — I ran out of photographed signs — so you’ll get two this week. Or maybe I’ll just double up every week for Black History Month.)

In 1908, Alexander D. Dawson, a former teacher and local Republican Party stalwart, operated a fish and oyster stall in the city hall and market building in the 100 block of North Goldsboro Street. (Also the present-day site of City Hall.) Dawson was listed as a “dealer in fish” in the 1900 census, but it’s not clear when he been hawking his wares at the city market.

Wilson city hall, market, and fire department, circa 1900.

However, it appears he shut down the stall soon after. In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: restaurant cook Alexander Dawson, 50; wife Lucy, 49; and children Sophie, 25, school teacher, Mattie, 23, stenographer, Virginia, 19, school teacher, Lucile, 17, Alexander, 15, Clarence, 13, Augusta, 11, and Arlander, 1. By 1912, Dawson operated a small eating house two blocks away from the city market at 215 South Goldsboro Street, the heart of Wilson’s tobacco warehouse district.

Though A.D. Dawson lived until 1930, it appears that he closed his restaurant before 1916.

Postcard courtesy of North Carolina Digital Heritage Center’s digitalnc.org.