One of my favorite East Wilson houses, the two-story George McDaniel house at 202 North Pender Street [202 Pender Street E], is on the market, and its real estate listing offers a glimpse of its interior.
The house has been extensively, and not necessarily kindly, modified, but these photos in particular give a hint at what a handsome dwelling it once was and could be again for the right buyer.
Thanks to Melita Amara for the tip!
The one-hundred thirty-fourth 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 encompassed 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.
Formerly 128 Pender Street. The house was demolished between 1982-1988, prior to preparation of the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District. It appears on Sanborn fire insurance maps as early as 1908 as a large one-story house with a front porch and two add-on rooms.
Sanborn fire insurance map, Wilson, N.C. (1922).
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city department: Poole Boyd (c; Henrietta) driver Independent Electric Ice Co h 201 Pender
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 201 Pender, rented at $13/month, ice plant truck driver Boy Pool, 26; wife Henryetta, 24; and lodgers Leslie McCain, 20, tobacco factory stemmer, Jack McCain, 25, farm laborer, Beaulah Woods, 21, tobacco factory stemmer, and Emma L., 6, Mabrain, 5, William R., 2, and Carrie L. McCain, 2.
201 North Pender Street was among several properties offered for sale in an ad that ran 13 June 1936 in the Wilson Daily Times. All were in the vicinity of Saint John A.M.E.Z. Church.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 201 Pender, rented at $14/month, widow Margie Williams, 35, washing, and son Winfried, 1; and roomer Willie Sanders, 30, divorced, tobacco factory laborer.
In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Williams Margie (1; c) h 201 Pender
In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Evans Ida (c) smtrs h 201 Pender
By 1960, the house at 201 North Pender Street had been converted to a duplex, and two women listed it as their address in the city directory, Ida E. Evans, who owned Ida Evans Dress Shop, and Martha P. Farmer.
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, July 2019.
The one-hundred-twenty-third 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.
The nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District lists this description of 505 South Pender [originally Stantonsburg Street]: “ca. 1922; 1 story; shotgun with shed-roofed porch and gable returns.”
In the 1928 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Lena (c) dom h 511 Stantonsburg
In the 1930 Wilson, N.C., city directory, the house was vacant.
In 1940, Prince Mincey registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 18 March 1908 in Wilson; lived at 511 Stantonsburg Street; his contact was wife Alice Hinnh [Hannah] Mincey; and he worked for C.J. Moore, Wilson.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 511 Stantonsburg Street, rented for $8/month, fertilizer plant laborer Prince Mincy, 30, and wife Alice, 29.
The 1941 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Mincey Prince (c; Alice) tob wkr h 511 Stantonsburg
In the 1947 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Mincey Prince (c; Alice) carp h 511 Stantonsburg
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2020.
A year ago, Black Wide-Awake featured the abandoned endway house at the corner of South Pender and Hines Streets.
September 2020 finds the hundred-year-old house under complete renovation.
The interior has been gutted to the studs, but the house will essentially retain its original floor plan — an entry door opening directly into a front room, then a middle room, then at rear a kitchen and bath. (The bathroom was originally a back porch and would have been enclosed in the 1950s or ’60s.)
The house was once heated by an oil stove that vented through a chimney.
The house sits on new concrete block pillars, but a skirt of some sort will likely be added to enclose the crawlspace.
Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2020.
Wilson Daily Times, 21 May 1958.
Builder John Mack Barnes‘ property included 500 East Green Street and 118 North Pender Street.
In September 1952, L.M. Phelps prepared a survey of the five lots on East Green and Pender Streets owned by the estate of Cecilia Norwood.
Norwood’s two-story wooden house faced East Green Street on a lot that joined two others to ran all the way back to Darden’s Alley (now Darden Lane). Around the corner and across Pender, she owned two lots that adjoined Calvary Presbyterian Church, which then stood right at the corner of Green and Pender.
In 1957, Calvary Presbyterian Church purchased lots 4 and 5 from Cecilia Norwood’s estate. In 1970-71, the church constructed a new sanctuary on the Norwood property.
A Google Maps aerial view shows the former location of Norwood’s house and lots.
On 28 February 1895, Celia A. Hill, 22, daughter of H. and H. Hill, married Richard Norwood, 21, son of B. Norwood of Chatham County, in Wilson. Episcopal minister J.W. Perry performed the ceremony at Saint Marks in the presence of John H. Clark, B.R. Winstead and S.A. Smith.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: odd jobs laborer Richard Norward, 36; wife Celia, 34, public school teacher; Robert T., 14, Richard V., 15, Christine, 11, and Henry E., 8; mother Henry E. Hill, 65, depot janitoress; Mack Peacock, 17, doctor’s office servant; and Joe Burnett, 17, hotel servant.
In 1918, Richard Norwood registered for the World War I draft in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Per his registration card, he was born 31 March 1897 in Wilson; resided at 134 Pender Street, Wilson (and also 935 Baltic Avenue, Atlantic City; was employed by John Moore, North Carolina and Atlantic Avenues, Atlantic City; and his nearest relative of Cecilia Norwood, 134 Pender Street.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 134 Pender Street, Heneretta Hill, 70, A.C.L. railroad matron; Celia W. Hill, 40, teacher; Cora A. Hill, 27, teacher; Hazell Hill, 16; Christina Hill, 19; Barlee Hill, 22, laborer; Rosa Hicks, 22; and Archer Martin, 14.
In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Norwood Cecelia tchr h 205 Pender
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 205 Pender Street, valued at $5000, widowed teacher Cecelia Norwood, 60; granddaughter Cecelia Norwood, 5; grandson Edgear Norwood, 3; Ruth Cobb, 31, public school teacher; Lucie Richards, 50; and lodgers John, 38, carpenter at body plant, and Elizabeth Douglas, 35.
Cecilia Anna Norwood died 27 June 1944 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 14 February 1879 in Washington, North Carolina to Edward Hill and Henrietta Cherry; resided at 205 Pender, Wilson; was widowed; and was a teacher. Informant was Hazel Covington of Wilson.
Plat map 5, page 78, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
In 1881, Rufus Wright Edmundson ran an ad in the Wilson Advance for the lease of a house on a seven-acre lot on the east corner of Vance and Pender Streets. Wilson’s segregated residential patterns had not yet set, and Edmundson was able to extol the virtues of the parcel to white potential renters. East Wilson’s rapid development is hinted at in the notice — “all nearly new as premises were in original forest seven years ago.” Soon, Vance Street would become the southern edge of white settlement in East Wilson, and Edmundson’s property would be developed for the town’s newly emerging African-American middle class.
Wilson Advance, 16 December 1881.
The one-hundred-eighteenth 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.
The nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District does not list 505 South Pender. However, this description of 501, which does not actually exist, seems to describe the house above instead: “ca. 1922; 1 story; shotgun with shed-roofed porch, gable returns.”
In the 1928 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Leak Clara (c) dom h 505 Stantonsburg
In the 1930 Wilson, N.C., city directory: McNeil Mary (c) dom h 505 Stantonsburg
The 1941 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Pearl (c; 2) lndrs h 505 Stantonsburg
In the 1947 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Pearl N (c; wid Zach) lndry wrkr Caro Lndry & Clnrs h 505 Stantonsburg
The stretch of Pender Street above Suggs Street today, per Google Map. 505 is the silver-roofed shotgun at the corner Pender and Hines.
Here, the 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C. Below Nash Street, Pender Street was then called Stantonsburg Street. When Hines Street was extended east in the 1960s, it largely followed the former path of Wiggins Street. It appears that 501 and 503 were cleared out to make way for the much wider Hines.
The one hundred-fourteenth 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, this house is: “circa 1913; shotgun with gable returns and hip-roofed porch.”
This house, once known as 211 Stantonsburg Street and the last remaining house on Pender Street between Nash Street and Hines Street, is now an office for the Wilson District of the A.M.E. Zion Church. [Update: This house was demolished prior to October 2019.]
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: rented for $12/month, Paul Savage, 34; wife Hannah, 35, cook; and roomers Minnie Taylor, 11, Jim Murray, 33, tobacco factory laborer, and Annie Murray, 21, tobacco factory stemmer.
Paul Savage died 15 April 1934 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 1891 in Edgecombe County to Albert Savage and Willie Ann Brant; was married to Annah Savage; was a tobacco factory day laborer; and was buried in Leggett, North Carolina.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: rented for $10/month, housekeeper Anna Savage, 46, and lodger Beatrix Wiggins, 32, housekeeper.
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, October 2018.
The one hundred-fourth 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.
The vacant lot at 206 North Pender Street. Visible in the distance is the corner of Ashe Street and Darden Lane.
As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District, this house is: “ca. 1922; 1 story; John Clark tenant house; gable-end, side-hall house with turned-post porch; a variant of the shotgun; Clark was a white tobacconist, who built house for black tenant.”
The house was previously numbered 135 Pender. Mary C. Euell listed this address in her letter to W.E.B. DuBois about the incident that lead to the 1918 school boycott.
In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Crocker James lab h 206 Pender and Crocker Nancy cook h 206 Pender
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Crocker James H (c; Nancy) sta fireman h 206 Pender
In 1940, Donnie Daniel Graham registered for the World War II draft in Chowan County, North Carolina. Per his registration card, he was born 15 February 1908 in Wayne County; he resided at 211 East Church, Edenton, Chowan County; his contact was Nancy Crocker, 206 Pender, Wilson; and he worked for George P. Folk, Hotel Joseph Hughes, Edenton.
In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Crocker James H (c; Nancy) h 206 Pender
James H. Crocker died 3 May 1945 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 65 years old; was born in Wayne County to Joseph I. Crocker and Celia Hooks; was married to Nancy Dew Crocker; resided at 206 Pender Street; and worked as a common laborer. Informant was Gaston Crocker, Fremont, North Carolina.
In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Council Adam (c; Ophelia) chauffeur Dave Woodard h 206 Pender
Photo courtesy Google Maps Streetview.