tate

611 East Green Street, revisited.

On 29 October 1892, Hardy Tate purchased for $700 from George D. and Ella M. Green a 1/3-acre lot on Green Street between Green and H.C. Phillips.

The first house Tate erected on this lot burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances shortly after completion in 1896. Tate replaced it with this house, whose number bounced from 610 to 612 before settling at 611.

Tate died in 1938. Undertaker Columbus E. Artis and his first wife, nurse Ada D. Artis, bought the house from the Tate family. In 1951, Artis remarried.

Wilson Daily Times, 28 July 1951.

It appears that C.E. and Ruby Barbour Artis began to take in roomers in the 1960s. Artis, photographed here in the driveway, owned the house until his death in 1973, and Ruby Artis remained for several years after.

Per the 12 April 1975 Daily Times, Ruby Artis was issued a permit to “alter boarding house 611 E. Green.”

This ad for apartments in the house ran in the Daily Times in the early 1980s.

Wilson Daily Times, 3 September 1981.

Wilson Daily Times, 14 April 1983.

Wilson Daily Times, 5 July 1983.

Wilson Daily Times, 5 November 1983.

The house was demolished in the early 2000s.

N.87-12-279-280, Hardy Tate House, 611 E. Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office.

Helen Tate Huggins marries in Atlanta.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 16 December 1939.

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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Noah Tate, 28; wife Hattie, 24; and children John P., 3, and Helen, 2.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 208 Pender, barber Noah Tate, 42; wife Hattie, 34; boarder Mary Jennings, 28, a public school teacher; and children Helen, 13, Mary Jane, 8, Andrew, 11, and Noah Jr., 3.

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tate Helen (c) sch tchr 307 Pender

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 307 North Pender, seamstress Hattie Tate, 44, widow, and children Hellen, 23, insurance agent, and Andrew, 21, hotel bellboy, as well as lodger Lucy Davis, a public school teacher.

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tate Helen (c) clk r 307 Pender

In the 1941 and 1947 Atlanta, Georgia, city directory: Huggins Edw (c; Helen) tile str h 713 Greensferry Av SW

In the 1951 Atlanta, Georgia, city directory: Huggins Edw (c; Helen T) tile str Albert W Cook h 657 Greensferry Av SW

Andrew Tate died 16 May 1977 in Wilson. He was born 8 September 1908 to Noah Tate and Hattie Pierce; was married to Helen Whitfield; lived at 506 East Vance; and was buried in Rest Haven cemetery. Informant was Helen Tate Huggins, Atlanta, Georgia.

Atlanta Constitution, 18 September 1981.

Lane Street Project: two burials in “Rountree” Cemetery.

The “Wilson, N.C.” society column of the 25 June 1927 Norfolk Journal and Guide noted two recent funerals at which the deceased was buried in Rountree Cemetery by the short-lived undertaking firm, Artis and Freeman.

  • Mary Jane Tate

As noted here, though her gravestone has not yet been found, Mary Jane Tate is likely buried in the Noah Tate family plot in Odd Fellows cemetery. We see here how early the name “Rountree” was applied to all the cemeteries on this stretch of Bishop L.N. Forbes Street.

  • Serenda Morgan

Mrs. Serenda Morgan was in fact Sarah Bullock Morgan, wife of Surrender Morgan. The Morgans were married just two months before she died.

On 12 April 1927, Surrender Morgan, 21, of Wilson, son of Calvin and Almeta Morgan, married Sarah Bullock, 18, of Wilson, daughter of Walter and Sarah E. Bullock. Free Will Baptist minister E.H. Cox performed the ceremony in the presence of Ernest Bullock, Grim Bynum, and Author Williams.

Sarah Morgan died 16 June 1927 in childbirth in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 19 years old; was born in Robeson County, N.C., to Walter Bullock Sr. and Emma Clark; was married to Surender Morgan; lived on Atlantic Street; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.

Surrender Morgan died 19 October 1939 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 27 years old; was born in Wilson to Calvin Morgan and Almeta Morgan (she of the State of “Missippa”); was the widower of Sarah Morgan; worked as a chauffeur; and was buried in Wilson, N.C. [Other records, including her own death certificate, report Almeta Bynum Morgan’s birthplace as Wilson County.]

The Tates settle business back home.

New Hanover County native Hardy Tate arrived in Wilson before 1892, when he purchased a lot on Green Street. After the death of his first wife, Mary Jane Tate, in 1909, the brickmason returned to Wilmington to remarry, and Annie Thomas Tate joined him at his two-story house on East Green Street.

In 1920, Hardy and Annie Tate were among the heirs of Hannah J. Tate, daughter and heir of Samuel C. Nixon, who sold a tract on Pumpkin Kiln Branch in Cape Fear township, New Hanover County.

New Hanover [County, North Carolina] Deeds, http://www.familysearch.org.

Helen Tate appears in dazzling fashion show.

Helen Tate won ten dollars in gold in the busiest “fashion show” ever.

Pittsburgh Courier, 9 May 1925.

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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Noah Tate, 28; wife Hattie, 24; and children John P., 3, and Helen, 2.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Noah Tate, 42; wife Hattie, 34; boarder Mary Jennings, 28, teacher; and children Helen, 13, Mary Jane, 8, Andrew, 11, and Noah Jr., 3.

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tate Helen (c) sch tchr h 307 Pender

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 307 North Pender, seamstress Hattie Tate, 44, widow, and children Hellen, 23, insurance agent, and Andrew, 21, hotel bellboy, as well as lodger Lucy Davis, a public school teacher.

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tate Helen (c) clk h 307 Pender

Historic Black Business Series, no. 16: Paragon Shaving Parlor.

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 Joshua L. 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, and Tabron sold the shop’s furnishings to another barber, Richard Renfrow, suggesting a complete upgrade of Paragon’s interior.

Tabron died before 1907, and 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.”

By 1916, the business was known as Tate & Hines.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1916).

About 1920, Tate and Hines parted company, and Walter S. Hines assumed sole ownership of the barbershop. He briefly reverted to the Paragon Shaving Parlor name, but soon settled on Walter S. Hines Barbershop. His shop and that of his brother, the William Hines Barbershop, were friendly competitors for white custom until the 1970s.

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.

Lane Street Project: Alice Pierce Maynor.

The Tate family plot lies near the northeast corner of Odd Fellows. Its markers are generally in good shape, but my eyes were often drawn to a small rim of marble barely visible above the soil.

Billy Foster of Foster Stone and Cemetery Care recently prised it up to reveal the handsome little marker of Alice P. Maynor.

Alice P. Maynor Born Apr. 24, 1888 Died Apr. 15, 1915.

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On 6 January 1910, Walter A. Maynor, 19, of Wilson, son of Robert L. and Mary Maynor, married Alice Pearce, 22, of Wilson, daughter of Andrew and Alice Pearce, at Noah Tate‘s residence in Wilson. Levi Jones applied for the license, and Missionary Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony in the presence of F.S. Hargrave, E.P. Reid, and Mrs. M.J. Foster.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Nash Street, Walter Maynor, 19, barber, and wife Alice, 23. [The couple had two children, Harriett V. Maynor Whitfield (1910) and Walter Alfred Maynor Jr. (1912).]

Allice Maynor died 13 April 1915 in Wilson, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 26 years old; was born in Wilson County to Andrew Pierce and Alice Knight. Informant was Hattie Tate. Her cause of death was pulmonary tuberculosis.

Photos courtesy of Billy Foster, April 2023.

The odyssey of Tate’s pool room.

This excerpt from a news account of a commissioners’ meeting caught my eye. Barber Noah Tate‘s application for a pool room license was denied, and Alderman Lewis cried discrimination. What kind of discrimination was being decried by an elected official in Wilson in 1919?

…

Wilson Daily Times, 6 September 1919.

An article published nearly eighteen months before yields context. On 7 May 1918, the Times reported, “The city fathers last night refused to renew the license to the pool rooms and to the bowling alleys of the city, and the remarks regarding the places where cider is sold were also far from complimentary. … The meeting was opened by the reading of a resolution by … business men setting forth the fact that both white and colored frequent these places and thus remove from the busy marts of trade and industry labor that should be employed in producing something other than thriftless habits and viciousness.” Mayor Killette railed against the shiftless and bemoaned the legal victory that allowed a local man to sell cider made from his own apples. “The gist of the argument [against pool rooms] was that the colored pool room was full of men who should be at work producing something for their families and helping to make something rather than being consumers merely and drones upon the body politic. They were corrupting because it was almost impossible to prevent gambling in these places and in addition to shiftlessness it encouraged vice and vagrancy. A number of employers stated that their help could be found in the pool room below the railroad, and the bowling alley came in for equally critical remarks as a place to encourage loafing and bad habits.” The matter was put to vote, and no’s were unanimous. [The “colored pool room,” by the way, may have been Mack Bullock‘s establishment at 417 East Nash. See Sanborn map detail, below.]

In June 1919, Luther A. Barnes, the white proprietor of a pool hall at the New Briggs Hotel, and the subject of intense criticism during the May debate received his license over the objection of the mayor. Perhaps this turn of events sparked Commissioner Lewis’ objection to Tate’s rejection three months later?

Noah Tate finally got his pool room in 1921. 

Wilson Daily Times, 8 July 1921.

“Over the railroad,” specifically, was 105-107 North Pettigrew Street.

The 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map shows that Tate Pool Room was located in a brick building just north of Nash Street on the railroad side of the street. 

A modern aerial view at Google Maps shows that the rear of present-day 419 East Nash Street consists of two extensions. The first, with the striated roof below, sits in the footprint of Tate’s pool room and may even be the same building. 

 

At street level, two bricked-up windows are visible, as well as the original roofline. The building appears to have been cinderblock though, which was not commonly used in Wilson in the era of Tate’s business.

Noah J. Tate did not long enjoy his victory; he died in 1926.

Fire bug activities.

Wilson Daily Times, 16 February 1944.

  • Samuel Randolph Foster 

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 707 Vance, Andrew Pierce, 55, nurse at home (usually barber); wife Lossie, 55, in hospital; daughters Alice, 35, and Hester, 27; sons Boise, 29, cafe [cook?], and Binford, 14; daughter Ruby, 19, “cook school;” and grandchildren Randolph, 9, and Montheal Foster, 7, and Mickey Pierce, 1.

Samuel Randolph Foster registered for the World War II draft in Durham, N.C., in 1945. Per his draft card, he was born 19 February 1927 in Wilson; lived at 403 Henry Street, Durham; was a student at Hillside High School; and his contact was Sam Foster, 403 Henry Street. He was 5’7″, weighed 141 pounds, with brown eyes, black hair and a birthmark in the bend of his right arm. [In fact, per his birth record, Foster was born in 1931 in Wilson to Samuel Foster and Hester Pierce, which would make his age consistent with that in the Times article. In other words, Foster was 14 years old when he was inducted into the Army at Fort Bragg in September 1945.]

The death of young Mary Jane Tate.

“Pulmonary T.B. on way home from sanatorium.”

Sixteen year-old Mary Jane Tate succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis in Fayetteville, North Carolina, while traveling home to Wilson. She had likely been confined to the recently opened African-American wing of the state tuberculosis sanitorium near Quewhiffle, Hoke County, North Carolina, west of Fayetteville. 

Though her gravestone has not yet been found, she is likely buried in the Noah Tate family plot in Odd Fellows cemetery.