Winston-Salem's Green Book Sites

"The Bible of Black Travel" from 1936 to 1967.

These are Winston-Salem's eighteen Green Book locations.

The Green Book

"An annual guidebook for African-American roadtrippers founded and published by New York City mailman Victor Hugo Green from 1936 to 1967. From a New York-focused first edition published in 1936, Green expanded the work to cover much of North America. The Green Book became "the bible of black travel" during the era of Jim Crow laws, when open and often legally prescribed discrimination against African Americans and other non-whites was widespread. Green wrote this guide to identify services and places relatively friendly to African-Americans so they could find lodgings, businesses, and gas stations that would serve them along the road. It was little known outside the African-American community. Shortly after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed the types of racial discrimination that made the Green Book necessary, publication ceased and it fell into obscurity." - Library of Congress The Green Book was published as The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1937-1951; The Negro Travelers' Green Book from 1952-1959; and The Travelers' Green Book from 1960-1966.

This story map includes language and content that may reflect outdated, biased, or offensive views. Nevertheless, there is much to learn from this historical information. We strive to balance the preservation of our history with sensitivity to how historic materials are presented. For research and general public interest, we present this information in its original form.

Winston-Salem's *Green Book* sites marked on a 1951 aerial image; the Reynolds Building is marked with a star.

The Belmont Hotel is listed on page 55 of the 1952 edition of the *Green Book*.

1: Belmont Hotel

The Belmont Hotel at 601 ½ North Patterson Avenue was listed in the Negro Travelers' Green Book in 1952, 1953, and 1954. The two-story, brick building stood on the north side of Sixth Street between Patterson Avenue and Vine Street, where the parking lot north of Biotech Place is located today.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 1: The Belmont Hotel

The 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (above left), shows the hotel on the corner with first-floor storefronts facing Patterson Avenue. In the 1923 aerial (above right), the hotel can be seen on the east side of Patterson Avenue, south of the Depot Street Graded School. The Belmont Hotel appears in city directories from 1940 until 1959, when R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. bought the lot. In 1938 and 1939, before use of the Belmont Hotel name, city directories show Eldon and Louise Stubbs offered furnished rooms for rent at 601 ½ North Patterson Avenue.

Harry A. Smith is listed as manager of the Belmont Hotel for the first time in the 1952 city directory (above left). Except for the 1956 edition, the 1952-1959 city directories list Smith as manager. In 1956, Ola Mae Forte, who owned La Mae House of Beauty, is listed as the operator. The manager prior to Smith was Louise Stubbs, who opened the Stevens Hotel for Black travelers, which was also listed in the *Green Book,* in 1951. She had become manager of the Belmont in 1946 after the death of the prior manager, her husband Eldon D. Stubbs. Smith and his wife Annie lived at 2544 Kirkwood Street (above right) in the Alta Vista area of Boston-Thurmond. The Smiths purchased the house in 1947 and were its first owners. The house remained in their ownership until Annie’s death in 2009. The houses on Kirkwood Street were built to relieve the post-World War II housing shortage and designed to meet Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration guidelines, which allowed for low-cost mortgages.

In August 1958, the Winston-Salem School Board assigned the first Black students to white elementary schools (above left). Harry and Annie’s daughter, Doris Ann, was one of five Black students denied a transfer from Atkins High School to Reynolds High School at the same meeting. Reynolds had just one Black student that fall, Gwendolyn Bailey, who had integrated both Reynolds and Winston-Salem schools in 1957. Smith requested legal and financial aid from the NAACP to file suit against the Winston-Salem School Board for unlawful school segregation (above center). In September 1958, the local chapter of the NAACP committed to support the Smiths if a lawsuit was filed. In February 1959, the NAACP’s Thurgood Marshall filed lawsuits in Charlotte and Greensboro (above right) claiming that North Carolina’s 1955 Pupil Assignment Act was “designed to impede, rather than carry out Supreme Court integration edicts and, therefore, is unconstitutional.” Smith’s potential suit remained on hold. School desegregation in North Carolina continued slowly through the 1960s. Doris Ann graduated from Atkins High School and Winston-Salem Teachers College, which later changed its name to Winston-Salem State University.

Smith was licensed to preach in the United Methodist Church in 1953 and ordained as a deacon and elder in 1957. He studied at Morgan State College in Baltimore and Bennett College in Greensboro, where he was president of the student body in 1957. Harry Smith is pictured in the 1959 edition of the Winston-Salem Teachers College yearbook, *The Ram* (above left). He graduated that year with a degree in education. His senior quote: "*If you study, think and pray real hard, you’re bound to be a success with the help of God."* Between 1953 and 1993 he pastored at Piney Grove Methodist in Advance, Withers Chapel in Walnut Cove, St. Stephen’s in Madison, St. John in Eden, Smith Memorial-Harpers Chapel in Lenoir, Hartzell Memorial-McQueen’s Chapel in Hickory, St. Paul-Wesley Chapel in Reidsville, St. Luke’s-St. Mark’s in Asheboro, and Lovell’s Chapel and Mallalieu-Jones in Mt. Airy-Pilot Mountain. Smith was elected president of the Shriner’s Masonic Credit Union in 1962. In the 1980s, the Masonic Credit Union merged with Victory Credit Union, the first Black-owned and operated community-based credit union in Forsyth County. Smith was the treasurer of Victory-Masonic Mutual Credit Union in 1988 when it opened new offices in the Winston Mutual Building (above right). He also served as vice chairman of the board for Victory-Masonic Mutual and chairman of the credit committee.

Smith passed away in 2003, six years before Annie, his wife of 62 years. They are buried at Piedmont Memorial Gardens in the Union Cross area.

Mrs. H. L. Christian's tourist home is listed on page 14 of the 1938 edition of the *Green Book.*

2: Mrs. H. L. Christian’s Tourist Home

Mrs. H. L. Christian's tourist home at 302 East Ninth Street appeared in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1938 to 1957 with the exception of the 1956 edition. The two-story, sprawling wooden house was located on the south side of Ninth Street about 100’ east of Patterson Avenue. Today, that location is in the west bound lanes of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive just east of Patterson Avenue.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 2: Mrs. H. L. Christian's tourist home

The house and lot between Eighth and Ninth Streets in “Best Town,” which had been home to Rev. George W. Holland until his death, were purchased by Joseph Benjamin Christian on February 20, 1908, for $500 (above left). Rev. Holland founded First Baptist Church in 1879. Christian and Holland were close; per the terms of Holland’s will, Christian was appointed executor of the estate upon Holland’s death in 1906. **For a closer look at the 1908 Deed, click here.** The 1907 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (above right) shows Rev. Holland’s one-story, frame house at 309 East Eight Street on the lot that would become the site of Mrs. H. L. Christian’s tourist home.

J.B. Christian married Hattie Louise Patterson on February 27, 1908, one week after buying the Holland property (above left). Christian was born in Virginia in 1879 and became a pharmacist in 1911. He had arrived in Salem by 1900 when the US Census records him as a student at the Slater Industrial and Normal School. **For a closer look at the 1908 Marriage License, click here.** Prior to her marriage, Hattie Patterson lived at 111 Elm Street with seven siblings and her widowed father, Harrison Patterson, who worked as a driver for F. & H. Fries’ Arista Mills. Her father owned their house free and clear, with no mortgage. The Patterson family is shown at lines 31-39 of the 1900 US Census (above right). When Harrison died in 1908, his obituary was featured on page 1 of *The Sentinel*, and the paper noted that he was “one of Winston Salem’s best known colored citizens.” **For a closer look at the 1900 US Census, click here.**

J.B. Christian received a permit to build two houses on their Ninth Street property in November 1908, as reported on page one of *The Sentinel* (above left). The 1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the two houses built by the Christians facing north onto Ninth Street (above center). A small rectangular, two-story frame house was located at No. 302. A larger, two-story frame house with a one-story, open front porch and a one-story rear extension sat at No. 302½. The 1910 US Census records the Christians living in the larger house at No. 302½. Five tobacco workers, all single Black men aged 19 to 26, occupied No. 302. The 1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map documents that Ninth Street was being readdressed. The small house at No. 302 was renumbered as No. 306; the Christians’ house at No. 302½ became No. 310. Porches had been added to the front of No. 306 and to the rear of No. 310. Rev. Holland’s house had been demolished and replaced with a one-story duplex (above right).

By the 1930s, the Christians’ house at No. 310 had grown substantially as shown in this aerial photograph taken by Frank Jones (above left). It may have included the house originally at No. 302, or No. 302 may have been replaced by additions. Beginning in 1936, the city directories record that the Christian home included renters. That year W. Edgar Harrison, an assistant district manager for NC Mutual Life Insurance Co., lived with them (above right). Insurance agents Fred Haynes and Elgy S. Johnson also lived with the Christians in the 1930s. They may have been colleagues of the Christians’ younger son, Joseph Jr., who worked as an insurance agent for a short time.

The Christians are shown living at 308 East Ninth Street in the 1938 city directory (above left), the same year that Hattie's tourist home first appeared in the *Green Book*. The (c) after their names stands for colored. It is unclear why the *Green Book* located the tourist house at No. 302. While it was a very early address for the Christian house, the number does not appear in records after the 1910s. Hattie is identified as a teacher at Columbia Heights Elementary School. It was located at the corner of Wallace and Bruce Streets in the Columbian Heights neighborhood around Winston-Salem Teacher’s College (above right). Albert H. Anderson was the principal. In February 1938, the school had an enrollment of 867 students.

The 1940 US Census records Hattie, Joseph, and their sons George and Joseph Jr. at No. 308 on lines 6-9 (above left). Hattie estimated the value of the house at $8,000. The Christians had a lodger named James Burns living with them in 1940. He was 26 years old and had been born in South Carolina. In 1935 Burns was living in Pittsburgh, PA. Burns had completed two years of college and worked as a bookkeeper for a taxi company, which the city directory identifies as Camel City Cab. **For a closer look at the 1940 US Census, click here.** In 1940, the property was auctioned because the Christians had failed to comply with the terms of a deed of trust (above right). Black real estate investor and fellow *Green Book* entrant Charles H. Jones entered the winning bid, assigning it to the Christians’ son, George. George transferred ownership of the property to Dollye, Minnie, and Eva Patterson – Hattie’s three unmarried sisters, all of whom were school teachers – in January 1942. **For a closer look at the 1940 Trustees Deed, click here.**

Although the name of her tourist home did not change in the *Green Book* following her death, Hattie Christian died on October 20, 1942. Her obituary describes her as a regular and faithful member of First Baptist Church who was active in missionary work (above left). She had retired from teaching in 1941. The Christian household included renters and remained multi-generational in the 1940s. In addition to Burns, Jacob Blocker lived with the family. Blocker was a barber at Harry’s Barber Shop. Elder son George lived at home until around 1943. Joseph Jr. and his wife Jeanette lived in the house throughout the decade (1946 city directory above right).

The 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (above center) shows the sprawling Christian home shortly before Dr. Christian’s death. Dr. J.B. Christian passed away in July 1951. His obituary notes that he had lived in Winston-Salem for approximately 60 years, had been a member of First Baptist Church for over 50 years, and operated two retail pharmacies known as Christian Drug Company with his brother, Dr. Andrew Jackson Christian (above left). According to the city directory, Hattie’s sister Minnie was living with Dr. Christian in 1951. Following the death of Dr. Christian, Hattie’s other living sister, Dollye, moved in with Minnie. They lived together on Ninth Street with Joseph Jr. until 1956 when they sold the house to the Carter family and moved to East Fourteenth Street (above right). The tourist home remained listed in the *Green Book* through their tenancy and ownership, perhaps as a tribute to their sister. **For a closer look at the 1956 Deed, click here.**

The Model Pharmacy is listed on page 73 of the 1961 edition of the *Green Book.*

3: Model Pharmacy

Model Pharmacy at 562 North Patterson Avenue appeared in The Travelers’ Green Book in 1961. The pharmacy was located on the first floor of the W.H. Bruce Building, which sat on the southwest corner of Patterson Avenue and Sixth Street. Today, that location is part of the Link Apartments-Innovation Quarter.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 3: The Model Pharmacy

The 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the Bruce Building on the corner with two stores and a dry cleaner facing Patterson Avenue (formerly Depot Street), and the branch library for Black patrons and a store facing Sixth Street. First Baptist Church was just to the west. Four wooden homes surrounded the Bruce Building. The two marked (O.V.) were open and vacant. The Model Pharmacy sign remained on the building in a 1980 photo although the business had moved out more than ten years prior.

Black pharmacist Frederick Lindsay Douglas purchased Model Pharmacy from Rufus S. Hairston, another Black pharmacist, in 1959 (above left). Douglas had managed Model Pharmacy for Hairston beginning in July 1957. Douglas graduated from Atkins High School at age 16 in 1938 and joined the military in 1943 (above center). He served 18 months overseas during World War II and was wounded in France. In 1952, he graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans with a bachelor of science in pharmacy (above right). Xavier University is the country’s only historically Black Catholic university; the College of Pharmacy opened in 1927.

Rufus S. Hairston opened Model Pharmacy in the W.H. Bruce Building ca. 1955. A photograph of the Bruce Building was printed in the newspaper when it was completed in 1928 (above left). Builder and owner Dr. William Henry Bruce (above center) was an early Black physician in Winston-Salem. He laid out the brick building with storefronts on the ground floor and thirty offices for medical professionals on the second. The third floor was an assembly space for meetings and gatherings of large groups. The building had modern features such as a concrete and steel foundation and hot and cold running water, was constructed of brick, and trimmed with Mt. Airy granite and Indiana limestone. The Eureka Pharmacy (above right) was the first pharmacy to open in Bruce Building. In 1929, Neely-Hairston Drug Co. moved into the Bruce Building. By 1941, that pharmacy had become Mason-Neely Drug Co.

Frederick Douglas opened a second branch of Model Pharmacy at 2500 North Liberty Street (above left and center) in 1962. Economy Pharmacy, owned by white pharmacists, vacated the building that year after operating in this location for 12 years. The *Winston-Salem Journal* noted that Model Pharmacy would “primarily serve the increasing number of Negroes who are moving into that section of North Winston.” The adjacent Bon Air-Greenway neighborhood was developed in the 1920s and 1930s for white residents. However, African Americans began to buy houses in the neighborhood in the 1960s. A 1964 *Journal and Sentinel* article (above right) about the impact of desegregation on Black owned businesses recorded that Rufus Hairston and Frederick Douglas had both Black and white patrons at their pharmacies. “All three places are well lighted, well stocked and air conditioned. They offer delivery service for prescriptions. . . Clear thinking and quality merchandise are keys to success, Douglas said.” **For a closer look at the Sunday** **Journal** **and Sentinel article, click here.**

On June 27, 1958, Frederick Douglas and his wife, Geneva Patterson Robertson Douglas, bought the house and lot at 445 Bacon Street in the Cherry Hills area of Boston-Thurmond (above left and center). **For a closer look at the 1958 Deed, click here.** Frederick and Geneva married in 1955 and had been living in a small frame cottage at 834 Twelfth Street NW (above right) before moving north to Cherry Hills. They lived on Bacon Street for the remainder of their lives. The cottage on Twelfth Street was built ca. 1916 and is an example of the early suburban housing built in Boston Cottages for workers who wanted to move away from downtown’s industry. Frederick’s parents, Fred Douglas and Evelyn Lindsay Douglas Lee, bought the house in 1929 although city directories record them living in it by 1924 and in Boston Cottages by 1921.

Geneva Douglas died in 1968 at just 44 years old (upper left). Subsequently, Frederick Douglas consolidated his pharmacy business at a new location in the Winston Mutual Building at 1225 East Fifth Street (upper right), which was dedicated in 1969. He operated the pharmacy there until 1996 when he sold the business to Revco. Civically engaged throughout his life, Douglas was a member of Omega Psi Phi, which named him Business Man of the Year in 1963 and Omega Man of the Year in 1976; the Reynolds Health Center Advisory Committee; the Victory Credit Union board of directors; Winston-Salem Sportsman Club; the Masonic James H. Young Memorial Lodge 670; the Cherry Hill Community Club; the Patterson Avenue Branch Y.M.C.A. board of management; and St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church. Douglas died in 2002 (bottom).

Club 709 is listed on page 36 of the 1941 edition of the *Green Book.*

4: Club 709

Club 709 at 709 North Patterson Avenue (originally known as Depot Street) appeared in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1939 to 1949. The one-story frame and concrete block building was located on the east side of Patterson Avenue about 160’ north of Seventh Street. Today, that location is part of the parking lot south of Clark Brown & Sons Funeral Home.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 4: Club 709

The Depot Street lot was purchased by William and Lizzie Blackburn on May 26, 1909, for $1,100 (above left). **For a closer look at the 1909 Deed, click here.** William Blackburn, Lizzie’s second husband, was a licensed embalmer and became a partner in the firm Howard, Blackburn & Scales in 1913. He also was a member of the Black volunteer fire department for years. William died from tuberculosis in 1919. The 1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance Company Map shows two frame buildings at 707 and 709 Depot Street (above center). The one-story building at No. 709 is labeled “undertaker,” the site of William’s business. Abutting it to the south is No. 707, a two-story frame house with a one-story open front porch and a large one-story extension to the rear. This was the Tolliver/Blackburn house. The building that housed Club 709 from 1937 to 1945 is marked as “Furne Rep” (furniture repair) on the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (above right). A two-story, concrete block section sat next to the sidewalk, and a one-story, wooden section extended toward the back of the lot.

The 1920 US Census records Lizzie, who had been widowed again, and her five children living at 707 Depot Street at lines 48-52 (above). **For a closer look at the 1920 US Census, click here.** Lizzie owned the property free and clear. All six of the family members were literate. Lizzie’s four sons, who ranged in age from 13 to 22, were in school. Three of Lizzie’s sons had been born during her marriage to Samuel Tolliver – Thomas, Samuel Dewey, and William (Bill) – while Spencer, the youngest, was born during her marriage to William. Daughter Lizzie Williams, who was 31, was also a widow. She worked in a tobacco factory. During the 1920s and early 1930s, the city directories show a barber shop operated by David Hunt and then Clement Hunt at 709 North Patterson Avenue. David Hunt lived nearby in the 300 block of East Ninth Street. On May 10, 1937, the board of aldermen approved Lizzie Blackburn’s request to convert the barber shop into a café (above left). A photograph from the 1930s shows the buildings on the east side of Patterson Avenue (above right). The red arrow indicates the building that housed Club 709. The Tolliver/Blackburn family lived in the building to the right with a two-story porch.

The 1938 city directory lists Club 709 for the first time (above left). Club 709 appeared in the *Green Book* for the first time in 1939. Half-brothers Thomas A. Tolliver and Spencer Blackburn owned and operated the business. Thomas Alexandria Tolliver was born in Winston-Salem in 1895 and graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh. He was in the US Army in France with Company M of the 808^th Pioneer Infantry during WW I (above center). After the war, he returned to Winston-Salem and worked in various jobs. Thomas also lived in Detroit and New York before opening Club 709 with Spencer. Spencer Edward Blackburn was born in Winston-Salem in 1906 (above right). He spent his childhood in Winston-Salem and Detroit before attending Virginia Normal & Industrial Institute. He worked for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and at the Robert E. Lee and other hotels before the opening of Club 709.

Club 709 hosted nationally known musicians and was a ticket outlet for acts that played larger venues in Winston-Salem. In 1938, Fats Waller held his first-ever birthday party at Club 709 (above left). According to Spencer Blackburn, Fats played at the Robert E. Lee Hotel on Saturday, May 21 but declined to play on Sunday because of the planned party. Count Basie and Jimmy Lunsford also played Club 709. When Ella Fitzergald performed at the New Carolina Warehouse, Club 709 sold tickets. Just before Christmas 1939, there was a fire at Club 709 (above center). The dining room was damaged, but no one was reported to be injured. On January 15, 1940, operator Thomas Tolliver was issued a permit to make repairs to the fire damaged building; the estimated cost of repairs was $600. Club 709 reopened on Friday, February 2, 1940. Club 709 served as a gathering place for the Black community. A newspaper advertisement from 1941 appealed to families celebrating Mother’s Day by offering a meal and music, in both the afternoon and evening (above right). The ad also noted that Club 709 catered to parties and clubs on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Newspapers of the era include notices for meetings of civic groups at Club 709 including the Utilitarian Bridge Club, Cassie Penn Club, The Debs, The Patricians, The Victorious Opus, Women’s Domestics, Twi-Light Social, Friendly Five, United Butlers, Phoenix Club, Cosmopolitan Bridge Club, 500 Jolly Bunch, French-Knot, Cotillion, Junior Pals, High Players, Camel City Dreamers, Chauffeurs Club, and Hi-Players Club.

Club 709 closed about 1945, although it remained listed in the *Green Book* until 1949. Spencer enlisted in the US Army to serve in WW II in 1943, and Thomas moved to Jamaica, Queens, New York, within the following year or two. The 1946 city directory lists Zanzibar Restaurant in the building (above left). By 1950, 709 North Patterson Avenue was a furniture repair facility. That year the US Census records that Spencer, Thomas, and older brother William lived together in Queens, where William owned Tolliver’s Crystal Casino (above center). **For a closer look at the 1950 US Census, click here.** It was included in the 1952 edition of the *Green Book* (above right). The property on Patterson Avenue remained in the family until 1982 when it was purchased by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Sam Harris Taxi is listed on page 36 of the 1940 edition of the *Green Book.*

5: Sam Harris Taxi

Sam Harris Taxi at Sixth Street and Patterson Avenue was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1939 to1941. Today the location of Sam Harris Taxi is in the parking lot north of Biotech Place.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 5: Sam Harris Taxi

Sam Harris received a charter for Harris Cab, Inc., in 1936 (above left). The stock owners were Sam’s wife Maggie, his brother Frank Emerson, and his stepson Jack McCloud. Sam is listed in the 1930-1932 city directories as a helper at Twin City Motor Co. and as a driver in 1934. Sam and Maggie rented the house at 1210 East Fourteenth Street in the 1930s (above center). Sam Harris Cab Service appears in the city directory for the first time in 1935, when it was located at 601 North Patterson Avenue. A photograph from the 1930s shows part of the 600 block of Patterson Avenue with commercial buildings south of a filling station and the open Y.M.C.A. grounds, which were used for ball games (above right). Harris Cab sponsored a softball team in the 1930s that played on the Y.M.C.A. field against teams sponsored by other Black businesses, including Safe Bus, Garrett Barber Shop, and Scales Cafeteria. In 1938 Harris Cab merged with other Black-owned cabs to form Camel City Cab Company, Inc. Harris was vice president, and McCloud was assistant secretary. Maggie Harris was a stockholder.

The 1940 city directory lists Harris’s occupation simply as “taxicabs” while line 38 of the 1940 US Census records him as a driver for cab company who earned $670 for 52 weeks of work the prior year (above left). **For a closer look at the 1940 US Census, click here.** In 1941 Harris and his stepson Jack McCloud applied to the City of Winston-Salem for a permit to operate a new cab company (above center). **For a closer look at the Sentinel article, click here.** Harris had been working as the traffic manager for Camel City Cab, the only company serving Black clientele. According to Harris and McCloud’s application for a permit, Camel City had cut its fleet in half to 15 cars, which was insufficient to serve the Black community. Presumably the permit was denied because Harris was fined $25 for being in business without a license and violating traffic laws in early 1942 (above right). Harris then moved his business to Wadesboro, southwest of Charlotte.

Sam Harvey Harris was born in Rock Hill, SC, in 1900, but he had arrived in Winston-Salem by 1918 when his World War I draft card documents that he lived in Kimberley Park and worked for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (above left). He married Maggie McNeil McCloud about 1927. She had previously been married to Thornton McCloud and had two young adult children from that marriage, Jack and Pearl. In 1940, Sam and Maggie Harris purchased the house and lot at 802 North Graham Avenue in Cameron Park Addition/Reynoldstown from R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (above center). **For a closer look at the 1940 Deed, click here.** The one-story, brick house had a prominent brick chimney with decorative stonework forming the letters F and X. The siting on a bank allowed for a one-car garage in the basement that could be entered from the side yard (above right).

During World War II, Harris is listed in city directories as a defense worker, but he needed new employment when the war ended. With his brother Frank Emerson Harris, Sam Harris again applied to the City of Winston-Salem for a permit to operate Harris Cabs with eight cars in 1945 (above left). Almost 100 members of the Black community submitted affidavits in support of expanding cab service because service from the single licensed operator was “inadequate, inefficient and … not sufficient to serve the Negro population. They point out that service, especially in the evening and when the weather is bad, is unsatisfactory, and that more cabs are needed” (above center). Nevertheless, the permit was denied by the Board of Aldermen in early 1946. The Harris brothers made an appeal to the people of Winston-Salem in *The Sentinel* on March 11, 1946 (above right). The permit was eventually granted, and Harris was in business later that year.

In the second half of the 1940s, Harris had an office at 627 North Patterson Avenue, where the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance shows a filling station. In 1948, Harris Cabs installed an antenna and other equipment for a two-way taxi telephone system in five of their 19 cars. Local cabs, including Harris, got meters for the first time in 1949, which charged customers based on a combination of a flat fare of $0.35 and mileage (above left). **For a closer look at the Sentinel article, click here.** The previously flat fare had been raised to $0.50 in 1947, which had caused a notable decrease in short trips. Harris Cab moved to a different filling station location – at 915 East Fifth Street – in 1952 to make way for construction of the new Patterson Avenue Branch of the Y.M.C.A. (above center). Harris operated through the 1950s and increased its cab permit to 22 cars. In 1954, Harris requested and received a cab stand on East Fourth Street south of Church Street, in front of Camel City Billiard Parlor. At the time, Black-owned cab companies “had zones only in the Negro part of town” but could load and unload passengers in the public zone at the Bus Station. In 1959, Harris’s drivers went on strike for three weeks to force the company to recognize Local 248 of the Transport Workers Union (AFL-CIO) as their bargaining agent (above right). The strike was successful.

Harris Cab Co. faced financial challenges during the 1960s. The North Carolina Employment Security Commission accused the company of failing to file wage reports and paying required contributions on employee wages in parts of 1959 and 1960. That obligation was paid in July 1960. In September 1960, the IRS seized 9 cars owned by Harris Cab for nonpayment of withholding taxes and income taxes in 1958, 1959, and the first quarter of 1960. Harris paid the IRS $2,371 and reclaimed the taxis quickly (above left). The IRS seized Harris’s five remaining cabs in March 1964, again for nonpayment of $9,134 in withholding taxes (above center). Harris never recovered those cars. In July 1964, Alderman Carl Russell called for an investigation of cab companies, specifically noting that he had received complaints about Harris cabs being unclean. The same year Margaret Jones filed suit against Harris Cab for failure to pay on a promissory note with an approximately $2,800 balance. By December 1964, the company was in receivership. The receiver began to auction the assets in 1965 (above right).

Harris Cab Co. did not operate after the assets were liquidated in the 1960s. A 1970 article in *The Sentinel* asked whether taxicabs were a thing of the past, noting a massive decline in the number of local cabs on city streets since the end of “the taxicab’s golden era” in 1955 (above left). Sam Harris passed away in February 1971 at the age of 70. His obituary (above right) notes that he was a member of the Steward Board of Goler Metropolitan AME Zion Church and of Salem Lodge No. 193 Prince Hall Masons. He and Maggie, who died in 1976, are both buried at Evergreen Cemetery.

Mrs. N. Jones’ tourist home is listed on page 33 of the 1939 edition of the *Green Book.*

6: Mrs. N. Jones' Tourist Home

Mrs. N. Jones’ tourist home at 859 North Liberty Street was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1939 to 1946. Today the location of Mrs. N. Jones’ tourist house is on the north side of the triangle created by North Liberty and Chestnut Streets and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 6: Mrs. N. Jones' Tourist Home

In 1901 Dr. William A. Jones purchased the property at 859 North Liberty Street (then addressed as 861 Liberty Street) for $1,450 (above left). **For a closer look at the 1901 Deed, click here.** The 1900 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows that the lot held a one-story wooden house with a small outbuilding (above center). Jones lived on ^Fourth Street and maintained the house as a rental property for several years with the city directories documenting white tenants. Jones was born in 1869 in southside Virginia. He attended Hampton Institute and then Shaw University in Raleigh for his pharmaceutical degree. Jones opened the first Black-owned drug store in Winston in 1900. He later opened Jones Drug on East Fourth Street with his brother, physician John Wise Jones (above right).

William Jones married Nan Kathleen Headen in October 1904. *The Western Sentinel* covered the wedding and stated that the Joneses planned to “reside on North Liberty Street, where the groom-to-be owns a splendid home” (above left). Nan was born in Carthage, NC, in 1879. She was living with her grandfather Adam Tyson, uncle Adam Tyson and his family, and her brother Lucean Arthur Headen while working as a teacher in June 1900 when the US Census recorded her on line 48 (above center). **For a closer look at the 1900 US Census, click here.** Her brother Lucean Arthur would become an early Black aviator in 1911 (above right). Later in life, he was an automobile manufacturer and inventor, earning eleven patents during his lifetime.

After their marriage, William and Nan (sometimes Nannie) Jones moved into the Liberty Street house. The 1906 city directory shows that the Joneses were the only Black household in the 800 block of Liberty Street (above left). A livery stable at 895 Liberty was owned by Edward Penn, who was Black, but he lived on Depot Street. A concentration of Black residents does not appear until the 1000 block of Liberty. By 1910, William’s brother, Dr. John Wise Jones, had moved into a house next to the stable, a block east of William and Nan (above center and right). The Jones brothers’ homes remained the only Black households along this part of Liberty Street through the 1920s and 1930s.

The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps show that between 1912 and 1917, the Joneses either expanded or replaced the house on Liberty Street with a two-story frame house that had a one-story covered front porch and a large, stuccoed barn with a hipped roof in the rear yard (shown in 1947 above left). The Jones brothers’ houses are visible in an aerial photo from the 1930s (above center). The red arrow points to William’s house; the yellow arrow to John’s. The 1920s is known as Winston-Salem’s Era of Success, and this was true for Black professionals as well as white. William, John, and 14 other Black men founded Citizens Bank and Trust Co. in April 1920 (above right). The bank merged with Forsyth Savings and Trust in 1927 to form “one of the strongest colored financial institutions in the south.” The merged bank was acquired by Wachovia in 1930. The Jones brothers were also two of the twelve founders of Winston Mutual Life Insurance in 1906.

Dr. William A. Jones died in 1927 (above left). He and Nan did not have children, but she was involved in the Chestnut Street Y.W.C.A. and its programs for young women (above center). In 1924 she served as the Y’s chairman; she was also active as an advisor to the girls’ reserves. She held other roles on the board of management as well. In 1929, the city directory lists Nan Jones as a dressmaker for the first time (above right). Newspapers also document Nan’s travels during this period including a trip by motor car to Knoxville, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta.

On December 4, 1931, Wachovia Bank & Trust, as executor of the estate of W.A. Jones, auctioned the Liberty Street house at the courthouse door. Nan (above left) purchased the property for $5,600 (above center). **For a closer look at the 1931 Deed, click here.** During the early 1930s, she continued her work as a seamstress and began to offer sewing classes through the Y.W.C.A. and at Atkins High School. In 1935, she relocated to Darlington, PA, to teach sewing at the Sleighton Farm School for Girls, which was a reform school intended to keep children found guilty of crimes out of prison (above right).

The house at 859 Liberty Street was listed in the *Green Book* for the first time in 1939. Opening her home to travelers may have been partially influenced by Nan’s own frequent automobile travels, during which she certainly required accommodations that catered to Black travelers. It was also consistent with the Joneses prior behavior of providing lodging to others. By 1923 single, female roomers lived in the Liberty Street house with William and Nan, including Mamie Faithful and Josephine Oaten, teachers at Patterson Avenue School; Jane Thornton, a domestic worker; and Vera Thornton, employed at the Y.W.C.A. Mamie remained a tenant for over twenty years, until 1945. The 1930 Census records four roomers in the house at lines 36 to 39 (above left). **For a closer look at the 1930 Census, click here.** These included Mamie and Carter Dixon, a 60-year-old single Black man who worked as a butler in a private home plus the couple Henry and Louvenia Gaylord. Henry worked as a presser at a pressing club and Louvenia as a maid in a private home. Nan sold the Liberty Street house to Dorothy Hanes in 1946; the house does not appear in the *Green Book* in the years following the sale. After the sale, Nan relocated to Durham where she worked as a House Directress at the North Carolina College for Negroes (today’s North Carolina Central) and eventually to Pennsylvania, where she died in 1968 (above center). In 1947, the house was advertised for sale as a “fine business location.” It was used as an office by Pfaff Plumbing & Heating into the 1950s. In 1955, the “old house” was advertised for sale as building materials “to be torn down” (above right).

Reliable Taxi is listed on page 33 of the 1939 edition of the *Green Book.*

7: Reliable Taxi

Reliable Taxi at 430 North Church Street was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1939 to 1941. Today the location of Reliable Taxi is on the west side of Church Street near the bridge connecting Reynolds Plaza to the Reynolds parking deck.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 7: Reliable Taxi

The 1958 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the Downtown Garage, site of the 430 North Church storefront, spanning the block between Main and Church Streets north of the Reynolds Building (above left). Other than its entry in the *Green Book*, no information about Reliable Taxi has been found in the historical record. In 1938, the City of Winston-Salem issued taxi licenses to two companies for operations during 1939. Camel City Cab Company offered service to the Black community, and Blue Bird Cab to the white (above center). The 1939 city directory lists the storefront at 430 North Church Street as vacant; Camel City Cab was based nearby in the 200 block of North Church Street. Nevertheless, there were individual taxi drivers who offered services “for hire” without taxi licenses, and it is possible that Reliable was such a business. A newspaper article from June 1940 documents the arrest of Black taxi drivers operating along bus routes or hauling passengers without a license (above right).

The vacant storefront at 430 North Church Street was on the east side of the Downtown Garage, which was designed by local architects Northup and O’Brien (above left). **For a closer look at the Sentinel article, click here.** The 800-space concrete building was steam heated and “finished in white enamel with green border” on the interior. The garage included parking, a service station, an “auto laundry,” restrooms and checkrooms, offices, and stores. When the garage opened in 1926, the Church Street storefronts were occupied by two cafes and a grocery store, all operated by Black men and women. The western storefronts on Main Street were leased by white-owned businesses. This pattern of commercial segregation continued through the 1930s and into the 1940s. The combination of automobiles and Black businesses made the east side of the Downtown Garage a logical location for Reliable to be located. In 1941, Safe Bus operated at the rear entrance of the Downtown Garage. Camel City Pool Room and Camel City Café were in Downtown Garage storefronts. The Patterson Avenue Branch of the Y.M.C.A., branch offices of the *Twin City Sentinel* and *Winston-Salem Journal*, Isaac Wilson’s restaurant, Monarch Shoe Dyeing Shop, and bondsman Albert Boyd occupied buildings between the Downtown Garage and Reynolds Building. Each of these businesses served Black customers. The only business on the block not marked with a (c), meaning colored, in the city directory was Tharpe’s Quick Lunch (above right).

The Downtown Garage remained in operation until 1977. That year, it was demolished to make way for construction of Reynolds Plaza.

The Y.M.C.A. is listed on page 36 of the 1941 edition of the *Green Book.*

8: Y.M.C.A.

The Y.M.C.A. at 410 North Church Street was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book and The Negro Travelers’ Green Book from 1941 to 1956. Today the location of the Y.M.C.A. is on the west side of Church Street immediately north of the Reynolds Building.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 8: Y.M.C.A.

The Y.M.C.A. building at 410 North Church Street was constructed in 1912 as the headquarters of Forsyth Savings and Trust, a Black-owned bank. Forsyth Savings and Trust merged with Citizens Bank and Trust in 1927, and the merged bank was acquired by Wachovia in 1930. The two-story brick building had arched windows at the second floor above a storefront with a single entrance and a large shop window. It can be seen in a photograph of the Reynolds Building taken while it was under construction in 1928 (above left) and in a 1947 photograph of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. workers striking (above center). The 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map documents that the Y.M.C.A. had expanded into the adjacent building at 412 North Church Street (above right).

Efforts to open a Y.M.C.A. for Winston-Salem’s Black community had begun by 1919 when North Carolina’s Y.M.C.A. state secretary held meetings with leaders in the local Black community about the idea (above left). It took several years to establish the branch, however. In 1925, the 1893 charter for the Winston-Salem Y.M.C.A. was modified to allow for the establishment of branches. That year, the “colored branch” of the Y.M.C.A. was added to the Community Chest budget for the first time, along with the Girl Scouts. The Community Chest conducted an annual fund drive for numerous local charitable and civic organizations and then distributed the money according to a budget based on requests and its own priorities. In late January 1925, Charles L. Harris arrived in Winston-Salem to manage the new Y.M.C.A. branch (above right).

The first home of the Patterson Avenue Y.M.C.A. was in the Depot Street School (above left and center). Various community buildings like schools and churches supplemented the Y.M.C.A. facilities when they were inadequate for programming; that continued after the Y.M.C.A. relocated to the Church Street facility. In July 1927, the Y.M.C.A. purchased the Depot Street School lot from the City of Winston-Salem, and the branch began a fundraising campaign in the Black community to cover the $25,000 purchase price plus required street improvements (above right).

Throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s, Black Y.M.C.A. members continued to raise funds for the building lot (above left). By 1934, a total of $16,443 had been raised toward the goal. That year the Community Chest did not direct any funds to the work of the Patterson Avenue branch. The central Y.M.C.A. board voted to close the branch and accept the resignation of its executive secretary, Clarence T. Woodland (above center). **For a closer look at the Winston-Salem Journal article, click here.** The Y.M.C.A. board and Community Chest both reconsidered their decisions in April, voting to continue the work of the branch and fund it. In early May, the Patterson Avenue branch moved into a new home at 410 North Church Street, which had been owned by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. since 1929 (above right).

The Y.M.C.A. on Church Street was a community hub during the 1930s and 1940s. A committee of management ran the branch under the supervision of the central Y.M.C.A. Men’s and boys’ work committees provided programming. The branch offered athletic leagues. It served as a meeting place for countless clubs and community groups including the Twin City Glee Club; several Gra-Y and Hi-Y Clubs; Junior Pals; Owls; Trojan Club; American Legion; Junior Citizen Hobby Club; Social Promoters; and the Detention Home Club (above left). The branch broadcast lectures and news about its activities on WSJS radio. Its annual meetings featured prominent Black speakers from around the country. By 1936, the work of the Patterson Avenue branch had grown to such an extent that it expanded into the building at 412 North Church Street. Membership grew from 231 boys and men in 1933 to 716 in 1942 (above center). Each year, the branch held a competitive membership drive; those who enrolled the most members and raised the most money were recognized with awards and in the media (above right).

The Church Street facility was renovated and improved in 1943 (above left). **For a closer look at the Winston-Salem Journal article, click here.** Following the renovations, the Patterson Avenue branch was open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. with shorter hours on Saturday and Sunday. Four club rooms and an assembly room provided space for simultaneous meetings. A ladies’ rest room was available, as were free showers for Y.M.C.A. members. Non-members could shower for 25 cents; boys could shower for just 5 cents, which covered the cost of the soap and towel. Meanwhile, the Patterson Avenue branch explored ways to provide camping opportunities to boys, underprivileged and not. The first overnight camp was offered in 1939. Various sites in and outside of Forsyth County hosted campers until the Civitan Club and Y.M.C.A. worked together to develop Camp Civitan in the northeastern part of Forsyth County, which opened in 1943 specifically to offer camps for Black boys (above center and right). Camp Civitan operated as an overnight camp at least through 1960. By the late 1970s, it was used only as a day camp. The land reverted to the Winston-Salem Foundation in 1986, and the proceeds from its sale continue to be used to sponsor campers from the Winston Lake Family Y.M.C.A.

In 1945, the United War Chest – the war time version of the Community Chest – began a drive to raise funds for a new building for the Patterson Avenue Y.M.C.A., which was to be built on the Y-owned Depot Street School lot at Patterson Avenue and Seventh Street (above left and center). By 1951, the effort had accumulated $225,000 in pledges toward the $250,000 goal. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. committed to match the $250,000, for a total building cost of $500,000. Architects Howard Macklin and Gorrell Stinson designed the new Patterson Avenue joint Y.M.C.A.-Y.W.C.A., which opened in 1953 (above right). The Patterson Avenue Y.M.C.A. operated in that building until 1985, when it relocated to Winston Lake and was renamed the Winston Lake Family Y.M.C.A.

The Lincoln Hotel is listed on page 66 of the 1946 edition of the *Green Book.*

9: Lincoln Hotel

The Lincoln Hotel at 9 East Third Street was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book and The Negro Travelers’ Green Book from 1938 to 1957, although there are no entries in city directories for the Lincoln Hotel after 1942. Today the location of the Lincoln Hotel is on the Third Street side of the 1966 Wachovia Building.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 9: Lincoln Hotel

The Lincoln Hotel at 9 East Third Street was established in 1927 when former grocer and real estate investor Charles H. Jones sold his Royal Palace Hotel business to the Lincoln Theater (above left). Jones opened the Royal Palace Hotel ca. 1925, after the Zinzendorf Laundry moved its main cleaning plant out of the building (above right). The F. G. Dunklee family, owners of the Zinzendorf Laundry, retained ownership of the building into the mid-1940s.

The Royal Palace and Lincoln Hotels occupied the second floor of the brick building with “Zinzendorf Laundry” painted in the frieze. The two-story, brick building was constructed ca. 1911 and had wire-glass skylights that helped light the deep interior. It replaced a restaurant and saloon owned by William S. Scales, president of Forsyth Savings & Trust Co. and proprietor of the Lincoln Theater. During the Lincoln Hotel’s years of operation, the first floor was a restaurant for Black patrons named the Square Deal Café.

The Lincoln Hotel served travelers, long-term residents in furnished rooms, and the local Black community. Newspapers advertise meetings of civic groups at the Lincoln, including the Morris Slaughter Post of the American Legion and directors of the Colored Fair Association. Private entertainments, parties, and banquets were also held at the hotel. In April 1927, a group of prominent businessmen met at the hotel to establish an organization to build, buy, and sell houses for the Black community (above left). Charles H. Jones and his wife Savannah remained residents of the hotel and involved with the business for about a decade, until moving to their own house at 1611 East Fourteenth Street in 1936. The 1930 US Census records that they rented rooms, owned a radio, and had a household of five that included Charles’ step-daughter, Anna Webster, and two servants (above right at lines 90-94). **For a closer look at the 1930 US Census, click here.** Augustus “Gus” Paul is listed as a hotel porter, and Loretta Woodard is listed as the hotel cook. The Jones' Fourteenth Street house was listed in the *Green Book* as a tourist home from 1940 to 1967.

City directories include the Lincoln Hotel at 9 East Third Street through 1942, when Nathaniel J. Brown is listed as a resident. He is likely the John N. Brown who was listed as owner of the hotel in the 1939 city directory. Beginning in 1943, the name Lincoln Hotel is no longer found in the directories but furnished rooms and residents of 9 East Third Street appear through 1951. Residents during 1940s and 1950s changed frequently with very few appearing in successive city directories. Cooks James Morehead, Luther Harvey, William Lampkins, Charles Carter, and Nevada McClurkin were residents in that period. Numerous employees of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., including Alf Cain, Charles Hamlin, Samuel Thompson, Charles Carter, Ried White, Robert Vance, Garland Poindexter, and Frank Littlejohn called the Lincoln home. Other residents were shoe shiners, domestic workers, an employee of Forsyth Country Club, a Standard Oil Co. porter, and drivers. The last reference to the Lincoln Hotel in the historic record is in 1956 when it was advertised for rent (above left). Applicants were instructed to apply at Winston Jewelry & Loan, a pawnshop owned by Joseph Stanley Goldberg and Minnie Bell Goldberg from 1940 to 1962. The Goldbergs purchased the lot and the one adjoining it to the west, as shown on a 1946 plat, with Adolph and Gussie Burk in 1948 (above right). In 1959, a classified advertisement offered 9 rooms of furniture at 9 East Third Street for sale.

A street view from 1960 shows the building at 9 East Third Street with a Pepsi-Cola sign over one of the second-floor windows (above left). Northwest Corp. purchased the building in 1962 and demolished it later that year to make way for construction of Wachovia’s new headquarters building (above center). **For a closer look at the Winston-Salem Journal article, click here.** By 1963, the entire block had been razed (above right).

Diamond Taxi is listed on page 36 of the 1940 edition of the *Green Book.*

10: Diamond Taxi

Diamond Taxi at 301 North Church Street was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1939 to 1941. Today the location of Diamond Taxi is occupied by the Phillips Building.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 10: Diamond Taxi

Other than its entry in the *Green Book*, no information about Diamond Taxi has been found in the historical record. In 1938, the City of Winston-Salem issued taxi licenses to two companies for operations during 1939. Camel City Cab Company offered service to the Black community, and Blue Bird Cab to the white. However, independent drivers did offer taxi service without licenses. See Sam Harris Taxi and Reliable Taxi entries for more information on Winston-Salem’s taxi business. The 1939 through 1941 city directories show 301 North Church Street as the site of Rufus Hairston’s Drug Store, known as Neely-Hairston in 1939 (above left). The drugstore was on the southwest corner of the block bounded by Church, Third, Chestnut, and Fourth Streets. The block served as downtown’s Black business district and a natural place to offer taxi service. The 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the drug store at 301 North Church along with the Lincoln Theatre and Lafayette Theater (marked “movies”), numerous restaurants and stores, many of which had offices on the floors above (above right).

Hairston’s Drug Store was located on the first floor of the Atlantic Building, which was owned by and constructed for R. J. Reynolds Realty Co. in 1924 (above left). Tenants in the 1920s included offices of N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Safe Bus Co., attorney J. S. Fitts, physicians H. W. Hall, S. A. Gadsby, and A. H. Ray, dentist A. L. Cromwell, and realtor H. C. Scales. The building was advertised as offering “exceptional office space and superior service.” The three-story, brick building had large, plate glass shop windows and recessed storefronts on the ground floor. In 1940, Drs. Ray and Cromwell remained tenants. They had been joined by dentists W. F. Meroney and D. W. Claybon; physicians J. C. Jordan Jr., J. D. Quick, D. H. Malloy, and C.A. Eason; law firm Price & Jones; and Security Realty & Insurance Co. **For a closer look at the Twin-City Sentinel article, click here.**

On March 28, 1963, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Planning Board certified the entire business block for urban renewal; the project became known as the Church Street Block. According to *Urban Renewal in Winston-Salem: A Fifteen Year Report* by the Redevelopment Commission (1966), “the Church Street project became one of the most controversial issues since the start of the urban renewal program. . . . There were heated public hearings before the redevelopment commission, the planning board and the Board of Alderman” in 1964 and 1965. The project was ultimately approved, and the Redevelopment Commission began to buy property in the fall of 1965. At the time, 58 business were operating on the block. Forty-six of them were relocated; others closed permanently (above left and center). **For a closer look at the Twin-City Sentinel article, click here.** Demolition of the buildings began in September 1966 and continued through 1969. Construction of the Phillips Building began in 1971 (above right). **For a closer look at the Sentinel article, click here.**

The Stevens Hotel is listed on page 46 of the 1956 edition of the *Green Book.*

11: Stevens Hotel

The Stevens Hotel at 526 East Fourth Street was listed in The Negro Travelers’ Green Book from 1955 to 1961. It appeared in city directories through 1962. Today the location of the Stevens Hotel is in the parking lot on the northwest side of the traffic circle at Research Parkway and Third Street.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 11: Stevens Hotel

Belmont Hotel manager Louise Stubbs and sports promoter Andrew J. Hammond opened the Stevens Hotel in March 1951 (above left). It was located on the second floor of the Tise Building and had 25 rooms and several suites with private baths. The hotel provided meals and housed both residents and travelers. Louise Stubbs managed the Belmont Hotel on Patterson Avenue after her husband’s death in 1946. According to the 1920 US Census, Eldon Drake Stubbs was a merchant who owned a general store in Bennettsville, SC. He and Louise married about 1907; he had worked on a farm earlier in their marriage. The Stubbs had moved to Winston-Salem by 1923 when the city directory records that they lived on Patterson Avenue. During the 1920s and 1930s, the Stubbs worked in hospitality, renting rooms and operating restaurants. The 1930 US Census records them operating a rooming house at 302 East Seventh Street at lines 15-31 (above right). **For a closer look at the 1930 US Census, click here.** They opened the Belmont Hotel about 1938.

Louise's partner, Andrew J. Hammond was a sports promoter who founded the South’s Original All Star baseball game (above left). Advertisements for sporting events during 1950s list the Stevens Hotel as a place one could purchase advance tickets (above right). In addition to the South’s Original All Star games, Hammond promoted boxing events, concerts, and dances. According to his obituary, before working as a promoter, Hammond had worked in a steel mill and across North Carolina, in Norfolk, and Chicago as a hotel waiter. **For a closer look at the Winston-Salem Journal article, click here.**

The Tise Building was constructed in 1914 by William Cicero Tise, the white owner of a local bottling company. The building was two-stories high with a basement toward the rear, constructed of brick, and it had six storefronts on the first floor (above left). The 1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows that the central storefronts were occupied by Tise’s Sanitary Bottling & Ice Cream Manufacturing (above center). A 1917 advertisement for Purity Ice Cream made by Tise describes ice cream as the “cheapest and best food” (above right). Other storefronts are simply marked “S” for store. One held a Chinese laundry, and another group is marked “stable” and labeled motorcycle and auto house. Tise Bottling had vacated the building by 1923, although the Tise family retained ownership of it until 1964.

A 1956 image of the 500 block of East Fourth Street shows the brick Tise Building on the south side of Fourth Street (above left). To the west, between the Tise Building and the elevated rail line, Wayside Furniture and Camel City Laundry are visible. During the Stevens Hotel’s occupation of the second floor, first floor businesses included restaurants and Loflin’s Grocery. Sunrise Café and Zodiac Café are both shown in the photograph. Winston-Salem’s second major urban renewal project, NCR-18, began on July 3, 1963. It covered 217 acres, relocated 691 families and 416 individuals, and impacted 139 businesses. An aerial from April 1964 shows that the Tise Building remained standing but a huge swath of land just east of it had been cleared for the construction of U.S. 52 (above center). The Tise family sold the lot and building to the Redevelopment Commission in December 1964. It was demolished and replaced with a parking lot soon after (above right).

Mrs. J. Penn’s tourist home is listed on page 36 of the 1940 edition of the *Green Book.*

12: Mrs. J. Penn's Tourist Home

Mrs. J. Penn’s tourist home at 115 North Ridge Avenue was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1938 to 1941. Today the location of Mrs. J. Penn’s tourist home is open space on the east side of Grayhound Court in Southgate Apartments.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 12: Mrs. J. Penn's Tourist Home

George W. Penn moved to North Carolina from Virginia in the late 19^th century and married Laura Watkins in Greensboro in 1891. The Penns settled in Winston; the 1900 US Census records them living on North Main Street in a house they owned without a mortgage. George was working as a teacher. Two years later, the Penns had moved to the 600 block of Sycamore Street where George operated a grocery store (above left). In 1908, George Penn bought a lot on North Ridge Street. In 1926, his son George Rucker Penn and his wife Jessie B. Jones Penn purchased the lot and house next door in the City View neighborhood, shown as 109/115 North Ridge Street on the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (above center and right). **For a closer look at the 1926 Deed, click here.**

Jessie Jones was born in 1893, George Rucker Penn a year later in 1894. As a child, Jessie lived with her uncle Crawford Jones and his wife, Rebecca. They lived a block east of the Penns in the 600 block of Linden Street. The 1910 US Census lists the Joneses at lines 33-35. **For a closer look at the 1910 US Census, click here.** Jessie was 17 years old and working at home as a seamstress (above left). She attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta and worked as a teacher before her 1916 marriage to Rucker. They moved to Roanoke where Rucker worked as a Pullman porter according to his World War I draft registration card (above center). **For a closer look at the World War I Draft Registration Card, click here.** By 1920, they had relocated to Norfolk, and they were back in Winston-Salem the following year, where Rucker worked in a tobacco factory. Later in the 1920s, Rucker and his brother Cicero opened Penn Rubber Company, which provided tire service (above right). They later added battery work to the business.

Rucker Penn returned to work as a Pullman porter about 1929. The 1930 US Census records him and Jessie living at 115 North Ridge Avenue with their three children (above left). **For a closer look at the 1930 US Census, click here.** The Penns owned the house, which was estimated to be worth $6,000. Their household included three boarders, two of whom were insurance agents for NC Mutual Life. The third worked as a janitor in a tobacco factory. The Penns defaulted on a mortgage during the Depression, and the house was sold at auction in April 1932. Around the same time, the Penns moved to New York City where Rucker went to work for the subway system. Renters occupied the house in the 1930s when it was owned by two real estate investment companies. The house was listed in the *Green Book* as a tourist home under the Penn name for the first time in 1938. The 1938 and 1939 city directories list R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. employee Kate Burns as a resident. The 1940 US Census lists the Greers as the heads of household (above right). **For a closer look at the 1940 US Census, click here.** Fred Greer worked at Piedmont Leaf Tobacco; his wife Bertha worked for a private family. Fred’s sister-in-law Tosie Barnes and her daughter Juanita lived with them. They both worked in tobacco factories. The household also included three lodgers. Lee C. Shumate was 23 years old and worked as a waiter. Alfanso Banks was 66 and not employed. Glara Rosaman was four. The house was purchased by S. J. Craver in 1941, which is the final year it was listed in the *Green Book*.

The Penns moved from 151^st Street in Manhattan to Englewood, NJ, about 1960. There Jessie was active in the civil rights movement and the effort to integrate Englewood’s public schools. During a school boycott, she used her home as a Freedom School. Jessie was also a founding member Englewood chapter of the NAACP; she marched in Selma, AL, with Dr. King in 1965 (above left). The Penns had three children, two boys and a girl. Daughter Earline was the only Black student to graduate from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1937 (above center). She worked as a hospital-based dietician in New York and later lived with her mother in Englewood. Older son George Jr. served in the military during World War II and then settled in New York, where he was a motorman for the subway system before opening his own recording studio. Son Starling Penn was a Tuskegee Airman during World War II and spent 10 months in a German prisoner of war camp (above right). He also settled in New York where he owned Penn’s Wines and Liquors and the Flaming Embers Steak Restaurants.

Aerial photographs from the 1960s show the house at 115 North Ridge Avenue adjacent to U.S. 52 north. The house was 1 ½ stories in height with dormer windows on the front and back (above left and center). The black-and-white 1960 aerial shows the highway under construction a block north of the house. The Redevelopment Commission purchased the property in 1970; a Department of Transportation aerial from 1970 shows that the house had been demolished (above right).

The College Service Station is listed on page 73 of the 1961 edition of the *Green Book.*

13: College Service Station

College Service Station at 336 South Claremont Avenue (now South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) appeared in The Travelers’ Green Book in 1961. The one-story masonry building was located on the west side of Claremont Avenue just south of the Union Station and the railroad tracks. Today, that site is the location of the Elva Jones Building on the campus of Winston-Salem State University.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 13: College Service Station

Black businessman and realtor Charles H. Jones operated a filling station on the site as early as 1926, the first year the property is listed the city directory (above left). By the time the 1930 city directory was issued, Wheeler Street had been renamed Claremont and Jones' station was addressed as No. 336. Jones also operated the Charles H. Jones tourist home at 1611 East Fourteenth Street, which appeared in the *Green Book* from 1940 to 1967. The 1955 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the brick filling station adjacent to an alley (above right). Three gas tanks sat north of the building. A restaurant and store were located on the same block to the south. An ice and coal house, duplex dwelling, and a commercial building with three storefronts were across the street. Wooden houses surrounded the commercial area to the east, west, and south.

Quality Oil Company purchased the filling station property in 1937 (above left). Quality Oil was founded in 1929 to distribute Shell Oil Co. products. To advertise the then-unknown Shell oil and gasoline, Quality Oil began construction of eight iconic shell-shaped gas stations in 1930. At the time it was purchased, the filling station on Claremont Avenue was being operated by Henry W. Martin as Martin’s Service Station. The 1938 and 1939 city directories list the station as vacant. Quality Oil Filling Station No. 22 appeared in the 1940 city directory for the first time. Buyer’s Guides in several years of the directory included full-page advertisements for Quality Oil that listed the Claremont Avenue station (above right).

Thomas Leon Brown managed the College Service Station beginning in 1941 (above left). Brown grew up in the neighborhood, graduating from Columbian Heights High School in 1928 and subsequently from Winston-Salem Teachers College. He worked in education for approximately 10 years before becoming manager of the station. A newspaper advertisement from 1946 showcases photographs of Shell merchants Leon Brown and William Griffin along with an early Shell logo (above center). A 1954 photograph of the station was taken by Quality Oil while Brown was manager (above right).

Leon Brown left College Service Station about 1960 when his father – the head of the Winston-Salem State University post office – retired. Brown took on the position and worked at WSSU until his 1976 retirement.

The 1961 city directory lists Irvin R. Pearson as the station manager (above left). Pearson, known as Bobby, was one of three brothers who operated several businesses at the Claremont Avenue block in the 1960s, including the College Shell Service Station at No. 336 and the College Grill at No. 340. William Alexander Pearson, Rufus L. Pearson, and Irvin Smith “Bobby” Pearson were the sons of William and Annie Pearson. They grew up at 1012 Shuttle Street in the Belews Street neighborhood north of the rail lines (above right). William’s obituary notes that he was the co-owner of the College Grill, College Shell Service Station, and Pearson’s Beverage. Rufus was manager and part-owner of the College Grill before leaving in 1967 to work with Experiment in Self-Reliance. Bobby’s obituary notes that he managed Skipper’s Grill, the successor business to the College Grill. He was also a Korean War veteran, past president of Ebony Fraternity, and had managed the Winston-Salem Indians Baseball Club.

By 1968 the Pearson brothers were no longer involved with the College Shell Service Station. That January newspaper advertisements offered the opportunity to “Be Your Own Boss” by managing the College Shell Service Station (above left). On March 23, 1977, Quality Oil Co. sold the land on which the College Shell Service Station was located to the Redevelopment Commission of Winston-Salem for $51,775 (above center). In the spring of 1979, the service station equipment was advertised for sale (above right). The land was cleared shortly after and is vacant in aerial photographs from 1980.

The Orchid Beauty Salon is listed on page 14 of the 1938 edition of the *Green Book.*

14: Orchid Beauty Salon

The Orchid Beauty Salon at 619 East Ninth Street was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book in 1938. Today the location of the Orchid is within the open space formed by the ramp that takes traffic from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive onto U.S. 52 southbound. The Orchid Beauty Salon was listed in city directories in 1938 and 1939.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 14: Orchid Beauty Salon

Jannie C. Brown and Odell Ashe Grier opened Orchid Beauty Salon on Ninth Street in late 1936 (above left). Both women graduated from Atkins High School and Elite Beauty College. Atkins, the first high school in Winston-Salem for Black students, opened in 1931 (above center). The Elite Beauty Parlor and School were operated by Mosella Fries Compton; the business was located in the Ogburn Building at 310 North Church Street for many years. The shop was at the northwest corner of Ninth and Maple Streets. The 1917 and 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps appear to show two different structures on the lot. It is not known whether the salon was in the earlier or later building. Both were wooden, one story in height, and had open front porches. Charles Wheeler operated a grocery and confectionary at the location by 1941, following the salon's years of occupancy. The Ninth Street Confectionary occupied the later building in 1959 (above right). The Redevelopment Commission acquired the property in 1962, and it had been demolished by April 1964.

Jannie C. Brown was the daughter of John Quincy Brown and Ora L. Ellis Brown. John was a machine operator in a tobacco factory; Ora was a stemmer and later worked as a domestic servant for a private family. Jannie was born in 1915 and a fifteen-year-old student when the 1930 US Census recorded the Browns on lines 8-11 living at 842 Claremont Avenue (above left). **For a closer look at the 1930 US Census, click here.** She was an active member of Mt. Zion Baptist Church and elected president of the Junior State Convention of Foreign and Home Missionaries in 1935 (above center). By 1940, Jannie was an instructor at Elite Beauty School. She married Vick Wilson during the 1940s but was separated from him by 1950 when the Census recording her working at a cook and living with her mother (above right). **For a closer look at the 1950 US Census, click here.**

Odell Mary Ashe was born in South Carolina to John Walker Ashe and Willie Henrietta Burris Ashe in 1912. The family had relocated to Winston-Salem by 1920 when the US Census lists them on lines 93 to 95 (above left). **For a closer look at the 1920 Census, click here.** That year, John was working in a tobacco factory. Odell married Willie Lawrence Grier in 1933. He worked for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The Griers were members of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, where Willie was a member of the Deacon Board and Odell the Deaconess Board, Miriam Missionary Group, and Senior Choir. The Griers lived at 1301 North Highland Avenue from 1941 until 1951. Odell owned several salons in Winston-Salem and Springfield, MA, where she and Willie moved after 1951 (above right). **For a closer look at Odell Grier's obituary,** **click here.**

Ideal Hotel is listed on page 33 of the 1939 edition of the *Green Book.*

15: Ideal Hotel

Ideal Hotel at 1027 North Woodland Avenue was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book in 1938 and 1939. Today the location of the Ideal Hotel is on the south side of Eleventh Street where Dublin Drive intersects. The Ideal Hotel was listed in city directories from 1931 to 1939.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 15: Ideal Hotel

James Marion Dull was born in Yadkin County in 1874. He and his wife, Ida Elizabeth Chafins Dull, settled in Winston-Salem around the turn of the century. He worked as a clerk and driver at Efird Brothers grocery store in the 1910s and by 1923 opened his own store on Patterson Avenue (above left). Marion Dull purchased the small store and lot on the southeast corner of Eleventh and Woodland Streets from the Realty Syndicate Company in 1926 for $100 (above center). **For a closer look at the 1906 Deed,** **click here.** The Syndicate was incorporated by a group of Black businessmen in 1920 with $100,000 in capital stock (above right). Dull was not one of the original members, but he was chairman of the directors and acting chairman of the stockholders by 1925. The Syndicate declared a dividend for the first time in 1929, issuing $1.95 per share. That year, the company owned $20,000 in property, including houses and commercial property.

The two-story, brick Dull Building was completed and ready to open in December 1928 (above left). Stylish for the time, it had Art Deco accents above the storefronts, stepped parapets with a pent roof, and huge prismatic glass transoms that helped light the interior. For a time, Dull had a grocery store in the building. Prudential Realty Co. offered apartments and stores for lease from their office in the W.H. Bruce Building on Patterson Avenue. In March 1929, the new “first class hotel and modern café” were advertised and open for inspection with coffee and cake offered to the public during the grand opening (above center). In July the building was referred to as the Ideal Hotel in the newspaper for the first time; one of the spaces within the building, likely an assembly space, was called Ideal Hall. A 1932 news item identifies A. A. Mayfield as the new manager, replacing Tom Neely (above right). Mayfield was also a teacher and the Black reporter for *The Sentinel*. Later in 1932 Dull transferred the building to the Central Investment Corp.

During the 1930s, Ideal Hotel was a center of Black social life for residents of Winston-Salem. It provided gathering spaces including the Palm Garden and later the Cardinal Plaza (above left). Events held there included a Halloween Ball hosted by the Camel City Chauffers’ Club, meetings of the Smith Choral Club, United Negro Improvement Association parties, meetings of Sunday school teachers, dances held by numerous orchestras, meetings of the Hi-Players Club and Tri-City Recreational Club, preaching from traveling ministers, and more (above center). Fraternal organizations also occupied apartments and used them as meeting spaces. The Zinzendorf Club had the “Silver Slipper Quarters” (above right). A. A. Mayfield ran an evening school from his rooms at No. 8. Members of Nu Pi Sigma fraternity met in the “Little Cabin.” The Social Lions had a club room, as well.

Winston Mutual Life Insurance Co. moved its offices into the Ideal Hotel building in late 1939, shortly after John J. Ingle became its owner. The company purchased the building from Ingle in November 1941. A photograph from the 1940s shows employees in front of the building, while another captures the entire building (above left and center). As part of its 50^th anniversary expansion program, Winston Mutual began a major renovation of the building in the fall of 1956. Work was completed in August 1957. The renovations cost $110,000 and included construction of an IBM room with early computers (above right). **For a closer look at the Winston-Salem Journal article,** **click here.** The first floor held offices for the president, company attorney, medical director, superintendent of agents, and the receptionist as well as the mortgage loan and ordinary departments. The company director’s office and the agency, accounting, bookkeeping, and tabulation departments were on the second floor. Executive offices, the IBM room, an assembly room, and library filled the third floor. In 1957, the company had 150 staff members and assets of $3.5 million, having grown from 12 employees and a few thousand dollars in 1906.

An aerial photo from 1965 shows the Winston Mutual building surrounded by cleared land (above left). Woodland Avenue School, Shiloh Baptist Church, the new Kennedy Junior High School, and a few other structures remained in the neighborhood, but most buildings had been demolished. The street pattern had also been reconfigured from a tight grid into one with superblocks and curving connectors. In January 1968, the Redevelopment Commission was successful in having the property condemned as a component of NCR-18, the city’s second major urban renewal project (above center). Winston Mutual’s compensation for the condemnation was $147,700, approximately $38,000 more than the company had spent to renovate the building a decade prior. Winston Mutual vacated the building in the fall of 1969, and the building was demolished shortly after (above right). **For a closer look at the Winston-Salem Journal article,** **click here.**

The R. B. Williams' tourist home is listed on page 63 of the 1948 edition of the *Green Book.*

16: R. B. Williams' Tourist Home

R. B. Williams' tourist home at 1225 North Ridge Avenue was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book and The Negro Travelers Green Book from 1938 to 1952. Today the location of the R. B. Williams' tourist home is in the back yard of the house at 1228 Highland Avenue.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 16: R. B. Williams' Tourist Home

Richard “Buck” Williams and Mary B. Morehead married in Greensboro in April 1888 (above left). Immediately after the wedding, they caught the train to Winston where they planned to settle. Buck was from Campbell County, VA, and had been living in Winston at least since 1880. He was a floor manager and foreman at Brown’s Tobacco Warehouse (above center). Buck and Mary lived about two blocks north of Brown’s at 623 Main Street (above right). The wooden house was one-story in height with a basement. Other houses and industrial buildings, including P. H. Hanes Knitting Co., sat nearby, and a rail line ran behind the house to the east.

The Williamses purchased a lot on North Ridge Avenue in 1915 (above left). **For a closer look at the 1915 Deed, click here.** The 1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows that the Williamses had a two-story, wooden house with an open front porch that rose to two stories in the center (above center). A long and narrow outbuilding sat at the rear corner of the lot. According to Buck’s 1926 obituary in the *Winston-Salem Journal*, “His home life has been one of happiness and pleasure … He had always desired to have a beautiful home with flowers and a garden and at his death this he had accomplished.” Another article noted that sales on the floor of the city’s tobacco warehouses stopped for two minutes at the start of his funeral out of respect (above right).

In December 1919, Mary Williams went to work for Travelers’ Aid, a new charitable endeavor that was established at Union Station on Chestnut Street (above left). In reporting on her work during January 1920, Mary noted that she had “cared for the sick, the blind, aided some who were destitute of means, and found homes and relatives for many” (above center). Travelers’ Aid workers helped unaccompanied children to their final destinations, found medical care for those were ill, provided information on lodging and dining, searched out missing persons, and more. When Union Station on Claremont Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) opened in 1926, Mary moved her work there. Mary opened her own home to those in need of lodging. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Robert “Captain” Howlett, who was blind and described as “one of the oldest barbers of the city,” lived with Mary. She ended her work at Travelers’ Aid about 1932 and traveled often by “motor car” around the southeast in the following years. Mary died in 1935 (above right).

In her will, Mary left the house and lot on Ridge Avenue to Mary Lizzie Russell Robinson, a niece who lived with her husband, baker Sidney Robinson, at 1721 Taylor Street in Lynchburg, VA (above left and center). Born in 1892, Mary Lizzie was the oldest daughter of Buck’s sister, Mary Williams Russell, and her husband, Stoney Russell. Like Buck, Mary and Stoney Russell grew up in Campbell County. It is in the Piedmont, southeast of Lynchburg, and the economy was based primarily on tobacco cultivation. In 1870, Campbell County had one of the largest Black populations in the state, many of whom were people that were enslaved there prior to the Civil War. It was during Mary Lizzie’s ownership that the house was first listed in the *Green Book* under the name of Mary Lizzie’s deceased uncle, R. B. “Buck” Williams. In the late 1930s, Lizzie rented the house to Edgar and Della Matthews. Edgar worked for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, and the family were members of St. Paul’s Methodist Church. The Matthews had three children, Edward, Irene, and Geraldine. In 1940 when the US Census was taken, their household also included roomers William and Bertha Williams (above right at lines 70-76). **For a closer look at the 1940 Census, click here.**

Mary Lizzie retained ownership of the house until 1941. In September, Samuel Washington Allen Sr. and Callie Harris Allen purchased the house (above left). **For a closer look at the 1941 Deed, click here.** Samuel was an employee of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The 1950 US Census lists him as a machine oiler (above right at line 24). **For a closer look at the 1950 Census, click here.** Samuel and Callie had two sons, Samuel Jr. and Leonard, and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth. As Mary Williams and the Matthews had, the Allens' household had Black lodgers. They were Harvey Cain, a 61-year-old, divorced fireman; Edgar Scales, a 62-year-old, widowed man; Joseph Mitchel, an 89-year-old, widowed man; and Senora Brawley, a 33-year-old, divorced maid.

According to the 1963 city directory, Samuel Sr., Samuel Jr., and his wife, Doris Crawford Allen, remained in residence at 1225 North Ridge Avenue. The Redevelopment Commission purchased the property from Samuel Jr. and Doris for $9,300 on April 16, 1964. Construction of U.S. 52 was underway, but the house remained standing in an aerial photograph taken the same day (above left). Another photograph taken in 1965 shows cleared land where the house had been located (above right).

Stinson’s Service Station is listed on page 73 of the 1961 edition of the *Green Book.*

17: Stinson's Service Station

Stinson’s Service Station at 1012 East Fourteenth Street was listed in The Travelers’ Green Book in 1961. Today, the houses at 1100 and 1112 East Fourteenth Street occupy the location of Stinson’s Service Station.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 17: Stinson's Service Station

The 1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the site of Stinson’s Service Station occupied by several commercial buildings (above left). Listings in the city directory include a grocery store and pressing shop. In March 1926, Peebles & Hairston Service Station opened on the corner (above center); Peebles & Hairston was a partnership of two Black men, Charles Rush Peebles and Jefferson Henry Hairston. The same year, Hairston and Peebles joined with Ralph R. Morgan, John M. Adams, George I. Dillahunt, Clarence T. Woodland, Elijah T. Miller, Joseph Miller, Elliot A. Davis, and Harvey F. Morgan to establish Safe Bus Co., a unified bus service for Black riders (above right). **For a closer look at the Winston-Salem Journal article,** **click here.**

Quality Oil purchased the filling station property from Currin Realty Co. in June 1931 (above left). **For a closer look at the 1931 Deed, click here.** Quality Oil was founded in 1929 to distribute Shell Oil Co. products. To advertise the then-unknown Shell oil and gasoline, Quality Oil began construction of eight iconic shell shaped gas stations in 1930. However, the existing station was not immediately rebranded as a Quality Oil facility. Peebles & Hairston is listed in the city directory through 1932. In 1934 and 1935, the station is listed just as Peebles. From 1936 to 1942, Oliver H. Hairston is listed as the station operator, and then the building is marked vacant for several years. An ad for Stinson’s Shell Service appeared in the *Winston-Salem Journal* on February 23, 1947 (above center). A photograph taken by Quality Oil shows the station with two service bays and a glassed-in office and waiting area (above right). Strings of colored triangular flags strung from a power pole and a “Grand Opening” banner surround the pumps, and bathroom doors are visible on the side of the building behind the office area.

William J. Stinson was born to William J. Stinson and Blanche Erwin Stinson in South Carolina in May 1909. The family had relocated to Asheville before Williams’s first birthday; the 1910 US Census records that his father was working as a waiter at a hotel on line 16 (above left). **For a closer look at the 1910 Census, click here.** He finished high school in Asheville and attended Hampton Institute in Virginia, from which he graduated in 1932. Stinson settled in Winston-Salem after graduation. His first job was as an “insurance man” for Winston Mutual. He married Lizzie Mae Greene in January 1935. They had two sons, William Jr. and Steven Linwood. In 1940, Lizzie and William bought a new house in the Overbrook Development at 1706 Gray Avenue (above center). While at Hampton, Stinson sang in the student choir under Nathaniel Dett, an internationally-known musician, composer, and professor. In 1939, Stinson was a member of the North Carolina Spiritual Singers, a group of Black singers brought together by the Works Progress Administration. With the group, he sang Black spirituals for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the White House (above right).

Throughout his life, Stinson continued the signing career he began at Hampton. He was a regular member of the First Baptist Church choir. Numerous solo and group signing engagements are documented in newspapers. In 1945 he was part of the choir that presented Handel’s Messiah at First Baptist Church. The next year he performed a recital at the request of the Business and Professional Girls’ Club of the Chestnut Street Y.W.C.A. In 1947 Stinson sang at the progress mass meeting held by the NAACP at First Institutional Baptist Church (above left). In 1951 he sang a Christmas solo for midnight mass at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. In 1956, he sang at a ceremony honoring the 50^th anniversary of Winston Mutual. He was a Mason and also active with the Patterson Avenue Branch Y.M.C.A. He was a member of the Committee of Management, chairman of the Membership Committee, and a member of the Adult Program Committee. In 1957, he served as Associate Chairman of the annual membership campaign (above right).

In 1958, Stinson received a plaque in honor of his 10 years of service to Quality Oil. He was killed in a car accident just two years later in November 1960. His obituary calls him a civic singer, a title earned by his life’s work (above left). **For a closer look at the The Sentinel article, click here.** In January 1961, Robert Scales Jr. was selected to manage the station, which was renamed the Scales Shell Service Station (above center). Nevertheless, the 1961 *Green Book* used the Stinson name for the station. By 1963, the station was rebranded as Allen’s Shell Service Station. The Redevelopment Commission purchased the property as a component of NCR-18, East Winston General Neighborhood Renewal Plan Project 2, in May 1967. The 217-acre area was declared blighted with a plan to clear and redevelop it. A 1970 aerial photograph shows that the station had been demolished and replaced with housing (above right).

The Charles H. Jones' tourist house is listed on page 55 of the 1952 edition of the *Green Book.*

18: Charles H. Jones' Tourist Home

The Charles H. Jones' tourist home at 1611 East Fourteenth Street was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book, The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, and The Travelers’ Green Book from 1940 to 1967. Today, the site of the Jones house is a vacant lot.

Winston-Salem's Green Book sites marked on a 2022 aerial image. 18: Charles H. Jones' Tourist Home

Charles H. Jones was born in Morrisville, NC, in 1873. He arrived in Winston about 1898 and went into the grocery and livery businesses. The 1900 US Census records him at line 43 living with his widowed sister, Bettie Farrell, at 603 Vine Street; his occupation is listed as merchant (above left). **For a closer look at the 1900 Census, click here.** By 1902 he had relocated to a house at 605 Chestnut Street (above center). He operated a livery stable next door at 603 and a grocery store at 110 East Fourth Street. Jones retired from the grocery business to focus on more lucrative work in 1907 (above right).

Jones began to invest in real estate quite early during his residence in Winston. He first appears in the deed index as a buyer in 1900, when he purchased properties on Seven-and-a-Half Street and in Boston Cottages. In 1904, Jones and J.S. Hill purchased a 2,500 square foot portion of W. C. Tise’s property on Fourth Street between Church and Chestnut Streets for $2,500 (above left). **For a closer look at the the 1904 Deed, click here.** They sold it to R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for $21,500 in 1912 (above center). **For a closer look at the the 1912 Deed, click here.** Combined with other lots, it became the site of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Building No. 6 in 1913 (above right).

Jones married Hattie Thornton about 1903. Hattie was born to Alvin G. Thornton and Elsie Hargrove in Fayetteville in 1876. Alvin was a white Republican politician who received permission from the post-Civil War military government to marry Elsie, a Black woman, in 1866 (above left). At lines 22-26, the 1910 US Census shows that the Joneses still lived at 605 Chestnut Street (above right). **For a closer look at the 1910 Census, click here.** Their household included two adopted daughters, Emma Freeman and Embell Collins, and a female boarder. About 1911, the Jones moved away from the livery stables and into a house on a residential block at 615 East Fourth Street (above center). Tragically, Hattie died at age 38 in August 1914. Her grave in Fayetteville is marked with a life-sized sculpture of a winged angel.

In 1925, Jones married Savannah L. Webster, “a North Carolina beauty” who was from Madison in Rockingham County (above left). **For a closer look at the The Pittsburgh Courier article, click here.** Details included in the newspaper coverage of their wedding reflect Jones’ wealth, which was estimated at over $500,000 that year. Savannah wore a watch decorated with 62 diamonds and eight sapphires, a gift from Jones. Their staff included a chauffer who drove a $5,000 Cadillac. Following their honeymoon, the Joneses spent time at his mansion on a farm in Surry County. After returning to Winston-Salem, the Joneses settled in a hotel apartment where the 1930 US Census records them at lines 90-94 (above right). **For a closer look at the 1930 Census, click here.** Their household included Charles’ stepdaughter, Anna M. Webster, and two servants. The hotel, known as both the Royal Palace and Lincoln, was operated by Charles Jones for periods during the 1920s and 1930s and listed in the *Green Book*.

Jones built a successful real estate empire. An article about Black business success printed in *The New York Age* in 1939 states that he was a millionaire and owned more real estate than anyone in Winston-Salem other than R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and the Reynolds family (above left). **For a closer look at the The New York Age article, click here.** One of his assets was the C. H. Jones Building at 19 East Third Street. The three-story brick building housed his office, law offices, beauty parlors, a dental laboratory, offices for Camel City Cab, real estate brokers, and living quarters. Charles and Savannah moved into a two-story wooden house at 1611 East Fourteenth Street in the mid-1930s (above center). This was the house listed in the *Green Book* as the Charles H. Jones' tourist house beginning in 1940. The 1940 US Census lists the Jones family at lines 61-63 and shows their next-door neighbors as school principal Ulysses Reynolds and his family (above right). **For a closer look at the 1940 Census, click here.** Charles Jones estimated the value of the house at $3,000. By 1930 Anna’s last name had been changed from Webster to Jones, and she had completed two years of high school.

During his lifetime, Jones was active with civic organizations. He helped establish and served as president of the Western Carolina Fair Association (above left). The fair was held at Piedmont Park, today’s Piedmont Circle, and was put on specifically for Black attendees. This interest may have grown from his background with horses. A 1914 advertisement for a horse race lists him as the owner of Casey Jones (above center). He was also involved in founding the Patterson Avenue branch Y.M.C.A. He was a life-long member of Goler Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church and on the board of trustees. In addition to his real estate business, he was involved with founding Forsyth Savings & Trust and invested in Safe Bus. Jones died in 1945 leaving behind his widow, Savannah Webster Jones, a son Charles H. Jones Jr. and several grandchildren (above right). Savannah married Bishop Hampton T. Medford in 1952, but she maintained a residence at 1611 East Fourteenth Street until the early 1960s. She then moved three blocks east to 1917 East Fourteenth Street. The house at 1611 remained listed in the *Green Book* until 1967. It was demolished sometime in the next five years.

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Additional Resources

The Green Book

Green Book Project

Learn more about the Green Book in North Carolina.

https://aahc.nc.gov

Navigating The Green Book

Experimental interfaces by the NYPL Labs that explore the Green Book.

https://publicdomain.nypl.org

Documenting African American Entrepreneurs

An oral history project documenting the business owners and employees who work for more than a dozen still-active businesses that were listed in The Green Book.

https://www.loc.gov

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Planning Division

Planning Division

The Planning Division functions as an administrative department of City and County government and also serves as staff for the City-County Planning Board.

https://www.cityofws.org

Historical Imagery Viewer

View historical aerial imagery for Forsyth County, NC (1951 - 2022)

https://mapf.maps.arcgis.com

Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission

The Historic Resource Commission’s (HRC) role is to protect and enrich the county’s cultural, historical, architectural, and archaeological heritage.

https://www.cityofws.org