Imagine the Green Onion Dinner Club
... and other popular places once part of Brevard's African-American community
My friend Cindy Cheek has sent me photos she took recently of a series of historical markers in our town’s African-American community. As part of the “Black History Walking Tour” in Brevard, NC, they are tantalizing. They mark earlier sites of cafes, barber shops, dance halls and boarding houses. In this quiet neighborhood, they hint at a lively time gone by.
The library books I checked out have given me some information about the people who ran these businesses, but it’s been hard to find photos. Transylvania Beginnings: A History tells about why this might be so.
In the preparation of [this] manuscript … it was found that for the Baptist churches, many important records had been destroyed or were nonexistent, making necessary rather extensive use of personal interviews, letters, and the like.
It was a time before our county lost manufacturing jobs like tanning and paper making. Working people’s wages could support the local economy, from small farming to grocery stores, rooming houses and beauty salons. Many family businesses flourished.
I wish I could go back in time for an hour. I would stand in front of each marker in the series that Cindy photographed, and then look up to see the actual building it describes. Who’s that, coming out of Henry’s Barber Shop with a fine haircut and lighting up a cigar?
Marker #27: “In the 1960’s, Mr. Henry Hutchinson operated Henry’s Barber Shop. … The building also housed the very popular Green Onion Dinner Club.” I would love to find a photo of dinner time at the Green Onion.
Marker # 24: “This cafe was first operated by Mr. Mack Butler and later by Mr. Grady Elliot in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. The frame building was located across the street from Bethal “A” Baptist Church.”
Marker #18: “This popular business had several different names. … You could pick a table or booth … at Ed and Ophelia Hutchison’s Cafe. You could listen to 100+ music selections in a chaperoned dance room for kids. You could have your hair done at Mrs. Evon Kelly’s beauty salon and if you were of age, you could frequent the casino upstairs in the evening.”
In Walking Around the World,
Edith Hutchison Darity explained: My mom and dad owned a store on Carver Street. We called it “the Corner” or “the Block,” you know. And that was a place where on one side of the store, you could get hotdogs, hamburgers, and ice cream cones, and dinner, you know, at night. On the other side of the store, they had a dance hall for the children.
She also talked about her father.
My father was Edward Hutchison. He was a native of Pisgah Forest and lived down on the Everett Farm, which you all probably have seen. He was one, they were one of the families that lived down there along the road from the Everett Farm. Mr. Everett was the man who owned so much property there.
Below is a picture of a business near the Hutchison store and cafe, Hub Langston’s Cafe on Carver Street. Matty Pierce, who is named in the caption, also ran a grocery store.
And there were places nearby to rent a room. In Walking Around the World,
Edith Darity recalled:
‘We had people to have boarding houses, you know, boarding houses where they could stay. . .when you come into Brevard. We didn’t have the motel available for the black community. So, what we did have available are the homes that were boarding houses, two-story homes. My grandmother and great-grandmother owned one, and that’s where I started learning how to set a table. And you know, really do a lot of things.’
Darity later recalled that individuals doing seasonal work at summer resorts would stay at her grandmother’s boarding house en route to resort destinations.
Marker #28: “Eliza ‘Mother Liza’ Cunningham operated Eliza’s Rooming House for many out of town workers. To get to the two story frame house you would travel down Carver Street to the first deep curve, before heading up the hill on a dirt and gravel road.”
Marker # 29: “Condray Sharp and his wife, Susan, operated their home as a boarding house for several years. It was located at the deep curve of Carver Street, near Eliza’s 2-story rooming house.”
I learned from Walking Around the World that the Sharps rented to teachers and other professionals and to seasonal domestic workers. Their house was built around 1910.
[The Sharp House], a single story, double pile structure, dates from about 1910. Today only the elaborate fieldstone foundation still exists. The house sat back from the street, but at the street side, two parallel sets of stone and concrete stairs survive.
If you’d enjoy going back in time for an hour in our community, you could open Transylvania Beginnings. You have to be ready to accept the difficult realities of history, along with all the richness of small town life that this book, and others, describe. The section of the book that I’ve shared with you, ends with,
After services at Bethel Baptist Church, people could make purchases at the Mills’ Store and chat before returning to their homes.
What do we have if we don’t have each other?
Deda, Thank you for another fine postcard...the history lesson was invaluable! Linda D.
The new Mary Jenkins Community building is looking great. Almost done. ( I guess they'll keep the name)
I so enjoyed getting out of my car and walking to all the markers. I even found a few more..
Yes, it was a vibrant community.