Salisbury’s African American Community: Looking Back at Once Thriving Neighborhoods

Article by Andre Nieto Jaime

Audrey Jackson Matthews and her sister in Salisbury
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture

During an era of racial tension and efforts to divide Americans on the basis of skin color, Salisbury, like much of the South, felt the presence of Jim Crow. Its Black residents had to send their children to separate schools, even when White schools were closer. They were not allowed to dine in at restaurants, instead they had to pick up food around the back of the establishment or from a tiny window. There was also the threat of racial violence and displacement due to infrastructure projects. However, Black communities did not let those factors define their existence. Instead they took hold of their own futures by creating a tight knit community that helped each other. They established churches including the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church, schools, businesses, and lived in proximity to white neighbors to form distinct thriving neighborhoods in Salisbury. Many of these neighborhoods are remembered fondly by residents despite having been dislodged by changes in the city. The Black community was also successful in managing long lasting businesses that catered to their needs, including a theater where they could sit anywhere. While many of these businesses are gone, they still survive in the memories of residents. Even though segregation and discrimination existed here in Salisbury, Black communities did not let those factors define their existence or who they interacted with. Instead they took hold of their own futures by creating tight knit communities that helped each other and crossed the color line. 

While Salisbury was officially established by the 18th century, it is important to remember that it was not the first settlement. Native People had been living in the area that is today known as Salisbury before the arrival of Europeans. However, by the 18th century, the original Indigenous inhabitants of the region had been largely displaced, were confined to reservations, or assimilated into white society. 

In 1732 “Salisbury Town” was established at the head of the Wicomico River by an act of the colonial general assembly. The area’s fertile soil and the economic prospects that came with large-scale farming also attracted planters like Isaac Handy who purchased Pemberton Manor in 1726 and built Pemberton Hall in 1741. However, with plantations came the introduction of slavery. While in the hands of Isaac Handy, Pemberton Hall had the hands of 17 slaves working the land. Likewise, Poplar Hill Mansion emerged as a plantation in the Salisbury area, near today's downtown area. Construction was started by Levin Handy in the late 18th century, and completed by Dr. John Huston who came to own the property in 1805. At his death in 1828, the plantation had eighteen enslaved people listed as being on the property. 

An Act for Erecting a Town at the Head of Wiccomoco River
Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, May, 1730-August, 1732.
Chapter 15, Volume 37, Page 537
Maryland State Archives

Slavery is part of Salisbury’s complex Black history, but it is not the only part. Black history cannot be reduced to just slavery and African Americans contributed to Salisbury’s history in significant ways. One such way was with the construction of the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church in 1838. The congregation here was founded by five free African Americans (Levin Houston, George Pollitt, Major Toadvine, George James, and Elijah Pinkett) who had begun meeting at the property of William Williams in 1837. Together, these five individuals helped raise funds to build a church for the free Black community on what was once a meadow where the enslaved worshiped in 1838. This became  John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church when it was incorporated in 1876. The structure started off as a single story building, but over time alterations were made. In 1880, a second story was added and in the early 20th century several other improvements were made, leaving behind little of the original one-story church. 

The John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church, now known as the Charles H. Chipman Cultural Center

Also in 1880 was Frederick Douglass’ visit to Salisbury where he stayed with Solomon T. Houston (also spelled Huston), the son of Levin Houston (one of the five founders of the John Wesley ME Church). Douglass had come to give a lecture at the Wicomico County Courthouse “for the benefit of the M.E. Church” pastor, Reverend George Washington. Tickets to his lecture, based on Douglass’ “Self Made Men,” were sold for 50 cents. According to local history, the funds raised from this presentation were put towards the improvement of the John Wesley M.E. Church for a second story, which was added in the 1880s.

​The John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church continued to be used for regular church service until the 1960s when the needs of the community outgrew the building. However, that’s not to say the church was abandoned. Educators Charles and Jeanette Chipman purchased the building and in 1985, deeded it to the Newtown Historic District. Nine years later, the church reopened as the Charles H. Chipman Cultural Center. The building remains standing as an important cultural and historic landmark. Not only is it the oldest standing African American church on Delmarva, but it also is one of the few public buildings that remains from the historic Georgetown community in Salisbury. It stands as a testament to the self-sufficiency and resilience of Black Salisburians who came together to raise funds and who began building a community from nothing, making Douglass’ Self Made Men lecture at the courthouse rather fitting.  

A mural was dedicated Frederick Douglass' visit as part of our African American Heritage Project
October 15, 2024

It was around this time, after the Civil War, that distinct African American communities in Salisbury began to be defined. Four distinct Black neighborhoods had emerged in Salisbury by the 20th century. According to Linda Duyer in an interview with Don Rush, Georgetown, the most familiar of these two communities likely had its beginnings in Poplar Hill Mansion. She claimed that much of the land that Georgetown was built on once was part of Poplar Hill before being sold off. Duyer elaborated, mentioning that many of the founders of John Wesley M.E. Church had been enslaved on Poplar Hill.

These four communities were located in the periphery of what is know today as downtown Salisbury. Georgetown, had planted itself around Humphrey’s Lake and is visible on the 1877 Atlas of Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties. Humphrey's Lake emptied into the Wicomico River when the dam on Division Street failed in 1909. The land was sold off and became part of the Cuba community, which often is referred to as part of Georgetown due to its proximity. The other two communities, Jersey and California were present by at least 1877 as they appeared in the same 1877 Atlas. These two communities were to the west of Salisbury’s current downtown area. California was across the Main Street bridge while Jersey was across the northern bridge at Isabella Street.

Salisbury, MD., Drained Humphrey's Lake
1909
Walter Thurston Photograph Collection (2016.096)
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture

Humphrey's Lake, Drained
1909
Walter Thurston Photograph Collection (2016.096)
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture

1877 Atlas of Wicomico, Somerset, & Worcester Counties
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture

Aerial of Salisbury
1928
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture

As with most urban areas of the time, segregation was present in Salisbury. Public facilities like restrooms and water fountains were labeled “white” and “colored” in downtown. Additionally, the city’s white owned restaurants barred Black patrons from dining inside. Instead, they had to order and take out their meals from a different part of the restaurant, often the side or back door where “they handed it to you through a little window.” These conditions continued into the 1960s. Bernard Purnell, a World War II veteran, recalls going to eat at the English Grill after returning from his service, but having to “go to the side door and order your [his] food and take it out” to eat instead of dining indoors. This barrier also extended to drug store lunch counters. Anna L. Lee, an educator in Wicomico County, recalled how she “used to wash dishes," at a counter, but "couldn’t go there and sit and eat.” While African Americans may have been able to work at restaurants and lunch counters, they were not served at them. 

English Grill
C. Early 20th
 (Walter Thurston Photograph Collection 2016.096.1815)
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture

Movie theaters too were segregated, with Black movie goers having to sit in a separate balcony. County Councilwoman and former City Councilwoman Shanie Shields recalled going to the theater in her youth with a story that, today, she can laugh at. However, at the time, the situation was less amusing. In an interview, she remembers how her mother had taken her to the Wicomico Theater in Downtown Salisbury. On the way to the balcony where African Americans had to sit, her mother was stopped by the usher and directed to the white seating due to passing as white. Mrs. Shields said that her mother was “scared to death” sitting amongst white people in the white only section. The situation intensified once they got up to use the restroom and found a white coupe in their seats. However, the couple apologized and got up without issue. Like the usher, they assumed that Shanie and her mother were white. Mrs. Shields ended the story with a laugh, saying that her mother “didn’t take me to the movies no more," preferring to send Mrs. Shields father since "he was brown skinned so they knew he had to go upstairs” and not the white section again by mistake. While the anecdote garners a laugh today, it serves to show how arbitrarily race could be decided at times and the fear felt by African Americans in segregated environments.

African Americans had valid reasons to be fearful in situations like those of Mrs. Shield’s mother. With three lynchings, those of Garfield King (1898), Matthew Williams (1931), and an unknown victim (1931), the threat of racial violence was very much real. Mrs. Shields shared how those around her talked about the 1931 lynching of Matthew Williams and how her grandfather, who was working at the Wicomico Hotel at the time, was made to watch the lynching from the roof of the hotel. Audrey Jackson Matthew also had memories of the lynching as a young girl, remembering that her family was told to stay indoors. Today, a memorial marker sits at the corner of North Division and East Main Streets which acknowledges this unfortunate part of our history. As Shanie Shields put it, “it’s part of our history, it’s a bad history…there’s good and bad history and you have to live with good and bad history” that needs to be acknowledged.

Wicomico Hotel
​Baker Family papers (2012.200)
​Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture

​Main and Division Streets, showing Wicomico Hotel, Salisbury, MD
​Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture

Moving on to the good history, despite the presence of segregation and a history of racial violence, Black residents were able to build thriving communities. They did not allow fear to suppress their ambitions nor did they allow it to dictate their lives. The Georgetown neighborhood was full of successful businesses launched by ambitious businessmen. Ulysses G. Langston came to Salisbury in 1895 from Whaleyville, VA to work as William H. Jackson’s butler. In 1902, Langston opened a grocery store on 328 East Church Street next to his home and he operated it until his death in 1950. In addition to the grocery store, he also owned a livery for a time.

Another business in the community was James Franklin Stewart’s funeral home where he was assisted by his wife Mary E. Stewart. Located on 402 East Church Street, their business was right across the street from the John Wesley M.E. Church where Mary was the organist. Their enterprise expanded with facilities present in Berlin, Pocomoke City, and even in Easton. When Matthew Williams was lynched in 1931, his body was brought to their funeral parlor. James and Mary Stewart diligently tended to the community’s funerary needs until James’ death in 1949.

Then there was Robert Toulson who owned and operated Bob Toulson’s Tailor Shop on the corner of Ellen and Church Street on 407 E Church Street. The Georgetown Neighborhood had many businesses and services within walking distance, providing basic needs like groceries and almost eliminating the need to venture out of the community for goods and services. Work was one factor that necessitated travel outside of Georgetown, and many white and Black Salisburians walked past each other on their commutes. 

Toulson's Tailor Shop
​Walter Thurston Photograph Collection (2016.096)
​Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture

Georgetown even boasted several schools. Of course there was the M.E. Church that functioned as a school, but there were also dedicated school buildings. Two can be spotted in the 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. There was also one that had been converted from a basket factory and named “Salisbury Industrial High School.” This was where the famous Dr. Charles Henry Chipman began his long teaching career in Salisbury. Eventually, the building was deemed unsuitable by the board of education, and with help of the community, Dr. Chipman began a fundraising campaign to secure land for a new school on Lake Street. This became Salisbury Colored High School and taught children until the integration of schools in 1966. This is yet another example of Salisbury’s Black community coming together, looking out for each other, and accomplishing something grand through their own efforts.

Charles Chipman Headshot
Undated
Linda Duyer African-American History Collection (2012.021)
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture 

Moving on to the California neighborhood across the bridge on West Main Street, this neighborhood was once referred to as being “downtown” before businesses here declined. The intersection of West Main and Lake Streets was once a bustling and thriving entertainment district with a slew of Black businesses operating alongside white businesses. Among these Black establishments was a movie theater, a night club, cab companies, and a hotel.

Flood damage looking north on Lake Street
1933 Flood in Salisbury, Maryland
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture 

Aerial photograph looking from downtown Salisbury towards the Black entertainment and business district. (Walter Thurston Photograph Collection 2016.096.10008)
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture ​

The Ritz Theater, estimated to fit 450 guests, first opened in 1940 in the Wroten Building at the corner of Lake and West Main Street as a theater run by African Americans for African Americans. They could comfortably sit where they pleased. They did not have to sit separately from whites nor did they have to sit on a separate balcony. In the same building was the Blue Moon night club, where “big time Black bands” came to play, bringing music and entertainment to the neighborhood. Musicians like Count Basie and Billie Holiday were said to have played there, among others. Other businesses in this building included The Spot; a restaurant, Polan’s Five & Dime; a store, and Jone’s Hair Processing Center; a male hair salon. 

Community members also recall cab companies in this area. Shanie Shields’ father worked for Allied Cab, which was Black owned and based in a building behind what is still called the Franklin Hotel. Mrs. Shields was also able to recall several other companies in the area, those being Shore Cab and Willow Cab. Meanwhile, Jane Fields, a white resident in the California neighborhood growing up, remembers that her friend Donetta’s father ran a local taxi company, although she did not specify which. What she did say was that Donetta was African American. She recalls looking back behind her apartment on West Main Street at a building where Donetta lived and recalls it being “my friend’s father who ran the local taxi,” suggesting that it may have been the Allied Cab company or another Black owned cab company.

Willow Cab Co.
​c. 1980's
Walter Thurston Photograph Collection (2016.096)
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture 

The Franklin Hotel was another Black owned business on the corner of Lake and West Main. Originally built in 1930 as a building for white businesses, the Mainlake building is better remembered as the Franklin Hotel. This hotel was opened by Melvin C. Hutt in the 1950s with the intention of serving all people, regardless of color. When it first opened, it was touted as “One of the first steps toward integration in Maryland,” by the New Pittsburgh Courier. Hutt’s venture even appears in the Negro Travelers' Green Book, a guidebook listing locations nationwide that served African Americans, from 1956 to 1964. It was one of the few places, if not the only, where Black travelers were welcomed to stay overnight in the heart of Salisbury. Hutt eventually sold the business to Earl Church, owner of the Allied Cab Company, in 1972. Hutt moved on to focus on the Miami Motel in North Salisbury while Church operated the Franklin hotel until his death in the 1980s. His wife kept it open until 1988 when she sold it to the city.

Haymans Drug Store flood damage
1933 Flood in Salisbury, Maryland
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture 

Mainlake Building in the 1980s
Office of Publication Photographs SUA-031
c. 1982-1983

Several other businesses called the California neighborhood home, ranging from barbershops, jewelry stores (operated by Jane Field’s father), clothing stores, filling stations, and an Italian shoe shop. The area was almost integrated with both Black and white store owners operating next to each other and people of different backgrounds living their lives amongst each other. Hutt’s hotel operating on the basis of serving everyone certainly exemplifies this, as do the memories of Fields and Shields. Both stated during interviews that everyone got along and helped each other, at least for the most part. Fields even described her father as being “progressive with his thinking,” as he hired Black students from what is now UMES in non-menial positions and encouraged other businesses to do the same.

Like the Georgetown community, California was proudly capable of being independent. California was a proper neighborhood and one where residents could get most of their essentials from. Shields recalls that “we stayed across the bridge because we had our own stuff,” only traveling uptown for banking and for the Woolworth’s, since Polan’s “wasn’t as big,” as the uptown five and dime. There was even a place for the children to play. A playground funded by the women of the community once sat on Delaware Avenue. California was a robust and flourishing district on par with today’s Downtown where segregation was often forgotten. ​​Shanie Shields noted that she did not truly experience racism growing up in California and Jersey until she entered into an integrated high school. It was not something she really thought of or dealt with until that point.

Main Street Plaza, Salisbury Downtown Historic District WI-145
Preservation Trust of Wicomico Historic Places Photographs (2007.065)
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture 

Similarly in Georgetown, racism was rarely experienced and there was a certain level of coexistence happening. Vance Elbert, in an interview, said that this phenomenon of near integration was “the peculiarity of the particular neighborhood [Georgetown],” and this was supported by Audrey Jackson Matthews. She reminisced about playing and eating dinner with one white neighbor, Johnny, who lived across the street from her. Jackson also recalled memories about her walks to and from her school on Lake Street. In the Spring, she and other children passed fruit trees growing in the yards of white homeowners and said that “those white people were very nice to us because they let us have a good time in their backyard,” allowing them to have the fruit from the trees. Vance Elbert also added to the conversation that the children from both neighborhoods played with each other without issue. Poplar Hill Avenue, which divided the two communities, became a unified playground where white and Black came together to play. 

Unfortunately, separation and inequality became more apparent as time passed. Comparing the 1911, 1916, and 1931 Sanborn fire insurance maps with each other, one can notice the extension of Poplar Hill Avenue to cut across Broad and Church Streets. (Note: revisions were pasted over the original 1931 map over time, usually after the correction was made. See the correction record on the index for specific dates that revisions were made and dates that they were pasted.) In 1911, focusing on the First Colored Missionary Baptist Church, there was a barber shop adjacent to it at 322 East Church Street with another house at 320 East Church Street. In 1916, a small street or alleyway can be spotted on the east side of the home on 320. Then, in 1931, the barbershop and home were gone, replaced by Poplar Hill Avenue. The First Colored Missionary Baptist Church remained to the west of Poplar Hill Avenue. This extension of Poplar Hill Avenue appears as if it were created to divide what was the Cuba community from the white part of Salisbury, similar to how the northern end of Poplar Hill Avenue served as a divider for Georgetown.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from Salisbury, Wicomico County, Maryland.
1911, 1916, 1931

A more drastic change came about with the construction of Route 13 and Route 50. Both of these highways literally tore through Georgetown. Gus White remembered coming to Salisbury in 1946 when Route 13 “was just coming through,” and how it led to the demolition of many residential buildings, displacing much of the community and forcing people to move elsewhere. He later came to understand Route 13 was the reason his family and neighbors moved to Philadelphia and New York. The construction of Route 50 further uprooted the community. Black businesses like Joe Cornish’s bike shop, Bob Toulson’s, Miss Phoebe’s restaurant, and Mr. Langston’s store, among others, were all demolished. Audrey Jackson Matthews said that it hurt to see the vanishing of the community she was born and raised in. It was especially painful for her to lose the property that her great uncle had owned. African Americans had worked hard to purchase these homes. Many of them had no generational wealth to build off of and had to start from scratch, only for it to be stripped from them for little compensation.

The Georgetown neighborhood before and after Route 50 and Lot #10's construction.
(George White Collection 2015.121 and Orlando Wootten Photograph Collection 1995.005)
Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture 

The California neighborhood experienced a similar decline. In 1963 a fire reportedly damaged the Wroten building enough to warp the steel girders and the structure was ordered to be demolished by the city. The operator of the Ritz, E. Costen Cordery, called it a total loss and the building owner, Frank Parker, said he had no intention to rebuild. Jones’ hair salon, operated by Charles Jones, relocated to West Main Street for a time until being displaced by a revitalization project in the 1980s and 1990s. At the time of Jones’ passing, it was the only hair processing salon in Salisbury for over 40 years. The other businesses were not so lucky. This was only the beginning of the decline of this once bustling entertainment district.

​Route 50 cut through its northern end, but it was revitalization that had a greater impact. During an interview, Shanie Shields stated that her childhood downtown began to disappear in the 1980s. Newspaper clippings also confirm this, with several mentions of blight sparking a revitalization project along the Wicomico River. By the 1980s and 1990s, night life in the area had vanished and stores, like the Jones Hair Processing Center, were closing early in the evening. The loss of the Ritz and Blue Moon in the 1960s likely contributed to the loss of the neighborhood's night life. In an effort to revive this section of town and to remove “blighting influences,” the city launched an effort to acquire the buildings in the area. Black businesses were initially excited about this project, until they realized they were not being involved.

Swift and Co. Poultry Dressing
1958
Walter Thurston Photograph Collection (2016.096)
​Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture 

Charles Jones and Joseph Sample, a barbershop owner, thought they were going to be included in revitalization, but instead found themselves pushed out when it became apparent they could not afford the higher rent that it would bring. Jones vented his frustrations to the press, saying “they’re pushing you further and further away, block by block.” Eventually, the pair relocated to Booth Street. By the end of the 20th century, little remained of this lively entertainment district. Reportedly, there were around 25 businesses in California that had disappeared. Thankfully, the Franklin Hotel and perhaps a few scattered buildings remain as a reminder of the former hub of Black life.

As if repeating history, another highway was constructed near a predominantly Black neighborhood: the Route 50 bypass. Completed in the early 2000s, this bypass ran through the Jersey Heights community. While the Jersey Heights Neighborhood Association challenged its construction through the court system and were able to secure improvements for the community, it ultimately did not alter the course of the bypass. Understandably, Shanie Shields feels that every highway built comes through “our community” and displaces them.

Not all hope is lost, however, and the positive memories of these communities live on through community members who either remember or who have learned about their histories. African Americans in Salisbury built their own communities where they experienced joy, went to school, saw movies with their friends and families, frequented clubs, attended church, and even interacted with their white neighbors. These communities chose to push forward and help each other to build something for themselves. They were self-sufficient and able to survive independently. As Shanie Shields put it, the “Black community did more for each other than depending” on others. This spirit survives today and serve as a testament to what can be accomplished when a community comes together to overcome hardships. This fighting spirit are reflected in efforts to preserve their history through projects like the Chipman Cultural Center, the Church Street Murals, interpretive signage, political activism, and efforts to acknowledge the good and bad of our shared past.