The Invisible History of African Americans in Cape Charles, Virginia - Clio

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1. Railroad and Ferry Terminuses at Cape Charles Harbor

Only a few scattered railroad cars and segmented remains survive of a once expansive railyard. It is easy to miss why Mason Avenue became Cape Charles’ focal point from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. When the New York, Philadelphia, & Norfolk Railroad (NYP&N) built a terminus here in 1884, business rolled into Cape Charles, creating a nearby “main street” to serve as a commercial hub. At its prime, the land across from Mason Avenue housed terminuses for both the railroad and the ferry, annually transporting over two million passengers. These transportation industries and, in turn, Cape Charles prospered very quickly, drawing people to live and work in the rapidly growing town. Countless longtime and former African American residents of Cape Charles have a relative who worked for the railroad or the ferry. Positions with the NYP&N Railroad and the Virginia Ferry Corporation’s Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry provided higher paid positions for African Americans than other employment outside of the household or the fields. Many African Americans moved to Cape Charles for the sole purpose of working in these industries. Segregation limited employment opportunities for African Americans, but the railroad and ferry industries provided a means to support families and build lives in Cape Charles.

2. The Palm Tavern

The weekend has arrived in early 1950s Cape Charles. White residents have their pick of countless shops and restaurants along Mason Avenue for dining and entertainment. In the largely segregated downtown, many of the same shops and eateries refuse entry to African Americans. However, everyone is welcome at the Palm Tavern at 341 Mason Avenue. In the late 1930s, Emily Young and Samson Shawnee Joynes moved to Cape Charles from Cheapside with their five children: Dutell, Oliver, Purnell, Roxie, and Kathleen. They opened the Palm Tavern and made their home above the restaurant. Later the business became Joynes' Seafood Headquarters, a walk-up food stand run by their son Dutell. The Joynes family purchased the building at the corner of Mason and Peach after prior owner Laura E. Seldon Lewis' death in 1931. Laura, an African American entrepreneur, opened her café, tavern, pool hall, and rooming house at the location in 1885 and ran the successful business for many years.

3. Jefferson's Store

Frequently remembered as Cape Charles' first African American owned and operated grocery store, few credit Jefferson's Store, opened in 1886, as the first establishment of its kind founded by any race. Jefferson's proprietor, Taylor Daniel "T. D." Jefferson, possessed an entrepreneurial spirit that gained him customers across the racial divide. African Americans and whites respected him, valuing his dedication and leadership. Described as extremely versatile, Jefferson, aside from the grocery business, invested his time in local banks, churches, African American newspapers, schools, and many other philanthropic endeavors intended to enrich the lives of the African American community in Cape Charles.[1] After his death in 1936, his son, Walton "Walter" Philander Jefferson, continued the family business until he died in 1981. Those passing through Cape Charles today would be none the wiser of Jefferson Store's existence though the family-run business served as an economic and social pillar of Cape Charles for nearly a century. The store was demolished in the 1990s.

4. Spady's Service Station (Northampton Service Station)

The Kellogg Building, with its 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival architecture and massive size, differs from many of the other former locations of African American businesses in town. The former Northampton Service Station remains standing well after owner Raymond Owens Spady's death in 2007. Other historical commercial buildings such as Jefferson's Store, the Palm Tavern, and the White Elephant fared a worse fate, no longer standing to remind passersby of their rich history. The Kellogg Building survived due to its unique architectural style and structural stability, unwavering over a century after Benjamin Franklin "B. F." Kellogg constructed his namesake structure. The location at Fig and Mason held the title of Cape Charles' first private family home, and eventually became headquarters of the Northampton Motor Company started by Kellogg's son Eucebius "E. M." Milton Kellogg, a business sometimes also called Kellogg's Motor Company. Incorporated in Cape Charles in 1933, the enterprise originally operated as a De Soto-Plymouth dealership with Ecebius later adding a service station. The Kellogg Building still stands to tell the story of an African American business that supported its community with 45 years of service in Cape Charles' then-thriving auto industry.

5. The Original Gray's Funeral Home

While strolling Cape Charles' historic streets, have you ever looked down and noticed the grooved dot pattern on the original sidewalks? If so, you have unknowingly admired Thomas L. Godwin's handiwork. In some places, his signature is stamped into the cement, reading "T L GODWIN CAPE CHARLES VA." Thomas L. Godwin's contribution to the town tourists enjoy today, including the cement sidewalks and many building foundations (including the Cape Charles Post Office), stands as a reminder of his and his family's impact on Cape Charles. Ironically, the work of Godwin in bringing life to the community rested on his ties to the local family catering to the grieving relatives of the deceased. Gray's Funeral Home was the first African American-owned and operated funeral home in Cape Charles as well as the Eastern Shore. Originally opened by carpenter Mills C. Gray alongside his wife Jennie Joynes Gray in 1895, their niece Alston Joynes Godwin became the longtime matriarch of the funeral home alongside her husband, Thomas, in 1946. Gray's Funeral Home continues operation as a third-generation family business, today operated by Thomas George Godwin and his wife Juanita Brickhouse Godwin.

6. Midwife Lottie Spratley's House

Each historic home along the streets of Cape Charles tells a story. This duplex between Nectarine and Fig Streets, with a façade largely unchanged since constructed over a century ago, has its own unique story. The earliest resident at 630 Madison Avenue earned a living by welcoming babies into the world. During her career as a midwife, Lottie Cottrell Dent Spratley delivered a reported 800 babies. The likelihood that her signature certified the birth of someone of color born in Cape Charles between when she moved into the house on Madison in the early 1940s until she stopped practicing prior to her death in 1976 is extremely high. For a community with few cars and rampant discrimination in the healthcare system, midwives and other African American healthcare practitioners filled a dire necessity — doctors and specialists who not only admitted and cared for African American patients but also whom patients trusted with their lives. Beginning in the early 20th century, a campaign led by physicians, primarily for political, financial, and racial motivations, increasingly demonized midwifery. Midwives, many of whom were African American and Indigenous women, lost their livelihoods due to strict regulations or outright bans. The suffocating red tape and pressure involved in serving Cape Charles and surrounding communities eventually forced Lottie out of practice after decades of assistance to pregnant women and hundreds of deliveries.

7. Carver Theatre and Carver Spot

If you had the opportunity to name a brand-new movie theater in your community, what name would you choose? In 1940, the Cape Charles Theatre Corporation, with William "W. H." Henry Tabb as President, held a competition to christen the movie theater that would serve the town's African American residents. Bessie Trower earned the honor of naming the establishment, choosing George Washington Carver's surname to celebrate the renowned African American scientist.The 400-seat Carver Theatre began welcoming moviegoers in 1940 and was outfitted with "complete equipment including projection, sound, heating and ventilation and chairs."[1] The adjacent Carver Spot began serving customers in 1947. These businesses completed the African American community hub in the Jersey section, where residents came "together to eat, shop, worship, and be entertained."[2] The Carver Theatre and Carver Spot were established for entertainment, but they also provided a place outside of church and school where both adults and children could gather in the neighborhood.

8. St. Stephens A.M.E. and First Baptist Church

Did you know that St. Stephen's African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) is the oldest church building still standing in Cape Charles and the location of the first African American school in town? For well over 100 years, the building has served as a place of worship for the African American community. St. Stephen's, along with the First Baptist Church of Cape Charles, became the pillars of their community, supporting everything from church programs, community meetings, and fundraisers for causes, including African American education. Terri Lynn Brown Andrews, whose grandfather Reverend John H. Brinkley pastored First Baptist, remembers, "Everything was centered around the church in town."[1] While many of the African American owned and operated businesses in Cape Charles no longer exist, African American churches like St. Stephen's and First Baptist remain at the heart of the community, welcoming old and new members alike.

9. Gallup's Court

With beachfront property at a premium, it may be hard to imagine that Mr. Gladstone's dairy farm, complete with wandering cows and a big green barn, once occupied the waterfront along Washington Avenue. Where houses and the Bay Lake condominiums now stand at the corner of Washington and Nectarine, African American children of yesteryear flocked to a temporary amusement park when the carnival arrived each summer. This highly anticipated event was enjoyed by the African American community’s children and adults alike.Between this idyllic period and the arrival of the condominiums in the early 2000's, a nondescript, one-story "L"-shaped apartment complex called Gallup's Court occupied the site. The proprietors, Beatrice "Bea" Gallup and her husband James Rudolphus Gallup, spent their younger adult lives living in New York City, where they ran a dining establishment. After moving to Cape Charles around 1940, they established the apartment complex, supplying much needed housing options for African Americans, particularly teachers in the community.

10. Mitchell's Shop and Green Leaf Tavern

At the corner of 400 Jefferson Avenue and Peach Street, two buildings remain from the “old” Jersey section of Cape Charles. The Green Leaf Tavern on the left and Mitchell’s Shop on the right, with a pay phone still out front, evoke a time when neighbors all knew each other and gathered at the corner store. On Mason Avenue, African Americans, according to one resident, “were always watched” and felt unwelcome.[1] It was a world apart at the Green Leaf Tavern, where patrons felt comfortable enough to enjoy a pint of beer and one of Mary Elizabeth Mapp’s unforgettable, praise-worthy hamburgers while playing cards and listening to the jukebox. Similarly, at Michell’s Shop, customers could pick up “cold drinks, cigarettes, coffee cakes, and pies” from Robert “Jesse” Mitchell, who patrons lovingly called “Pop Jesse.”[2] Mitchell’s Shop passed through three generations of the Mitchell family until it closed in 2019.

11. Big Elephant (Sample's Barber Shop)

In this now empty lot once stood a large white building locals called the White Elephant. Built around 1921, the structure had three separate entrances — “one led to the barber shop, one to the pool hall, and one to a residence.”[1] Other businesses that operated from the Big Elephant included a taxicab service and a restaurant attached to the pool hall. Peter J. Finney was the building’s first owner and operator of the barber shop. In 1904, sometime after Finney stopped practicing, Lloyd Thomas Sample established Sample’s Barber Shop. After Lloyd passed away in 1939, his sons Paul Bernard and John Barkley Sample continued the family barber shop. Sample’s Barber Shop moved from the Big Elephant to nearby 309 Jefferson Avenue between 1961 and 1962 and continued operating at that location until the business closed permanently in 2014. John’s son famed professional football player, Johnny Sample, Jr., brought world-wide recognition to the family. In Cape Charles, Sample’s Barber Shop is equally recognized. Sample’s not only provided haircutting services but served as a place for people to openly discuss important issues in the African American community for over a century.

12. Cape Charles Elementary

The term "the hump" is a fixture in Cape Charles' vocabulary. The phrase describes a former vehicle bridge spanning the railroad tracks that now leads tourists and retirees to the harbor and the community of Bay Creek. Driving or walking over the hump, you will see a unique brick structure to your right. This building, Cape Charles Elementary School, was once a vibrant hub of learning for African American students.In 1928, the African American community's push for a public school started to become a reality. Cape Charles purchased 2.5 acres of land from the Pennsylvania Railroad and acquired a seed grant from the Rosenwald Fund to help build the school. The Rosenwald School Building Project, a partnership between Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald, helped realize a public school for the African American children in Cape Charles, but the community made the dream a reality. Individuals and community organizations, including the First Baptist Church and the Cape Charles Public School League, donated money, supplies, and labor to construct and maintain the school. Cape Charles Elementary School educated African American students from 1929 until 1966, when Northampton County Public Schools were consolidated before integration in 1970. Currently, the Cape Charles Rosenwald School Restoration Initiative owns the school, with hopes to preserve the building and history of the school and "engage and enrich the community, promote cultural awareness and understanding, and support self-sufficiency and economic mobility."[1]

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

The Invisible History of African Americans in Cape Charles, Virginia

Created by The Invisible History of African Americans in Cape Charles, Virginia on December 15th 2022, 1:59:39 pm.

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Description

The stories of African Americans are all but absent in the written and oral documentation of the history of Cape Charles, Virginia. This project aims to uncover their invisible history through oral history interviews and through a publicly available historical walking tour of African American sites, thereby preserving the accomplishments of the people associated with those sites, recognizing the heritage of their descendants, and fostering appreciation by all current residents of Cape Charles for the town's unique past. We chose the term "African American" to embrace everyone of African descent and to be specifically inclusive of those whose ethnicity is of the Accomacke and the Anishinaabe Nussawadou Lenape Indigenous peoples, who were largely absorbed into the unenslaved and enslaved African American community at Gingaskin reservation since the colonial era. Through this tour, we hope to not only to shed light on some of the stories and accomplishments of African Americans in Cape Charles, past and present, but to provide historical information for subsequent generations to know, reference, and cherish. This tour highlights sites and buildings significant to the African American community, though presently invisible in the written history of the town. We examine the impact and influence of this community on the town's development and progress so as to illuminate for residents and visitors alike what is relevant in the past in understanding the present. Acknowledgements: This walking tour is a community service project of the Invisible History Committee of the Rotary Club of Cape Charles made possible with support from Virginia Humanities and the Frances Bibbins Latimer Fund.

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