About

Black Wall Street History
Sanfordncblackwallstreet.com

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While the town of Jonesboro founded in 1860, land owner Newton Robinson Bryan
decided not to accept the Raleigh & Augusta Air Line Railroad which strategically would
connect the already existing Western Railroad through their rural town, 2.5 miles north,
The Raleigh & Augusta Air Line bought some land and laid their tracks at the junction
and thus Sanford was born February 11, 1874! (Wide World Web living places.com Lee
Avenue Histroric District); (Sanford, NC Popular Annual Financial Report, Fiscal Year
Ending June 30,2017, History Of Sanford). Approximately 3 blocks south of the train
station no doubt, was a beginning Black Wall Street which still holds its name, Wall
Street, today! As a little honey brown skinned negro girl, Wall Street displayed offices and
homes of two Black Doctors, Dr. David L. Bland and Doctor James Slater Simmons. My
doctor was Dr. Bland. I also visited Dr. Simmons when Dr. Bland left Sanford. The
Bland Pharmacy continued for many years serving the Black community with medicines,
drug store items, a food bar and soda fountain!

Knotts funeral Home still on the corner of Wall and Steele Streets, was once the home of
Anders Funeral Home. There were two churches that I visited occasionally for singing
programs, cantatas, and worship, Wall Street Missionary Baptist Church and the renown
Fair Promise AME Zion Church which majestically stands today and open for the
business of worshipping God and sharing the saving good news of Jesus Christ.
The Simmons Teachery (where Sanford’s Black teachers lived) Building own by Dr.
Simmons, is now an apartment building. Rev. Quick’s home refurbished in later years
still stands on the corner of Wall and Horner Boulevard once named Endor Street. Rev.
Quick occasionally preached during Youth Sunday at Star Of Hope Original Free Will
Baptist Church in Jonesboro Heights. The renown Blandonia Presbyterian Church,
later uniting with St. John Presbyterian Church, thus renamed First United, then back to
their historic name, Blandonian is still in the business of worship on Wall Street! The
house built by Architect-Builder, Lincoln (“Link” Boykin (1870-1943) still stands on
Wall Street!

I remember getting my first book from the Negro Library, a cinder block square building
on Wall Street which still stands today and I believe it is a residence.
Let’s not forget Swann & Prince Exxon or Esso Gas Station with a mechanic on Duty,
Mr. Prentiss walking around in his dark blue mechanic jump suit!

Wall Street was a bustling business district which we Blacks called our own.

"Smitty and Leo’s Barber Shop goes back a long way", says Mrs. Barbara ""Woods. Those
men are proud ones to serve people of color!!!!

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Wall Street is recognized as our own tucked against the backdrop of down town Sanford
with Black Businesses still dotted around its corridors. I‘d like to call it, The Black Wall
Street!

Thus, we salute Sanford, NC “The Black Wall Street” Community Connection:
sanfordncblackwallstreet.com

Carol Deese
1/ 28/2020