East Side, West Side, All Around The Square

by Denny Darby

Can you name all the businesses located around the perimeter of Courthouse Square?

Sure, we all can name some, but few of us would be able to get every one correct.  And, they frequently changed, so correct today wouldn't necessairly mean correct at another point in time.  Here's a 'time capsule' record, taken from the 1953 Greenville Business Directory.  This information has been supplied by my aunt, Nelda Joye Camp.

Enjoy.

DCD

North side of square (2500 block of Lee Street)

1. McGaughey's Drug Store

2. Taylor Brothers Jewelry

3. Austin Shoe Store

4. Clark's Rexall Drug Store

5. S.H. Kress & Co. five & dime

6. Rita Theater

7. Ross & Reed Appliances

(also numerous upstairs offices including G.C. Harris, attorney, Hubbell Photo Studio, Bill Hunter, Civil Engineer, and various others)

East side of square (2500 block of Johnson Street)

1. Collins Furniture Company

2. Lawrence Crawford Used Cars (on vacant lot where Colonial Theater burned earlier)

3. White's Department Store

4. OK Barber Shop

5. Paul's Cafe

6. Piggly Wiggly Grocery

(also offices upstairs ...and a pool hall?)

South side of square (2500 block of Washington Street)

1. Western Auto

2. Joseph's Shoe Store

3. Coker Furniture Store

4. Kimbrough's Feed Store

5. Rice's Snack Bar (later called Davis Cafe)

6. Rice's Cleaners

7. Sam Swartz Dry Goods

8. Southside Pharmacy

West side of square (2500 block of Stonewall Street)

1. Allen Rowe Hardware

2. Mode-O-Day Dress Shop

3. Rosenburg Feed Store

4. 3 Beall Brothers Dry Goods

5. Big State Drug Store

5. Greenville National Exchange Bank

 The OK Barber Shop  on the East side of the square was owned by my cousin, Johnny Bill Cawthon.  His dad, John, owned Cawthon's Barber Shop in Celeste.  To a lad of the times, John's was much better - it had a huge display of shrunken catfish heads displayed on the wall opposite the barber chairs.  John would catch them, cut off the heads and splay them over a fence post until they dried out and (almost) stopped smelling.  Then he would slap a coat of varnish over them, nail them to a slab of wood and hang them on the walls of his shop.

John kept several spittoons stationed around the shop - sometimes a customer would actually hit one.

Five hair dressings were available on demand - Red Brilliantine Oil, Green Brilliantine Oil, Yellow Brilliantine Oil (color was the only difference), Brylcreem, and Lucky Tiger Flat Top Wax.

There was no air conditioning.  In the summer months, the temperatures settled in in the 90's.

Three ceiling fans mounted in the 12 ft. high stamped-tin ceiling stirred the scent of hair oil, catfish heads, and Red Man chewing tobacco together and wafted them over somnolent customers more than half-asleep in the chair, as John stropped his straight razor, lathered their face using his only brush - taken from a mug containing a bar of shaving soap - and began shaving... all the while looking at, and talking to anyone who happened to be in the shop at the time.  A septic stick and a well-applied piece of toilet tissue usually stopped most of the blood.