The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Black Shopkeepers, Entertainment Venues, and Trades in Avon Park, 1920–1930

Summary

City directories and local histories of the 1920s and 1930s omitted Black-owned businesses in Avon Park. The federal census manuscripts of 1920 and 1930 supply the missing commercial record. In January 1920, when only 83 of Precinct 14’s 413 Black and mulatto residents lived inside the incorporated town, self-employed Black enterprise was limited to home laundresses, two crate-mill boarding houses, and a single retail refreshment stand kept by twenty-three-year-old Florence Mickens at Pittsburg Farms north of town.[census-1920-ed23] By April 1930, when the city’s Black population had grown to 928 (with roughly 445 more in the adjoining unincorporated precinct), the Southside neighborhood in Enumeration District 28-2 supported two Black-owned grocery stores kept by James Jones and Bertha Austin, a dance hall managed by John Shine with resident pianist Bensey Robertson, two pool rooms managed by Tommy Privett and Will Stringer, a wood-contracting business run by Sam Lyons, and an in-home barber shop operated by his daughter Rosa H. Lyons.[census-1930-avon-park]

1920: Florence Mickens’s Refreshment Stand and the Mill Boarding Houses

In the 1920 census of DeSoto County Enumeration District 23 (Precinct 14, Avon Park), enumerated by Byrum Shockley between 6 January and 7 February 1920, none of the 83 Black and mulatto residents inside the corporate limits of the Town of Avon Park (Sheets 1A through 9B) was recorded as a merchant or business proprietor; all worked for wages in railroad section gangs, hotel kitchens, citrus groves, the ice plant, private homes, or as home washerwomen, alongside one clergyman, David Pete (Sheet 8A, line 15, Clergyman | Church).[census-1920-ed23]

Outside the municipal boundary, on the rural sheets of Precinct 14 (Sheets 10A through 17B), three Black-run commercial or lodging operations appear:

  1. Florence Mickens, refreshment stand merchant at Pittsburg Farms (Sheet 11B, image 0460, line 58): In the unincorporated Pittsburg Farms grove-development tract north of Avon Park toward the Polk County line (Dwelling 249, Family 282), Florence Mickens (age 23, recorded as mulatto, born in Georgia to Georgia-born parents) lived with her husband Elisha Mickens (age 24, born in Virginia, Laborer | Fruit dev. f'm | W). Across the five-line solid rule on the right-hand side of Sheet 11B, Shockley recorded Florence Mickens’s occupation as Merchant | Refreshment stand | OA (working on her “Own Account”).[census-1920-ed23] She is the earliest Black retail proprietor identified by name in the Avon Park census schedules. (Because the right half of Sheet 11B bows upward in the bound ledger volume, care is required when tracing the ruled lines across the page: the line immediately below her, line 59, records household head Annie Mae Thomas, age 28, as Washwoman | At home | OA, while line 65, sitting on the next five-line solid rule, records white father-in-law Zollie Means as Salesman | Grocery store | W, one line above Black land-clearing laborer Thomas Weaver on line 66.)[census-1920-ed23]
  2. Owen and Anna McClary’s crate-mill boarding house (Sheet 14A, image 0465, lines 3–13): Along Crate Mill Road south of the town boundary (Dwelling 300, Family 332), crate-mill laborer Owen McClary (age 38, born in South Carolina) and his wife Anna McClary (age 34, born in South Carolina) kept an eleven-person household lodging nine Black mill hands and a young girl.[census-1920-ed23]
  3. Mary Bryant’s boarding house (Sheet 14A, image 0465): On the same sheet, widowed household head Mary Bryant (age 39) kept a boarding house serving the crate-mill workforce.[census-1920-ed23]

1930: Groceries, Entertainment Venues, and Independent Trades

Ten years later, the Fifteenth Census of April 1930 divided Avon Park and its precinct into three enumeration districts on NARA microfilm T626 roll 318: ED 28-1 (the Old Part of the city), ED 28-2 (the New Part of the city, enumerated 2–11 April 1930 by Laura P. Roberts), and ED 28-3 (Election Precinct 1 outside the city limits, enumerated 21–24 April 1930 by Laura P. Roberts with a supplemental pass by Ola L. Head).[census-1930-avon-park]

While ED 28-3 remained overwhelmingly an industrial settlement of crate-mill and sawmill wage earners, the continuous Black neighborhood in ED 28-2 along A Avenue, B Avenue, Fairfield Avenue, Castle Street, and Washington Street had developed an internal commercial and recreational economy serving Black residents under segregation:[census-1930-avon-park]

Proprietor / Worker Age (1930) Birthplace Occupation & Industry (1930 Schedule) Location in Schedule
James Jones 57 Georgia Merchant, Grocery ED 28-2, Sheet 2A (leaf 0006), row 1, A Avenue
Bertha Austin ~28 Florida Proprietress, Grocery Store ED 28-2, Sheet 2B (leaf 0007), row 75
John Shine 60 — Manager, Dance Hall ED 28-2, Sheet 2B (leaf 0007), row 91
Bensey Robertson — — Pianist, Dance Hall ED 28-2, Sheet 2B (leaf 0007), row 92 (John Shine household)
Tommy Privett — — Manager, Pool Room ED 28-2, Sheet 2B (leaf 0007), row 93 (John Shine household)
Will Stringer 54 Alabama Manager, Pool Room ED 28-2, Sheet 4A (leaf 0010), row 7 (Family 82/84), Castle Street
Lillian Stringer 34 Alabama Cook, Restaurant ED 28-2, Sheet 4A (leaf 0010), row 8 (Family 82/84), Castle Street
Sam Lyons — — Contractor, Wood ED 28-2, Sheet 2A (leaf 0006), row 36, Fairfield Avenue
Rosa H. Lyons — — Barber, In Home ED 28-2, Sheet 2A (leaf 0006), row 37, Fairfield Avenue

The Two Black-Owned Groceries: James Jones and Bertha Austin

  1. James Jones on A Avenue: At the top of Sheet 2A of ED 28-2 (leaf 0006, row 1), on A Avenue, James Jones (age 57, born in Georgia) is recorded as Merchant, Grocery, heading a household that included his wife Alberta Jones, his daughter Betsy Powell, and four roomers.[census-1930-avon-park]
  2. Bertha Austin and twenty years of Austin family food enterprise (1930–1950): On Sheet 2B of ED 28-2 (leaf 0007, row 75), Bertha Austin is recorded as the head of her household with the occupation Proprietress, Grocery Store, boarding ice-wagon driver Burton Adams.[census-1930-avon-park] Later that month, when Laura P. Roberts enumerated the unincorporated mill precinct in ED 28-3 (Sheet 6B, leaf 0057), she also recorded Bertha Austin with her husband Alex Austin and their niece Theresa.[census-1930-avon-park] Twenty years later, in the 1950 federal census of Avon Park (ED 28-8, Sheet 15, Household 161, on Castle Street), Alex Austin (age 53, born in Florida) operated his own neighborhood sandwich shop (Manager | Sandwich Shop | O), where his daughter Mattie L. Walker (age 34) worked as a waitress and Bertha Austin (age 48) kept house alongside their unmarried great-niece Blond E. Austin (age 22, third-grade teacher at Hopewell School), immediately adjacent to Castle Street retail grocery manager Daniel Gibbs (Household 160).[census-1950-ed-28-8] Across two decades, Alex and Bertha Austin anchored neighborhood food retailing and dining in Black Avon Park.

Dance Hall and Pool Rooms: John Shine, Bensey Robertson, Tommy Privett, and Will Stringer

With white restaurants, hotels, and recreation halls closed to Black patrons, and with the town’s municipal curfew ordinance restricting Black residents from white streets after nightfall, Black Avon Park maintained its own nightlife and social venues inside the Southside district:

  • The Dance Hall and Pool Room Household on Sheet 2B: Near the bottom of Sheet 2B of ED 28-2 (leaf 0007, rows 91–95), sixty-year-old household head John Shine is recorded as Manager, Dance Hall.[census-1930-avon-park] Lodging with him in the same household were Bensey Robertson, recorded as Pianist, Dance Hall, and Tommy Privett, recorded as Manager, Pool Room.[census-1930-avon-park]
  • Will and Lillian Stringer on Castle Street: Two sheets later, on Castle Street (ED 28-2, Sheet 4A, leaf 0010, Dwelling 82, Family 84), fifty-four-year-old Will Stringer (born in Alabama to Alabama-born parents) is recorded as Manager, Pool Room, while his wife Lillian Stringer (age 34, born in Alabama) worked as Cook, Restaurant, living with their two-year-old daughter Louise and fifteen-year-old cousin Aglee Pullins.[census-1930-avon-park]

Contracting, Personal Service, and Skilled Industrial Trades

The 1930 schedules also identify independent contractors, personal-service proprietors, and skilled tradesmen across ED 28-2 and ED 28-3:

  • Sam Lyons and Rosa H. Lyons on Fairfield Avenue (ED 28-2, Sheet 2A, leaf 0006, rows 36–37): Sam Lyons worked as Contractor, Wood, while his daughter Rosa H. Lyons worked as Barber, In Home.[census-1930-avon-park] Rosa H. Lyons is the earliest Black barber identified in Avon Park, ten years before George Lewis appears as the owner of a neighborhood barber shop in the 1940 and 1950 censuses.[census-1930-avon-park][census-1940-ed-28-3a][census-1950-ed-28-8]
  • Public school and delivery service in ED 28-2: On Sheet 1A of ED 28-2 (leaf 0004), seventy-four-year-old Chas. C. McRay (born in North Carolina, Family 11/12) worked as Janitor, Public School—the earliest named Black school employee in the Avon Park census schedules after the construction of Hopewell School in 1926—while twenty-one-year-old Chas. M. Jackson (Family 9/10) worked as Truck Driver, Retail Grocery.[census-1930-avon-park] On Castle Street (Sheet 4A, leaf 0010, Family 83/85), thirty-two-year-old Henry Austin worked as Presser, Ice Wagon; twenty years later, in the 1950 census, Henry Austin (then 56) served as the School Bus Driver for the city schools.[census-1930-avon-park][census-1950-ed-28-8]
  • Skilled industrial and bottling trades in ED 28-3: In the unincorporated precinct (ED 28-3), alongside the hundreds of general crate-mill and sawmill laborers, Manuel Boatwright (Sheet 1A, leaf 0046, owning a $1,208 home) worked as Bottler, Coca-Cola Plant; Joseph Williamson (Sheet 5A, leaf 0054) worked as Saw Filer, Lumber Co.; Thomas L. Barr (Sheet 6A, leaf 0056) worked as Blacksmith, Lumber Co.; and Eddie Tom Jackson (Sheet 5B, leaf 0055) worked as Fireman, Saw Mill.[census-1930-avon-park]
  • The Sims Family on East First Street (1930 to 1950): On Sheet 4B of ED 28-3 (leaf 0053, Dwelling 89, Family 92, at 57 East First Street), crate-mill laborer Thomas Simms and his wife Maggie Simms lived in a rented $5-a-month house with six children: Thomas E., Rosa L., Delbert M., Earnest E. (the fifteen-year-old future principal of Hopewell School, Ernest Eldridge Sims), Elihu, and Barney.[census-1930-avon-park] That household links the two Sims households recorded twenty years later in the 1950 census: Thomas Sims (74) and Maggie R. Sims (63) at 216 Castle Street (ED 28-8) were the parents of Thomas E. Sims (41, crate-factory hand in ED 28-7, Sheet 9, Household 79), whose wife Hattie Sims (36) owned a neighborhood grocery store in 1950—making grocer Hattie Sims the sister-in-law of Principal Ernest E. Sims.[census-1930-avon-park][census-1950-ed-28-7][census-1950-ed-28-8]

References

  • census-1920-ed23 — United States Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, population schedules, Florida, DeSoto County, enumeration district 23 (Precinct 14, Avon Park), NARA microfilm T625 roll 217, images 439–476. 7 February 1920. https://archive.org/details/14thcensusofpopu217unit
  • census-1930-avon-park — United States Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration districts 28-1, 28-2 and 28-3 (Avon Park), NARA microfilm T626 roll 318. 24 April 1930. https://archive.org/details/15thcensus318unit
  • census-1940-ed-28-3a — United States Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration district 28-3A, Avon Park city. 1 April 1940. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/126246084
  • census-1950-ed-28-8 — United States Bureau of the Census. Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration district 28-8, Avon Park city. 1 April 1950. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/303137208
  • census-1950-ed-28-7 — United States Bureau of the Census. Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration district 28-7, Avon Park city. 1 April 1950. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/303137181

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
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Sources

  1. United States Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, population schedules, Florida, DeSoto County, enumeration district 23 (Precinct 14, Avon Park), NARA microfilm T625 roll 217, images 439–476 (1920) · official
  2. United States Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration districts 28-1, 28-2 and 28-3 (Avon Park), NARA microfilm T626 roll 318 (1930) · official
  3. United States Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration district 28-3A, Avon Park city (1940) · official
  4. United States Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration district 28-8, Avon Park city (1950) · official
  5. United States Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration district 28-7, Avon Park city (1950) · official

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