Bell's Restaurant

Bell’s Restaurant (also Bell’s Cafe and Bell & Sons Restaurant) was located in Greenville and was listed in the Green Book as “Bell’s—310 Albermale [sp] Ave.” under “Restaurants'' from 1947-1953; as “Bell’s Restaurant—310 Albemarle Ave.” from 1956-1957 and in 1959; and as “Bell’s Restaurant—604 Albemarle Avenue'' from 1960-1967.¹

Grant Bell first opened his cafe, Bell’s Restaurant, in 1925 and operated it until the time of his death in 1961. The cafe was located in “The Block” (an African American business district in what is now Uptown Greenville). It was later renamed “Grant Bell & Sons,” the “sons” being Millard Filmore and Charles Lindbergh Bell. (It is not clear whether another of Bell’s sons, Grant Bell Jr., or his daughter, Isabell Bell, also worked at the restaurant). The address for the cafe was 310 Albemarle until 1951, when it changed to 604 Albemarle. (The business did not move; the street was renumbered.) ²

Grant Bell & Sons advertised a “Grade ‘A’ Cafe” with the “finest foods” and “best service.” The establishment also had a “private dining room for ladies” in the late 1940s.³

Ulysses Grant Bell, Sr. was born in Pitt County in 1894. He married Rosa E. Gray in 1915 and worked as a farmer during the early years of their marriage. Bell was a prominent local businessman and fraternal leader. In addition to operating the cafe, Bell was instrumental to the establishment of the Eastern Tar River Credit River Union (which found a home at 604 Albemarle Avenue in the early 1950s), Cornerstone Baptist Church, local housing for African Americans, and numerous other enterprises. He was active in the NC IBPOEW, Knights of Pythian, Courts of Calanthe, the Elks, and the Odd Fellows.  Bell served as a Deacon at Cornerstone Baptist Church for more than 30 years. A neighbor remembered him as a formal man who liked stylish hats, wore spats on his shoes, and “almost danc[ed] with his cane” as he walked.⁴

Grant Bell, Sr. passed away in 1961.⁵

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022

Notes

1. Victor Green, 1947 Green Book, 65; Green, 1948 Green Book, 62; Green, 1949 Green Book, 56; Green, 1950 Green Book, 62; Green, 1951 Green Book, 53; Green, 1952 Green Book, 53; Green, 1953 Green Book, 53;  Victor Green, 1954 Green Book, 53; Green, 1955 Green Book, 53;  Victor Green, 1956 Green Book, 46; Green, 1957 Green Book, 46; Green, 1959 Green Book, 51; Victor Green, 1960 Green Book, 73; Green, 1961 Green Book, 68; Green, 1962 Green Book, 74; Green, 1963-1964 Green Book, 58; Green, 1966-1967 Green Book, 58.
2. “Grant Bell & Sons” (ad), The Carolinian, September 7, 1946, digital image 13, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org; “Grant Bell Sr. Funeralized at Greenville,” The Carolinian, July 29, 1961, digital image 2, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org; Miller’s 1936-1937 Greenville City Directory, 111 (alphabetical listing); 1930 United States Federal Census, Ward 2, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Grant Bell,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; The Pitt-Greenville Convention & Visitors Authority, “African American Cultural Trail of Greenville-Pitt County,” Greenville, North Carolina, https://www.visitgreenvillenc.com/african-american-cultural-trail/; Miller’s 1951-1952 Greenville City Directory, 357 (street listing); Millard Filmore Bell, June 9, 1919, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, US World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Charles Lindburgh Bell, September 15, 1928, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, US World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, accessed from www.ancestry.com;  Coscolluela, Nicole, Malorey Henderson, and Claire Kempa, “North Carolina Green Books Historic Preservation Study Report: Beaufort, Bertie, Caldwell, Davidson, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Guilford, Iredell, Nash, Pasquotank, Pitt, Rowan, and Wilson Counties,” HI 587: Cultural Resource Management, North Carolina State University, Spring 2016, 62. 
3. “Grant Bell & Sons” (ad), The Carolinian, September 7, 1946, digital image 13, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org.
4. “African American Artists of Los Angeles oral history transcript: John W. Outterbridge,” 1989-1990, UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research interview transcripts and recordings, UCLA, Library Special Collections, Center for Oral History Research, Calisphere, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb229006xm/, 36; Grant Bell and Rosa E. Gray, April 7, 1915, Pitt County, North Carolina, US Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1920 United States Federal Census, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Grant Bell,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Grant Bell, Greenville, Succumbs” (obituary), The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), July 18, 1961, 5, accessed from www.newspapers.com;  “Grant Bell Sr. Funeralized at Greenville,” The Carolinian, July 29, 1961, digital image 2, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org.
5.  “Grant Bell, Greenville, Succumbs” (obituary), The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), July 18, 1961, 5, accessed from www.newspapers.com;  “Grant Bell Sr. Funeralized at Greenville,” The Carolinian, July 29, 1961, digital image 2, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org.