Harris East End Gulf Service Station

Harris East End Gulf Service Station was listed in the Green Book as “Harris East End Gulf Service Station, Complete Auto Service and Travel Information, 2011 E. Market Street, Greensboro, NC” in 1961.¹

Taylor Bryant Harris became a co-owner of East End Service Station (along with James McMillian) in 1956. Located at 2011 E. Market Street, the service station offered gasoline, food, and other needs to travelers driving through Greensboro. The building was constructed in 1953.²

Taylor B. Harris was born in Perry County, Alabama in 1911 and moved to Greensboro in the late 1930s. He lived at 425 Mayo Street and then with his uncle’s family at 418 Boyd Street. He left Greensboro for a brief period and married Arabella W. McMillion in Wilmington, Delaware. The couple returned to Greensboro in 1949. He worked as a laborer at Swift & Company, a painter at A&T College, a fireman at A&T College, and a city firefighter prior to opening the service station. He continued to work as a fireman at A&T College through the early 1960s.³

The service station closed in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Taylor Harris moved to Fair Oaks, California for a time, where he operated a taxi. He passed away in Greensboro, NC in 1990.⁴

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2024

Notes

1. Victor Green, 1961 Green Book, 68.
2. Hill’s Greensboro City Directory, 1954-1957;  “2011 E. Market Street, Building Details,” Guilford County Real Property Data, Guilford County Tax Department, http://taxcama.guilfordcountync.gov/camapwa/DeedDetails.aspx?PARCELPK=1…;
3.  Hill’s Greensboro City Directory, 1934-1967, 1974; “Taylor Harris,” June 12, 1990, Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina Deaths and Burials, accessed from www.familysearch.org; “Taylor Harris,” November 18, 2911, Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina, US World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Mary Bell Harris,” Ridge Road, Perryville, Perry County, Alabama, 1920 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Taylor B. Harris,” Centreville, Bibb County, Alabama, 1930 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Taylor Harris,” 418 Boyd Street, Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina, 1940 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Taylor Bryant Harris” (obituary), The News and Record (Greensboro, NC), June 14, 1990, accessed from https://greensboro.com/guilford-county-obituaries/article_cb4dcde5-dc55-586e-a0ae-20af8431912d.html.
4. “Taylor Bryant Harris” (obituary), The News and Record (Greensboro, NC), June 14, 1990, accessed from https://greensboro.com/guilford-county-obituaries/article_cb4dcde5-dc55….