Hill's Restaurant

Hill’s Restaurant appeared in the Green Book from 1957-1960.  It was located at 604 Red Cross Street  in Wilmington, North Carolina. It was listed in the Green Book as “Hill’s Restaurant---504 Red Cross St.” and  “Hill’s Restaurant---604 Red Cross St.” The shop was owned by Frank C. Hill and Lulu Freeman.¹

Hill’s Restaurant, located at 604 Red Cross Street in Wilmington, NC, was opened by Frank C. and Lulu Freeman Hill in the mid-1950’s. The opening of the restaurant followed a difficult battle to maintain a beach resort on property passed down to Lulu by her father, Robert Bruce Freeman. Although Robert Freeman died when Lulu was just a month old, she and her husband did not utilize the land until the early 1950’s.²

Lulu Freeman Hill was the youngest child of Robert Bruce and Lena Freeman. She grew up in Federal Point, near Wilmington. Lulu boarded with a relative in Philadelphia for a brief time, working as a helper at a soda fountain, before marrying Wilmington, NC, native Frank C. Hill in 1921. The couple soon made their way to New York to escape the segregated South, to find better career opportunities, and to raise a family.³

Frank and Lulu lived in Queens, New York, until the 1940’s, raising two daughters, Doris and Evelyn. Frank worked as an automobile mechanic and Lulu worked as a dressmaker. The couple often had a difficult time making ends meet, and they rented out rooms in their home to bring in additional income. Using money earned in the war industry during World War II, Frank realized his dream of owning his own auto repair shop, but the family continued to struggle financially. Frank and Lulu decided to move back home to Wilmington and make something of her father’s beachfront property.⁴

Upon returning to Wilmington, Frank and Lulu moved to a house at 508 S. 7th Street. The couple hoped to use their savings to open a resort on Lulu’s inherited property at Freeman Beach, but they were faced with a serious obstacle: a court had ruled that the land technically belonged to a private, white-owned firm. Frank was unable to find a lawyer who was willing to work on the case. Determined to fulfill their plans, the couple began construction on “Monte Carlo By-the-Sea,” a resort for African American beach goers, and continued to fight for their property rights as they ran their new business.⁵ 

It makes sense that the Hills would later advertise their restaurant in the Green Book; they profoundly understood the difficulties faced by African American travelers. African Americans often had to cross the beachfront at segregated Carolina Beach to reach Freeman Beach, an act that was met with fines and harassment. This led Frank to open a ferry that, for a fee, allowed African Americans to travel to Freeman Beach safely. Frank was also forced to build a gravel road from 7th street to the resort on his own because the town refused to provide the beach with the infrastructure it needed. Freeman Beach, the only large, accessible beach for African Americans in North Carolina, attracted beach goers from all classes and boasted famous evening acts, including Fats Domino, James Brown, Chuck Berry, and Nat King Cole.⁶

As the Hills continued their legal battle, a combination of man-made and natural disasters destroyed their beachfront resort. The decision to create an inlet at Carolina Beach in 1952 led to the erosion of Freeman Beach, putting the resort at risk. Hurricane Hazel destroyed the resort in 1952; Frank and Lulu rebuilt, only to have the resort destroyed again in 1954, by Hurricane Connie.⁷

Following these losses, the Hills opened a restaurant at 604 Red Cross Street in Wilmington. They also established a Teen-Age Center at 608 Red Cross Street that remained open for about a year. Frank made a final, unsuccessful attempt to secure the permits needed to rebuild the resort in 1967, then took a position as a bell captain at the Blockade Runner in Wrightsville Beach. The couple remained at their home on 7th Street for the rest of their lives. Lulu passed away in 1986, and Frank passed away five years later, in 1991.⁸

Today, Freeman Beach is called Freeman Park. It’s legal ownership is still being disputed by private interests and Robert Bruce Freeman’s descendants. Hill’s Restaurant at 604 Red Cross Street operated as a soup kitchen for a time and is open as a restaurant today.9

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2019

Notes

1. Victor Green, 1957 Green Book, 47; Green, 1959 Green Book, 52; Alma D. Green, 1960 Green Book, 74. Lula Freeman Hill is referred to as both “Lulu” and “Lula” in primary and secondary sources and both names are used by various descendants. Lulu is used throughout for clarity.
2. Assata Shakur, Assata Shakur: An Autobiography (Lawrence Hill Books, 2001), accessed from https://archive.org/details/Assata/page/n1; Kristen Powers, “Freeman Beach: Freeman Beach, LLC v. Freeman Heirs, New Hanover County File No. 08 SP 1038,” March 12, 2009, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, accessed from https://www.southerncoalition.org/freeman-beach/; Lula Freeman Hill, November 9, 2001, Wilmington, New Hanover County, NC, Certificate of Death, North Carolina Department of Human Resources, Division of Health Services, Vital Records Branch.
3. Lula Freeman Hill, November 9, 2001, Wilmington, New Hanover County, NC, Certificate of Death, North Carolina Department of Human Resources, Division of Health Services, Vital Records Branch; 1910 United States Census, Ward 5, Wilmington, New Hanover County, NC, digital images s.v. "Frank C. Hill,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1910 United States Census, Federal Point, New Hanover County, NC, digital images s.v. "Lula Freemanl,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1920 United States Census, Ward 26, Philadelphia, PA, digital images s.v. "Lulu Freeman,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1920 United States Census, Ward 5, Wilmington, New Hanover County, NC, digital images s.v. "Frank Hill,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; Frank C. Hill and Lula Freeman, June 3, 1921, New Hanover County, North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Andrew W. Kahrl, The Land Was Ours: African American Beaches from Jim Crow to the Sunbelt South, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012, p. 166.
4. 1930 United States Census, New York, Queens,  NY, digital images s.v. "Lulu F. Hill,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1940 United States Census, New York, Queens, NY, digital images s.v. "Lulu F. Hill,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; Kahrl, The Land Was Ours, p. 170; “Beach for Blacks Left to Ruin,” Asheville Citizen-Times, June 30, 1978, p. 26, via newspapers.com.  
5. Kahrl, The Land Was Ours, pp. 170 - 177;  Hill’s 1956 Wilmington (New Hanover County, N.C.) City Directory, Hill Directory Co., Inc.: Richmond, VA, city directory,  p. 243, street directory, 146.
6. Kahrl, The Land Was Ours, pp. 172-174; Letter from Evelyn A. Williams to Army Corps of Engineers, May 21, 1979, in United States Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, Draft Environmental Statement: Carolina Beach Inlet Navigation Project, Wilmington, NC, April 1979, p. V-2, accessed from www.books.google.com.
7. Assata Shakur, Assata Shakur: An Autobiography, p. 137; "Beach for Blacks Left to Ruin,” Asheville Citizen-Times.
8. Hill’s 1956 Wilmington (New Hanover County, N.C.) City Directory, Hill Directory Co., Inc.: Richmond, VA, city directory,  p. 243, street directory, 146; Hill’s 1963 Wilmington (New Hanover County, N.C.) City Directory, Hill Directory Co., Inc.: Richmond, VA, city directory,  p. 160, classified directory pp. 147, 212, street directory, p. 159; Assata Shakur, Assata Shakur: An Autobiography, p. 137; Kahrl, The Land Was Ours, p. 177; Lula Freeman Hill, November 9, 2001, Wilmington, New Hanover County, NC, Certificate of Death, North Carolina Department of Human Resources, Division of Health Services, Vital Records Branch (uploaded by user on ancestry.com); Frank Clayton Hill, June 21, 1991, Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina Death Indexes, 1908-2004, accessed from www.ancestry.com. 
9. “Black History: The History of Freeman Beach,” WWAY, February 22, 2019, accessed from https://www.wwaytv3.com/2019/02/22/black-history-the-history-of-freeman…;  Truck’s Chicken ‘n Fish, https://www.truckscnf.com.