Johnson's Service Station and Grocery

Johnson’s Service Station & Grocery was listed in the Green Book as “Open year round, Johnson’s Service Station & Grocery, Complete Auto Service, Route 1, Box 208, Stokesdale, North Carolina” in 1961. It was listed as “Phone: Midway 3-3530, Open Year Round, Johnson’s Service Station & Grocery, On Highway 158, Paul Johnson, Prop., 1 ½ Mile West of Stokesdale, NC, 20 miles East of Winston Salem, N.C.” from 1962-1967.¹

Johnson’s Service Station & Grocery was a Green Book business owned by Paul Johnson in Stokesdale, North Carolina. Johnson’s Service Station was a community landmark that also hosted the public library’s book mobile.²

Ivory Paul Johnson was born in North Carolina in 1906. Prior to opening the service station Johnson worked for the Atlantic & Yadkin Railroad. Johnson was married to Hettie Virginia Martin Johnson in 1928. The couple made a home in Belews Creek (near Stokesdale). Hettie  passed away in 1969. Paul passed away in 1972.³

Today, the area where Johnson’s Service Station likely stood is an open field.⁴

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti 

Notes

1. Victor Green, 1961 Green Book, 72; Victor Green, 1962 Green Book, 75; Green, 1963-1964 Green Book, 59; Green, 1966-1967 Green Book, 59.
2.  “Library Reports Monday’s Routes,” The Greensboro Record, May 4, 1963, p. 5, accessed from www.newspapers.com; 8511 Shedan Road, Stokesdale, NC, Google Maps.  Note: This address was found in a Story Map outlining places a person might stop at on a road trip during the Green Book era. The address is near the intersection of Highway 158 and Belews Creek Road, making it a good candidate. Though the exact location for the store has not been verified, the address may have been 8511 Shedan Road based on an online map created for a college course; see: “CURR 308: Detroit to Washington, DC, Brown v. Board” (ArcGIS STorymap), Stop 16, accessed from https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=2d20bd20e4b54433ade06d14c321ff6a.
3. “Ivory Paul Johnson,” 1972, Memorial ID 186562441, Find A Grave, accessed from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186562441/ivory-paul-johnson; “Paul Johnson,” Oak Ridge, Guilford County, North Carolina, 1940 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Ivory Paul Johnson,” February 16, 1972, Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina, US Death Certificates, 1909-1976, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Paul Johnson” (obituary), Winston-Salem Journal, February 19, 1972, p. 5, accessed from www.newspapers.com. 

4. 8511 Shedan Road, Stokesdale, NC, Google Maps.