Paradise Cafe

Paradise Cafe, located in Greenville, was listed in the Green Book as “Paradise”---314 Albermale [sp] Ave.” under “Restaurants” from 1947-1955 and as “Paradise Restaurant—314 Albemarle Ave.” from 1956-1957 and in 1959.¹

Sylvester S. Wilson (also “Smiling ‘Wet’ Wilson”) owned an ever-changing array of businesses in “The Block,” an African American business district in what is now Uptown Greenville, beginning in the 1930s. Born in 1911, he began his career as a cafe waiter; he likely also helped his mother feed and house the boarders who shared their home on Fleming Street.²

Wilson owned his own cafe - the Dixie Cafe at 302 Albemarle Street - by 1937. He married Katie Hardison in 1938 and spent the early years of their marriage expanding his business ventures: a pool room in 1938 and, finally, the Paradise Club, established around 1940. Katie and Sylvester divorced in the late 1940s and Sylvester married Myrtle Faulkner in 1943.³

Paradise Cafe offered home cooked foods, beer, wine, music, dining, and dancing. A Christmas ad from 1949 noted that the business was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Several addresses were given for the cafe over the years: 910 Atlantic Avenue and 314 Albemarle Avenue in 1940; 310 Albemarle from 1942-1944; 314 Albemarle in 1946 (the address given in the Green Book); 316 Albemarle in 1947; and 605 Albemarle from 1949-1957. The business was also referred to as simply “Sylvester Wilson, lunches” in the city directory.⁴

Wilson owned Paradise Cafe until 1957, when he shifted his focus to a new business, Wilson Employment Agency, also located in “The Block” at 617 Albemarle Ave. 605 Albemarle became Cal’s Cafe by 1958. Other businesses owned by Wilson in the 1950s and 1960s included a grocery store, the Junior Hotel, a pool room, a bonding company, and a rental agency.⁵

Sylvester Wilson died in Greenville in 1978.⁶
 

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; Green, 1954 Green Book, 53; Green, 1955 Green Book, 53. 
2. Sylvester S. Wilson, July 14, 1911, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, US World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1930 United States Federal Census, Ward 3, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Sevester Wilson” or “Sylvester Wilson,” accessed from www.ancestry.com. 
3. Miller’s 1936-1937 Greenville City Directory, 139 (alphabetical listing); Miller’s 1938-1939 Greenville City Directory, 131 (alphabetical listing); Miller’s 1940-1941 Greenville City Directory, 304 (street listing); Miller’s 1942-1943 Greenville City Directory, 319 (business directory); Sylvester Wilson and Katie Hardison, October 10, 1938, Pitt County, North Carolina, US Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Sylvester S. Wilson, July 14, 1911, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, US World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1940 United States Federal Census, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Sylvester Wilson,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1950 United States Federal Census, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Kate G. Hardison,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; (Sylvester Wilson and Myrtle Faulkner, June 5, 1943, Pitt County, North Carolina, US Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com.
4.  “Paradise Cafe” (ad) The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), September 7, 1946, 2, digital image 10, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org; Miller’s 1947-1948 Greenville City Directory, 321 (street listing); “The Paradise Cafe” (ad), The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), December 24, 1949, 12 (digital image 20), accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org; Miller’s 1951-1952 Greenville City Directory, 252, alphabetical listing; Miller’s 1954-1955 Greenville City Directory, 254 (alphabetical listing); Miller’s 1956-1957 Greenville City Directory, 409 (street listing). 
5. Miller’s 1958-1959 Greenville City Directory, 388, 425 (street listing); Miller’s 1960-1961 Greenville City Directory, 398 (alphabetical listing), 434 (street listing); Miller’s 1962-1963 Greenville City Directory, 268 (alphabetical listing), 458 (street listing).
6. Sylvester Wilson, May 16, 1978, Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, US Death Indexes, 1908-2004, accessed from www.ancestry.com.