Abstract of an interview with William Hester, Nell Shearouse Hagins, Hazell Virginia Holliday, and Harold Wiley

Benjamin Van Clark Neighborhood Documentation Project
Neighborhood Oral History Project
Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs
Oral History# 10
Joint Interview
Rev. William Hester
Nell Shearouse Hagins
Harold Wiley
Hazell Virginia Holliday
May28,2003
Asbury Memorial United Methodist Church, Savannah, Georgia
The following is an abstract of the interview, for a complete recording of the interview please see the
corresponding cassette tape:
Remarks by Mrs. Hagins:
Mrs. Nell Shearhouse Hagins was bom January 31, 1923, in Port Wentworth, Georgia. She
moved to Savannah at an early age, and initially attended Grace Methodist Church. Mrs. Hagins
became a member of Asbury Memorial United Methodist Church in 1936. Mrs. Hagins recollected- the
persons who attended Asbury in 1936 up to the fifties were white neighborhood people who lived in
apartments and houses located on Henry Duffy, Ash, and Cedar Streets. In the early 1970s, after my
parents died, all of the whites living on 361h Street and Cedar Street agreed not to sell their homes to
blacks, but eventually we all sold our homes to blacks and the neighborhood changed from white to
black. My grandmother died in 1949, at age eighty-five, and was buried from Asbury, as were my
parents. John and Elma Shearhouse, my parents, celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary here at
Asbury. I still go to Garden City to visit with former Methodist church members. A love of the people
keeps me here at Asbury United Methodist Church.
Remarks by Miss Holliday.
Miss Hazell Virginia Holliday was bom in Savannah December 16, 1923, in a house built by
her father in 1909 at 1217 East 33'd Street. My dad and my cousin built my house and two others on
East 33"' Street. I still live at 1217 East 33"' Street. I joined Asbury United Methodist Church in 1964. As
I was growing up, only white people lived in my neighborhood including the people who owned Derst
Bakery, and several medical doctors. Today, I am the only white person living in my neighborhood.
Frank Mumford, a black man, has been my neighbor for many years (Frank Mumford is a black jazz
pioneer drummer in Savannah's storied jazz history). My black neighbors are far more thoughtful and
caring than the white neighbors I had during my lifetime on East 33"' Street. Many Asbury members,
when I came in the 60s, lived on 33"' Street, Duffy, Waldburg, 35", and 36" Streets near Anderson
Street.
Remarks by Mr. Wiley (who came to Savannah in 1939):
I came to Savannah in 1939 and lived on West Liberty Street off Montgomery Street. I worked
for Mopper's Supermarket for six or seven years until they went out of business. Then I worked at M &
M on Habersham and Gwinett Streets. I left there and went into business for myse~ at Barnard and
Page 2 of2 August27,2003
Huntingdon Streets. Then I moved my business to Park Avenue and Waters Avenue, and it was
named L & H Grocery Store after my wife Louise, and me, Harold. We ran that store for about twelve to
fifteen years. Then we brought property on Florida and Georgia Avenue in East Savannah, built a new
store there and closed our business in 1962.
My wife and I came to Asbury Memorial United Methodist Church in 1963. The neighborhood
was all white at that time, and the buildings were much nicer then. When we had our store on Park
Avenue and Waters Avenue, we had many black and white customers. The other businesses I
recollect being on Waters Avenue were Krispy Creme Donuts, the icehouse, and a Snow's laundry.
There was also an A & P on Waters and Anderson before it was a post office and now an apartment
building. All of the white children, who attended Asbury, in the 1960s, went to Ramona Riley School on
Henry and Anderson Streets. Garden Homes, which was an all white housing development, sent quite
a few members to Asbury. They built Garden Homes for whites in the early 1940s.
Remarks by Rev. William "Billy" Hester (He is in his eighth year as pastor of Asbury Memorial United
Methodist Church. He is also the son of Willie Hester who owned the famous Hester's Club on West St.
Julian Street for many year.):
When I came to Asbury in 1995, Hazell Holliday, Harold Wiley, and Nell Hagins were the only
original members of the church left. Edna Jewett, who is now deceased, was another member who
lived on 33"' Street near Hazell Holliday. At one time, people walked to church as they lived In the
neighborhood and it was a neighborhood church. Now we have a regional church, and people come
from Tybee Island, Rincon, Richmond Hill, Garden City, and Georgetown. When I came here, my
youngest active member was sixty-six years old, and the church only had twenty-five members. The
United Methodist Church was going to close the church, but the original members like Harold, Hazell,
and Nell said they would stand by me for two years to see if the church could be saved. The United
Methodist Church hierarchy gave the church a reprieve. Today, we have two hundred forty members
on the church membership roster, and one hundred sixty are active members. Our district
superintendent, who is black, was instrumental in helping us save Asbury. At one time, the owner of
Fox and Weeks Mortuary lived in this neighborhood. Cohen Hester, my uncle, and one of the founders
of Hester and Zipperer Feed Store lived on the street behind the church. The church was founded in
1909 and rebuilt in 1922. We call the older members of the church, Elderberries. At one time, when the
church was at its lowest ebb, members made clown dolls and sold them to pay the church's bills and
keep the doors open. Thankfully, that is all behind the church now, but they still manage to sell a few
dolls now and then for "old times sake.
-End of interviewAbstract prepared by:
Charles J. Elmore
Project Historian