Those Were The Days: The Heyday of The Block

Ms. Mary Jo Johnson managed the Ebony Grill, located on The Block, for more than 30 years.

By Sarah Williams

Mary Jo Johnson was born in Liberty, South Carolina, but for most of her life she has resided in Asheville. A warm, friendly, kind person who talks proudly about her family, she adorns her living room wall with photos and a large collage attesting to her love for her eight children—Annette, Deborah, Ernestine, Jennifer, Robert, Ernest, Willie, and Michael—and her many grand- and great-grandchildren.

She has lived at Hillcrest Apartments since 1959, and she says, “Hillcrest is the best place I’ve ever lived.” Though the community had a reputation of being a breeding ground for crime—1989 was a memorably bad year—she says that those crimes were not committed by residents but by people from the outside. The crime level gave Hillcrest a bad name and caused her to worry about something bad happening to the children, both her own and others. “That was the past,” she says now. “Hillcrest is better now than it has ever been.”

Ms. Mary Jo worked for most of her working life on Eagle Street on The
Block. She was hired by Mrs. Alice Collette to work at her popular bar
and grill, the Ebony. For the next thirty-two years Ms. Mary Jo worked
there and watched people come and go, leaving only to have her
babies—and then return. When she remembers others who worked on The
Block in those days, Mrs. Georgia Muckelvene, Mr. Willie Shivers, and
Mr. Shuley James are the only three she can think of who are still
around.

The Block in its heyday was thriving, economically bustling, seemingly a
living, breathing organism. Most of us can only imagine The Block
during its prosperous years, but Ms. Mary Jo Johnson remembers it. She
could show visitors where they could have found restaurants such as the
Ebony Grill, Breeland’s, the Royal Gardens, and Ms. Earline McQueen’s
original The Ritz.
She also recalls the many businesses located there: doctors’ and
lawyers’ offices, the YMI and Steele’s Drug Stores, barber and beauty
shops, a jewelry store, a library and reading room, and a movie theater.
High school and college students who had worked all summer would come
to The Block wearing finery they had purchased with the money they had
earned. They came to socialize, eat, and dance. Music and dancing took
place at the YMI at night on the weekends, and during the day
competitive and noisy basketball games were played in the YMI gymnasium.

It was an exciting place to work, and an exciting time. Sometimes people
drank a little too much and would fight, but for the most part the
people were well behaved, well dressed, and they all had one thing in
common, their desire to enjoy themselves.

Ms. Mary Jo met (and cooked for) professional football, basketball, and baseball players who stayed on The Block in those days.

Sometimes people would bring their children with them and ask her to
watch them while they slipped into places children couldn’t go. She’d
always agree to watch them and would usually give them hot dogs or some
kind of tasty treat.

She stated, “It’s going to be so sad seeing The Block completely
changed, but most of the people who had businesses there are gone now.
Those were the good old days,” she concluded.