Last week’s fire was not the only Last week’s fire was not the first disaster to hit Carrollton Avenue. The street has seen everything, including a flood.
Although it only took a few hours for the fire to take down almost half of the historic city block, memories of this once booming area of town will continue to live on.
Greenwood came to life because of the railroad that ran between Carrollton and Johnson. It was where soldiers would get on and off during the Civil War, Lise Foy, executive director of Main Street Greenwood, said.
Although it wasn’t the original business district, it grew to be the nucleus of the town during the 1900s.
“It was once big and booming,” Foy said. “There were a couple of movie theaters and a barbershop.”
Residents, like Allan Hammons, president of Hammons and Associates Advertising, who lived in Greenwood during the 1950s, remember the hustle and bustle that came with Friday and Saturday night on Carrollton.
“Almost all of the stores on that road had awnings and a light bulb,” Hammons said. “At night when they turned the lights on, it almost had the appearance of a carnival.”
Murray Kornfeld, owner of Kornfeld’s Inc. on Johnson Street, remembers walking in the streets instead of on the sidewalks because there were too many people.
“There was lots of congestion with people, people on the streets, people in the stores” Hammons said.
Just like most carnivals, not only were there people in the streets, but a local juke joints on Johnson would leave its doors open.
“You could hear the music up and down the street,” Kornfeld said.
With a relaxed feel and lower-end shops then on Howard Street, it was the place for the every man.
“It catered to sharecroppers who had needs,” Hammons said.
Kornfeld said farmers would come in on a Friday and stay until Sunday night because there was everything they needed for shopping and entertainment.
“In the Greenwood shopping area, people who didn’t have cars walked Carrollton and Johnson and those that had cars went to Howard,” Kornfeld said.
Transportation dictated the success of downtown Greenwood. Carrollton Avenue was along the railroad track and not far from the Greyhound Station.
“One of the more curious sights on that road was a series of small filling stations, one went a whole city block and had a pump on each end,” Hammons said. “It was in the skinny area between Johnson and the tracks, and people would crowd onto the tiny area.”
There was a real need for transport in the area.
“Back in those days if you went to the Greyhound there would be about 10 buses waiting to load and unload,” Hammons said. “They would be parked in the station and along the roads.”
After people arrived by train or bus, it was just a short distance to Carrollton, which had the Midway Hotel, Greenwood Hotel and lots of shopping.
Kornfeld said he remembers going to the Midway Hotel, with it’s little hexagon or octagon tiles, on rare occasions when his father would do business with a traveling salesman. But he would often run supplies over to the Greenwood Hotel from his family’s store on Johnson.
The Midway Hotel was sold and eventually became an antique shop. The Greenwood Hotel became Ralph Campbell’s Sporting Goods store before turning into today’s Crystal Grill, Kornfeld said.
For a small town, some big names came out of the family businesses, Kornfeld said.
Carrollton Avenue was home to Jake Stein’s store, which moved to Greenville and became known as Stein Mart after Jay Stein took over, and Max Plitz’s Department Store, which also moved to Greenville, is now J Hub’s.
The road was also home to Star Taylor’s Department Store, B&R Department Store and, where last week’s fire was, Orlansky’s Department Store.
“Just in my short 60 years, they just about didn’t need any more department stores in Greenwood,” Kornfeld said. “All this because of the railroad.”
Hammons said it was a busy time, and it was like that across the Delta. There were more people in the region and people of all ethnic backgrounds living together.
“It was a microcosm of a big city, there was a large Asian population, Italians, Jewish and Syrians,” Hammons said.
By the 1960s, business on Carrollton and Johnson began to wane.
“The Civil Rights movement began and people were being displaced,” Hammons said. “People found themselves moving to the North and the Mid-west. It changed everything.”
As the times changed so did the town structure.
“Downtown was the core and then everything started pulling outward,” Kornfeld said. “Once you lose the traffic, you lose the downtown.”
Kornfeld said saving Carrollton and Johnson needed to have started yesterday but local officials are making progress.
“I have my grant paper in my briefcase,” Kornfeld said.
From trains and horse-drawn carriages to buses and automobiles, Carrollton Avenue and its people have a rich history that continues to be preserved by local historians.
