Arts Council of Wayne County
139 W Walnut St, Goldsboro, NC
919-947-0009
www.ArtsInWayne.org
Monday – Closed; Tuesday - Friday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Saturday: 12 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Arts Council of Wayne County sponsors monthly exhibitions, quarterly Wayne County Jazz Showcase, and many other events that are inclusive for all. Please visit our social media to stay up-to-date on all of our current events. Instagram @artsinwayne, Facebook @artscouncilofwaynecounty.
Paramount Theatre
139 South Center St., Goldsboro, N.C.
919-583-8432
www.GoldsboroParamount.com
Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Saturday and Sunday except for special events.
The 1883 building has had an interesting life, having been home at various times to a synagogue, military drill space, and, beginning in the 1920s, a vaudeville and movie theater. Today it’s a performing arts center, with a schedule that includes musical performances, plays, comedy, musicals, and ballet.
Cherry Hospital Museum and Cherry Hospital
201 Stevens Mill Road/NC Highway 581, Goldsboro, N.C.
Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. (Ring the doorbell when you arrive.)
The small Cherry Hospital Museum is on the campus of Cherry Hospital, which was formerly the North Carolina Asylum for the Colored Insane. The asylum opened in 1880. A highway historical marker identifies the site, which was selected in part because it was near the center of the state’s largest concentration of black residents. The hospital was integrated in 1965, and continues to operate as an inpatient facility. The museum, located in a small house on the hospital grounds (look for signs when you reach the campus), illustrates medical treatments for the mentally ill over the last century, and gives a sense of some aspects of patients’ day today life in the hospital’s early years. The museum also displays photographs of the Cherry Hospital band.
General Baptist State Convention
George Street (US 117 Business) at Pine Street, Goldsboro, N.C.
The historical marker at the corner of George and Pine Streets refers to a location two tenths of a mile to the west, where the first organizational meeting of the General Association for Colored Baptists of North Carolina took place in October 1867. Due to the racial turbulence that characterized Reconstruction, black Baptists withdrew from the Baptist State Convention. The meeting took place at Goldsboro’s First African Baptist Church and was presided over by Elder Lemuel Washington Boone. Boone, a brick mason and teacher was born free in Northampton County and was a statewide religious leader who organized 20 Baptist churches in his home of Hertford County. Today, the organization—now known as the General Baptist State Convention—has more than half a million members. First African Baptist Church, which still owns the historic property, has welcomed worshipers at its current location, 803 Harris Street in Goldsboro, since 1978.
Explore Greene County & Snow Hill
Greene County Museum
Greene County Arts & Historical Society
107 Northwest Third Street, Snow Hill, N.C.
252-747-1999
www.greenemuseum.embarqspace.com
Greene County Arts & Historical Society
252-747-7732
greenechamber.com
At the museum you will find changing exhibitions by local and national artists, rotating presentations of county history, and a reading room for local history and genealogy.
The Greene County Arts and Historical Society, based at the Greene County Museum in downtown Snow Hill, hosts and sponsors a variety of cultural events throughout the year.
Greene County Chamber of Commerce
215 N. Greene Street, Snow Hill, N.C.
252-747-8090
greenechamber.com
The Greene County Chamber of Commerce is located in downtown Snow Hill. You can stop by to pick up information on area attractions.
Jazz in the Courtyard and Greene County Performing Arts Series
The Jazz in the Courtyard concert in June happens at the Greene County Museum, with a box supper before the show. Other events in the series are hosted at local churches and venues throughout the communities. The Greene County Historical Society sponsors the Greene County Performing Arts Series, offering several concerts each year by great jazz, classical, and gospel musicians, including artists from eastern North Carolina—such as Greene County’s own Reverend Mal Williams and Family—and touring artists from more distant locales. The concerts take place at a variety of venues.
Reunion Gospel Fest in Snow Hill
Late May, various locations
www.gcts-sghs.org
The sponsor of the Reunion Gospel Fest is the Greene County Training School–South Greene High National Alumni Association, an active civic organization in Snow Hill, with members and chapters throughout the United States. Elder members of the association are alumni of the Greene County Industrial Training School, also known as the Snow Hill Colored High School. The Alumni Association has a reunion in late May every year. Alumni gather in Snow Hill for a week of special events, including an awards ceremony, dance, worship service, picnic, and golf tournament. These take place at several locations throughout the county. Among the events each year is the Gospel Fest, which features performances by Greene County’s extraordinary gospel artists.
The school was located in the complex of educational buildings, which includes a 1950s high school building designed by the Kinston architect William Coleman, as well as the 1925 Rosenwald School, which features prominently in the county’s educational history. Rosenwald schools—buildings financed in part by the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, in partnership with local communities—were attended by black children throughout the South. Greene County was home to several such institutions.
Christmas Parade in Snow Hill
Town of Snow Hill, N.C.
252-747-3414
www.snowhillnc.com
Holiday parades are a favorite tradition in this part of North Carolina, particularly in celebration of Christmas and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Snow Hill’s early December Christmas parade is a major event for the community. Members of many school and civic groups march or ride in floats through the downtown, and some residents drive their own cars, trucks, or golf carts in the parade. School marching bands, for which Greene County has earned national recognition, are perennially favorite attractions.