1-13-2026 11:26pm

Back in the Gap: "Uptown" Columbus and Its Many Lines to Cross

S RENEE GREENE Editor

FOUNTAIN CITY NEWS WALK & TALK SERIES I, Episode 3

FOUNTAIN CITY NEWS begins our third Walk & Talk Tour in the series, walking through an area known to some as "Uptown" Columbus.

It wasn't a name we used back in the day, but it was told to others like that, so we decided "Uptown Columbus" it is, because we needed a name for this area.

UNSCRIPTED AND LIVE ON-SITE

In the 1960s, 'Uptown' Columbus for us stretched below the old Medical Center, from Sixth Avenue down to Second Avenue near Bibb City and the old Shady Grove Baptist Church—which has now relocated to 12th Street in East Highland.

It extended from 18th Street across to St. John Alley and 16th Street, just before crossing into what we still call “Downtown Columbus.”

Downtown began across Fourth Avenue and ran from the Gas Light Company, past Southern Bell, and all the way down to the Historic District, where the refurbished cobblestones still trace a short path to old plantation homes and the site along the Chattahoochee River where enslaved people were trafficked into Columbus—even after it was against the law.

Some Highlights about "Uptown Columbus"

My grandfather and grandmother, Robert and Blanche Doctor, owned their home at 529 18th St, right where the parking lot is for what used to be known as Doctor's Hospital, and now known as Piedmont Hospital. On both sides of us were all Black homeowners, Mrs. Algie Williams and Mrs. Georgia Foster, and across from us was the home of Mrs. Lula Smith and her son, Clarence, and so many others.

Only a few doors down from us was an alleyway where what we used to call "The Pink Apartments" were built directly behind 18th St. They were painted pink, of course.

Our neighborhood scare story -almost like "Dead Man's Cave" in Carver Heights, was one called "Rye Rye Potato Pie," about an old woman (Mrs. Rye) who lived there. It is said that the children would pick at her and mock her as they passed her door, so she would run after them with a broom and chase them down the street--probably because they liked teasing old people. The legend goes that she when she died, she was angry with the children, but when we came to Columbus, she was long gone., But the legend was that we were dared to chant "Rye Rye Potato Pie!" three times in a mirror. If we did, so the story goes, she would appear and try to choke you out from the mirror.

I wouldn't have done it, but I heard some others did, and she actually showed up, so they stopped.

Just a few tidbits...

If you kept down 18th, you would run into Mrs. Flossie Benning's florist, our only known Black/Afrocentric florist at the time who delivered flowers for funerals and weddings and anniversaries, and also made corsages and boutique floral arrangements for school events and social affairs.

Ultimately, Ms Flossie lost her mother, Ms Sally Benning, who was 90+ years of age at the time of her death, and then she retired from the florist business before she, too, passed away, shutting its doors forever - she had no heirs that we knew of to take on the business.

On the other side of 18th Street just before you might cross Hamilton Road was Mr. Primus King's barber shop. As the people here know now, Mr. Primus King was the one who "stood in the gap" under threat of duress, to demand the voting rights of Black citizens in Columbus, Many a time his life was threatened, but this is a city that had already lynched a Black man for demanding voting rights, and most people have heard the story of what happened to Dr. Thomas Brewer, also interred at Green Acres. My brother, uncles, and grandfather all got their hair cuts from Primus King, along with nearly all the men who lived in the area, most of whom walked long distances to get there.

Across from Mr. King's shop was Tommy Wages Motor Sports, a white-owned company, and around the corner to the left of TWMS was Rice's Grocery Store. My memories of an encounter with Mrs. Rice during the time of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination are quite vivid, but I was only nine years old and never really understood the reason for tossing Molotov cocktails at white businesses at the time.

On the other end of Hamilton Rd to the right was the old The Bible & Book Store, some other small family stores, including an "antique" type shop, and a Magic Oven bakery, which I am told was black-owned at the time.

There were two service stations on Hamilton Road, back when they would pump your gas, wipe your windows and windshield blades for you, and add a quart or two of oil if needed. It was a Phlllips 66 and an AMOCO station and there was also a third station further back between Miss Bea's and that end of Hamilton Road. The road had a pretty busy intersection and it was there that we would have to walk to catch the city bus or even hail The Red Cabbie (the only black-owned taxi service in town)...long before the transit was named "Metra."

Across Hamilton Road, there is a Church's Chicken, which was the very first Church's Chicken to open in Columbus, GA, and just above it -on the hill-was the home of my sister's godmother, Ms Charlie Harris, also a St. John member.

Know that there are FIVE videos in this series on our local history, and this is the link to go take a look at them ALL on YOUTUBE.

Also, if you didn't have time to join us and would like to add your own memories to ANY of the series that were already done - the Lonnie Jackson Memorial site on Buena Vista Rd, Carver Heights, and/or Uptown Columbus, so far ... please feel free to send us an audio or video of your own memories (about 3-5 minutes long) and forward it to: FOUNTAINCITYNEWS @gmail.com. We will be more than happy to add it in.