Stith's Tavern
Known Name(s)
Stith's Tavern
Address
111 Market St. Salem, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Tavern
Physical Status
Demolished
Detailed History
The Green Book listed Stith’s, the sole Salem listing, as a tavern from 1947 to 1950 and 1952 to 1955. Norman Stith (1886-1940), a Virginia native and self-employed barber, established a pocket billiards business “at the rear” of this address between 1920 and 1923. Stith’s Café, as city directories called it, occupied the basement level of a square, three-story brick building built circa 1890 as a shirt factory which by 1915 was a warehouse. The building stood in a yard formerly occupied by horse sheds serving the busy hotel next door, behind a Greek Revival-style frame commercial building housing three shops fronting on Market Street at the center of town and across from the county buildings. After Stith’s death in 1940, Pauline Cuff took over the business, which included a tap room, a room containing four pool tables, and a two-chair barber shop manned by her son Norwood. The pool room was upstairs from the bar, and was enjoyed by local youth. Locals remember the place as “Pauline’s,” and Pauline as a prominent businesswoman. A redevelopment campaign leveled the old buildings at 97-111 Market Street in 1969. After a period of vacancy, the space became a public park dedicated to military veterans. In 1987, it was renamed in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. upon advocacy by a local group, the Renaissance Club, and regional NAACP officials who lobbied the City Council for the name change. Contested space, this once-important locus of African American life in the center of town is now marked by a park commemorating a significant African American. (Sources: Insurance Maps of Salem, New Jersey (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1885, 1891, 1896, 1902, 1909, 1915, 1923), Federal Census, Salem, 1920-1940, Polk’s Salem (Salem County, NJ) City Directory (Pittsburgh: R. L. Polk and Co., 1923-24, 1937-38, 1941, 1948, 1951), Norman Stith probate inventory, Norman Stith WWI draft registration, Standard and Jerseyman, June 18, 1969, personal communications with G. Thomas Bowen, William Sumiel, and Robert Boon.)
