NEWS

In 1962, Ralph Quackenbush opened a new restaurant on North Main Street. Called The Hub, it welcomed all customers, Black and white alike.

Ralph first came to North Carolina in 1959, when he and his boss arrived to renovate an old mill in Cornelius for the Hirds & Sons Textile Company. Ralph, a textile engineer, was recently married, but the renovation of the mill had him traveling back and forth from his home in New Jersey. Ralph and his wife Carol eventually moved to Cornelius, and Ralph became the night supervisor at the mill. But the new enterprise only operated for a year before a split in the Hird family caused it to be sold.

He and Carol had decided that they liked North Carolina, and so he declined other textile jobs to stay in Cornelius. His boss did the same, and they opened the first Tastee-Freeze in Cornelius. The work there was hard –  sixteen hours a day, seven days a week.

To lighten up his schedule, in 1962 Ralph rented a store at 123 South Main Street (next door to Mestizos), formerly Hugo Sapp’s College Cut-Rate Pharmacy. He named his grill and soda fountain The Hub, and as it was just across from the college campus, it was an instant hit with college students. It was also a favorite lunch destination for some faculty members.

Ralph Quackenbush, behind the counter at The Hub (photo courtesy of Carol and Ralph Quackenbush)

Hansford Epes remembers that “for years [it was] part of lunchtime routine, usually with Frank Bliss, probably Bob Manning, sometimes others. Ralph…frequently could predict what you’d order on Wednesday based on what you’d had on Tuesday and your habit of not repeating yourself.”  Epes mentioned that Ralph was a key contributor to the early Davidson Community Players, serving as a board member, a set builder, and an occasional actor.

According to a September 1963 article in The Davidsonian, local merchants at the time were afraid that if they served Blacks their businesses would suffer. Barbers Hood Norton and Ralph Johnson were accommodating Black students, but not Black townspeople. The same was true of the College Restaurant, but if a Black student wanted to come in at night, he was asked to be accompanied by a white student. At the M&M soda shop, Black and white students “were on an equal footing,” although Black students were confined to the counter, and could not sit in the booths.

At the Coffee Cup, Black and white seating areas were separated by the kitchen. From the time it was open, The Hub served both Black and white patrons. It did a lot of take-out business, and, unusually for the time, Black customers, whether students or townspeople,  were welcome to come in the front door to make their orders. They were also welcome to eat inside. When I asked Ralph how it came about, he said that having come from New Jersey, he “just didn’t know any better.”

According to Davidson grad Cecil Clifton ’68, his main memory of The Hub was Ralph, who was always happy to have students there and was always nice to talk to. Ralph estimates that he got to know the names and hometowns of over 400 students in his time. In addition to food and ice cream, The Hub offered school supplies, magazines, records, paperback books, cigarettes, and notions that attracted a wider audience. It was also the town’s Greyhound Bus Station, which brought in more customers.

The Hub was famous for its Triple R Burger, christened “Ralph’s Raunchy Repast.”  According to Ralph, it consisted of two cheeseburger patties on toast garnished with mustard, relish, ketchup, and onions. It sold for the sum of 65 cents; ice cream was 8 cents a scoop and 15 cents for two scoops. According to James Puckett, it was a favorite place for him and his twin brother John, who were persona non grata at the nearby M & M Soda Shop. According to James, “Ralph had a grand selection of magazines and had no objection to our browsing. He made great shakes and burgers, and his grill cheese sandwiches were the best in town.”

In a 1973 article in The Davidsonian, student Joe Earle noted that “a lot of students never got farther into downtown Davidson than the…booths of The Hub. Ralph Quackenbush may be the only official ‘townie’ a good number of students know…The hub was the first place in Davidson I ever saw [and] it will likely be the last place I’ll stop when I leave this town.”  The Hub closed in 1976, and Ralph went into the furniture business, refinishing and selling antique furniture and making custom-made furniture.  When the building changed hands a few years later, he moved his business to Cornelius, and Main Street lost one of its most affable businessmen.

Hansford Epes remembers The Hub as “a center for the community. So was and is Ralph.”

All that remains of Quackenbush’s sundries and snack shop is the fading lettering “The Hub.” (Bill Giduz photo)

In 2010 the Town of Davidson honored Ralph Quackenbush with the Jack Burney Community Service Award. Noting his longtime service to the town, the citation read in part: “Ralph continues to treat those around him with kindness and respect, offering humor, humility, and wisdom to those he meets and knows.”  He continues to do so to this day.

(Editors’ note: Bill Giduz wrote about Ralph in one of our first articles in 2017, in a column we called Distinguished Davidsonians. Bill’s interview and writing painted a vivid picture of Ralph and his life in our town. You can read that article here.)