Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
1995-07-05
Section: METRO
Edition: ONE - FOUR
Page: 1C

PROPRIETOR OF THE PUMP HOUSE PUTS CLOSED' SIGN ON EATERY FOR GOOD

   DEBORAH PARKHILL MULLIS, Staff Writer

Folks who frequented north Charlotte's Pump House Restaurant for ``country cookin' the way it was meant to be'' will have to find another place to eat.

The owner and operator, Edith Howell, 77, retired last week after serving food from the plain, concrete-block building on the corner of Statesville Road and Lake Road for more than 30 years. A catering company has leased the building but does not plan now to open a restaurant. 

``I hope I have a happy retirement but I love working,'' Howell said Friday morning.  She had already fried country-style steaks, soaked pinto beans and boiled tea bags; it was business as usual, except for a lack of corn bread.

``I didn't make corn bread today. I buggered out. . . . Too excited, I guess,'' said Howell, plunging her hands into the deep pockets of her red gingham apron.

Flowers from family members and friends filled one end of the soda fountain counter - a tribute to the woman who's nourished north Charlotte's Nevins Community in many ways for many years.

``This neighborhood is going to miss her,'' said Teena Hunt, who was the only other employee at the restaurant in recent years. ``She went out her way to do things for people.''

Some of those things, said Howell's daughter Elaine Bailes, included sending hot meals to homebound neighbors, feeding folks who couldn't afford to pay and providing a gathering place for neighborhood teenagers.

In the mid-1960s - about the time her business began to boom - Howell decided to do something to entertain teenagers in the community. On Saturday nights, tables and chairs were pushed aside and local bands played at the Pump House.

``When (teenagers) came into mother's restaurant they were very respectful or mother would not let them come back,'' said Bailes. ``No cursing, no drinking. She had a very well behaved crowd for a 5-foot-5-inch petite female.''

``I've always talked to my customers just like they were my children or my brothers and sisters. It's been such a joy,'' said Howell. ``Lots of them call me Granny now but they used to call me Mama.''

Howell served three meals a day, six days a week for years to customers she says ranged ``from muddy boots to three-piece suits.'' Before I-77 opened, truckers traveling Statesville Road were a big part of her business. ``I fixed 40 to 50 go boxes' a night for the freight-liners,'' she said.

``It's like Mom's second kitchen,'' said Melvin Sanders of Fontaine Transport Equipment Co., a patron of the Pump House for 22 years. ``Even when we had a 30-minute lunch we would run up here, grab some good food and eat it on the way back. It made our day.''

Howell was raised on a 70-acre farm off Idlewild Road. She first baked bread at the age of 5. ``Daddy made a stool because I wasn't tall enough to reach the top of the work table,'' she said.

In 1939, she married Dewey McDonald Howell and they had three children. When her husband was disabled, she went into the restaurant business.

She started humbly enough. She sold snacks from 300 square feet of rented space in the back of the building that became the Pump House Restaurant. Eventually, the restaurant grew to seat 70 people.

She shared that space with Howard Stewart, owner of A&A Pump Service. Howell took phone messages for Stewart's well-drilling business. Hence, the restaurant's name.

``She sold candy out the back door,'' joked Stewart. The Pump House Restaurant was never listed in the phone book. Folks had to call A&A Pump Service to place an order.

The only advertising ever needed was Howell's home cooking, community mindedness and sense of humor. 

Photo by the Associated Press: Calling it quits: Edith Howell (standing, left), 77, talks with some of her last customers on the eve of closing her Pump House Restaurant for retirement. Howell has operated the Charlotte restaurant on Statesville Road for more than 30 years.