| Summary: | This image is a photograph used in the book Auburn, a Pictorial History of the Loveliest Village by Mickey Logue and Jack Simms, 3rd edition, 2013, depicting the history of the city and the university. From page 121: Eston Melton was Auburn's first licensed black plumber. His work cap, cigar, and reliable work as a plumber were already widely known when the Auburn Bulletin printed this photograph in the 1970s. Yet, about a half century earlier, he had pushed a wheelbarrow for 20 cents an hour in helping build Ramsay Hall. For about ten years he later handled most of API's plumbing and electrical work, either doing the work himself or supervising students who did it. He was one of the first employees that Director B. T. Simms hired at the USDA's Regional Animal Disease Lab in 1938. During World War II, Melton "was a plumber and mechanic at the Charleston, S.C., naval base and mainly worked on submarines, installing such things as torpedo tubing," Owen Davis reported. Melton "[went] into business for himself in 1952," putting the plumbing in more houses over the years than he could remember. He was a founder of Bell Missionary Baptist Church, driving the first nail in the original wooden building. Photo source: Auburn Bulletin.
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