The most famous watermelons in Philly, for 75 years and counting

Through four generations and 75 years of selling watermelons curbside in West Philadelphia, the Carter family has developed a grand unified theory of how to choose the perfect melon.

Some people swear by the color of the belly or the distance between the stripes, or they’ll put a piece of straw on top and see if it spins. The Carters don’t pay any of that any mind.

Instead, they cradle a melon like a baby and thump it, tuning in to its vibrations and listening to its tones. If it gives off a certain hollow sound, the watermelon is ripe and ready to eat.

“We try to give a person a melon tailor-made to their desire,” said Joshua Carter Sr., who is 79 and has worked at the watermelon stand since he was 5. “Just like you would go and get a dress made or a suit made to your desire. That’s the same way we give a person a melon.”

Carter’s Melons, sold on the corner of 52nd and Spruce, and by the side of the bustling intersection at 84th and Lindbergh, are the most famous watermelons in Philadelphia. They have outlasted every fad diet (for the past year, it’s been watermelon-only fasts) and supermarket trend (seeds are in). The watermelons’ price fluctuates, like lobster, generally ranging from $10 to $25 based on the size of the melon.

During watermelon season, from April to September, the family sells melons 7 days a week, rain or shine, at the two locations. At each site, they display heaps of watermelons on cardboard on the ground; some are sliced open to show off their glistening interiors and to entice passersby. Incense sticks burn in the ground to ward off flies.

Some customers return decade after decade; others were recently lured by an Instagram post.

Jaquain Holde was delivering a DoorDash order to the Carters when he spotted the orange-meat melon they were selling at 84th and Lindbergh.

“It was the color that caught me!” Holde said as he paid.

Joshua Carter likes to say that people are eating more watermelons now than ever before. He can tick off their health benefits: packed with vitamin C and potassium, good for high blood pressure and hydration. He says the seeds and rinds blended together are “better than Viagra.” There is no research to back that particular claim up, but research does suggest that watermelons have high concentrations of certain antioxidants — compounds that counteract cell-damaging unstable molecules in the body called free radicals.

“I need one!” a woman shouted from her car as she pulled up to Lindbergh Boulevard on a recent afternoon and surveyed the sea of green melons.

Carter’s Melons was founded by the family patriarch, Joshua’s father, Dover V. Carter, in 1950, soon after he moved to Philadelphia.

Carter was a civil rights activist. In Montgomery County, Ga., he was the founder and president of the NAACP, and he organized Black voters to go the polls in the 1948 Democratic primary. For that act of defiance, two white men brutally beat him and warned him against transporting any more Black voters to polling sites, according to the Atlanta Daily World. Then two white men shot and killed Carter’s good friend, Isaiah Nixon, a Black father of six who had also exercised his right to vote.

» READ MORE: ‘Nothing but watermelons since 1950.’ A Philly fruit stand celebrates 70 years.

At the time, Carter reported the assault and killing to the FBI, which launched an investigation and left a historical record. Ultimately, none of the men involved in the violence were convicted, according to previous Inquirer reporting. The story was the basis of the first season of the NPR podcast “Buried Truths."

Dover, his wife, and their 10 children fled to Philadelphia. He needed work to support his large and growing family.

“My father did what he knew how to do best, and that was sell melons,” Joshua Carter said. “He was a farmer.”

Carter’s Melons started in the Mantua neighborhood known as the Bottom and moved to the 84th and Lindbergh location in 1984. The family started a second site at 52nd and Pine (or Spruce when there’s construction) last year. Joshua branded the second location “Dov-Bes Carter’s Melons,” an homage to his father’s name (Dover) and his mother’s name (Bessie) that also sounds like “the best” in a Southern drawl, he said. Carter’s Melons also recently started delivering throughout West Philly. (To place an order, customers can call 267-247-2835).

The family buys seeded melons wholesale from the produce market in Southwest Philadelphia or gets them shipped: At the beginning of the season, they come from Texas and Florida, and as the summer beats on, they come from Georgia, the Carolinas, Maryland, and Delaware. (Joshua Carter said the Maryland ones are particularly sweet this year).

Depending on the day, the Carters sell a variety: yellow meat; orange meat; sangrias (oblong, seeded red melons); jubilees (also known as rattlesnakes for their light green stripes); and sugar babies (dark green melons that are red inside and extremely sweet).

Jeremiah Carter, Joshua Carter’s 47-year-old son, sorts and grades the watermelons at purchase, making sure they only buy the best. Though he also works as a certified peer specialist for United Peers, a recovery center for people dealing with mental health disorders, Jeremiah has sold watermelons since he was about 7.

That’s part of what customers pay for.

“It’s not real rocket science toward doing this, but you have to be seasoned,” Jeremiah said.

Joshua’s brother, Elijah Carter, ran the 84th and Lindbergh location for 40 years. Last summer Elijah died, and his two sons, Corey and Kyle Carter, took it over.

At first Corey was torn about taking it on — he knew how much work it was, how hot and long the summer days could be. But before his father died, he wanted to make sure the business would keep going.

“I know if we didn’t do it, then we would lose it,” Corey said. He planted zinnias at the melon stand in his father’s honor and now greets his father’s former customers. One of his own sons, Masai, who is 13, now helps out. (Masai said he is planning to be a Realtor when he grows up).

“It’s been years. I’ve always came up here,” said Keisha Ware on a recent afternoon, as she bought an orange seeded melon. “They choose for me. I let them know I want a good, sweet, nice, juicy, ready-to-eat.”