Ninth St., looking northeast, ~1980.

Floyd Wright opened a grocery on this corner between 1926 and 1930. By the late 1930s, this grocery had been taken over by long-time County Commissioner Dewey Scarboro, who lived next door at 1006 Ninth St. Per the Old West Durham website, Scarboro's Food Store was a favorite stop for children from EK Powe School, located across the street. In ~1947, Scarboro demolished the original frame store which sat at the corner replaced it with a masonry structure, pictured above.

Mr. Scarboro closed his store in 1978, although he continued to live next door into the mid-1980s.

In 1981, Lex and Anne Alexander opened Wellspring Grocery in the space, just two blocks away from the original Durham Food Co-Op on Broad St. (aka the People's Intergalactic Food Conspiracy No. 1.) Offering a vegetarian selection, but open to all consumers, unlike the original food co-op, Wellspring quickly gained a loyal following. In 1986, the grocery moved 3 blocks south to a new building on the southwest corner of Hillsborough and Ninth Street. They would later moved to the former A&P on Broad Street and become part of the Whole Foods chain.

After the departure of Wellspring, a husband and wife team - Ben and Karen Barker, who had worked locally at Chapel Hill's La Residence and Pittsboro's Fearrington House, decided to open their own restaurant in the space. After remodeling the former grocery, they opened their doors in November 1986. It remains in operation at this location, one of the most prominent restaurants in the Triangle.

Looking northeast, 09.12.09

The Magnolia Grill closed on May 31, 2012. The building, as of 2013, remains vacant.

On 01.02.14, the building burned.

From the Durham Herald-Sun, 01.03.14

Fire on Thursday damaged a West Durham landmark that’s been a renowned restaurant, health-food store and neighborhood grocery at different times for more than 60 years.

The Ninth Street building, which most recently was Magnolia Grill, had been vacant since it closed in 2012.

Firefighters were called to the brick building across from Fire Station 2 near E.K. Powe Elementary School at 2:47 p.m. There was heavy fire in the rear of the building when firefighters arrived, Deputy Chief Chris Iannuzzi of the Durham Fire Department said.

Iannuzzi said the fire was under control in about 20 minutes, but it caused heavy damage to the basement and main floor at the building's rear. The rest of the building sustained heavy smoke damage.

No one was hurt, and the fire's cause is being investigated.

Ann Alexander, who owns the building with husband Lex Alexander, was contacting her insurance company about the fire Thursday afternoon. She said she was too pressed for time for further comment.

Before it was Magnolia Grill, the building housed Wellspring health-foods store, which the Alexanders founded in 1981.

They sold Wellspring in 1991 to Whole Foods, the natural-foods grocery now located on Broad Street.

But the building’s history goes back much further.

Since the 1920s, it was a neighborhood grocery owned by the family of Dewey Scarboro, former chairman of the Durham County Board of Commissioners.

The original, wooden building stood on the current parking lot, according to 84-year-old Jim Bock. It was torn down and rebuilt in its present location in 1947.

Bock, who has lived in West Durham since 1929, said Scarboro’s father operated the first grocery there, and his son took over later.

“Mr. Scarboro was a wonderful fellow,” Bock recalled as he watched smoke pour from the building.

In the 1930s, Bock said, he would stop by Scarboro’s Grocery to buy candy on the way home from E.K. Powe school.

“There used to be an old fellow who would sit there on a bench, and us school kids would come by, and he’d reach out with his cane and trip us up,” he said. “So I’ve got a lot of good memories from around here.”

Later, after Bock married, he and his wife would do their grocery shopping there.

“I hate to see anything happen to the building,” he said. “It’s a shame and a pity.”

Designed by Empire State Building architects Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon for banker John Sprunt Hill, the Hill Building is one of the most iconic in Durham

The Hill Building, also known as the CCB building and the Suntrust Building, is certainly the most prominent piece of historic architecture in Durham. Although old enough and iconic enough to be historic, several structures predate the building on this important site in downtown Durham.

The northwest corner of Main and Corcoran was used for warehouse space early on, according to Gray's 1881 map of Durham, including the Banner Warehouse, with its "Drive-In"

Looking northeast from W.Main towards Corcoran St., 1890s
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

By 1906, the city had grown substantially, and the U.S. government constructed a substantial post office on the eastern portion of the above site.

Post office under construction, 1906
(Courtesy Duke Archives - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

From Main St., Looking northeast
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

From the northeast corner of Main and Corcoran, looking west-northwest. The Trust Building (still standing) is directly to the west of the post office. The first Municipal Building and Academy of Music is to the north. This view dates from between 1906 and 1909.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

 Below, a 1910s view of the Post Office:

(Courtesy Duke Archives - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

This view is taken from the First National Bank building on the southeast corner of Main and Corcoran. Moving generally from right-to-left, you can see the Geer Building, the Washington Duke building, the old post office, The Trust Building, and the Temple building (to the west of the Trust building). Only the Trust building and the Temple building are still standing. This photo dates from the late 1920s or very early 1930s.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

In the early 1930s (completed in 1934) the U.S. government built a new post office on the corner of Chapel Hill St. and Rigsbee Ave. The old post office was shut down and demolished.

(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Construction of the Hill Building was begun on the site of the former post office in 1936. George W. Kane was the contractor, and Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon (who previously designed the Empire State Building and Winston-Salem's RJ Reynolds Building) were the architects.

Sept. 1936
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Nov. 1936
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

(Courtesy Herald-Sun)
December 1936

The Hill Building from a distance, from Blackwell St., under construction ~ Dec. 1936.

(Courtesy Robby Delius from Mac Connery)

February 1937
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

1937 - no month given.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Construction was completed in 1937. The Durham Loan and Trust Company became the primary tenant. The bank later changed its name to the Durham Bank and Trust Company and later still, Central Carolina Bank. The primary first floor retail tenant was the Ellis-Stone Department store; Ellis-Stone was considered a 'high-end' department store in downtown Durham - which had been around since 1887 (originally at 124 West Main St.)

1956

Ellis-Stone, 03.20.61

In 1962, Thalheimer's-Ellis-Stone moved across the street to a newly constructed building on the southwest corner of Corcoran and West Main Sts.

CCB Building, looking south on Corcoran Street, March 1965. (Courtesy The Herald-Sun)

CCB remained the primary tenant until 2005, when the switchover from the merger of Suntrust and CCB was complete, and the logo on top of the building was changed.

Hill Building, 2006. The Trust Building is on the left edge of the picture. (Photo by Gary Kueber)

In 2007, Greenfire purchased this building and announced plans to convert the structure to a boutique hotel.

Hill Building, 07.24.08 (Photo by Gary Kueber)

Plans languished, but seemed to perk up again in 2010 when Greenfire received approval to use NC Industrial bonds to develop the hotel, and had a city incentives package improved (based on the synthetic TIF model) to develop the project in September 2010. This ultimately did not come to fruition, but in 2012, Greenfire sold the property to 21c Hotels, which planned to develop the property as the long-intended boutique hotel.

04.27.13 (Photo by Gary Kueber)

In November of 2013, 21c began removing the signage from the top of the building.

"rust" 11.27.13

01.03.14 (Photo by Gary Kueber)

WG Pearson School, 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Designed by George Watts Carr, Sr. the WG Pearson Elementary School was built in 1928. It is one of the most impressive of the 1920s-1930s era school buildings, both in terms of the building architecture and the relation of the building to the site and the surrounding neighborhood, as seen from these blueprints. 

1927 Blueprints

(Courtesy NCSU Libraries' Digital Collections:Rare and Unique Materials)

Ground Floor Blueprints

(Courtesy NCSU Libraries' Digital Collections:Rare and Unique Materials)

Looking north, 1940s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The school is named for WG Pearson who lived nearby on Fayetteville St. Pearson was highly respected in the community for his leadership/stewardship of, first, the Whitted Graded School, and then the Hillside Park High School.

WG Pearson Middle School, 11.15.08

Find this spot on a Google Map.

35.982215,-78.896847

Bethesda School, 1910s

Blueprints, Bethesda School, 04.30.24 

(Courtesy NCSU Libraries' Digital Collections:Rare and Unique Materials)

Bethesda School, 1950s
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The gateway to Durham via its raison d'etre - the railroad line - for 60 years; this proud piece of architecture, symbolizing Durham's aspirations as a city of the new south when built in 1905, was demolished to extend a street and build a parking deck in September 1968.

Union Station, ~1910. Note the original courthouse in the background
(Courtesy Dave Piatt)

When Durham mayor Bill Bell reacted to the DOT's decision to pull back from plans to locate the Amtrak station in the Walker Warehouse, he said, per the Herald-Sun, that Durham was likely to end up the only city in North Carolina "that has a dumpy railroad station." If I were with the state, I would have retorted - "and whose fault is that?"

Neck and neck with the Washington Duke Hotel for the most grievous single-structure architectural loss in Durham history is the demolition of Union Station, demolished by the City of Durham to make way for a road and a parking garage.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

As with stations around the country with the same (or similar) name, Union station arose out of the need to consolidate several smaller stations, belonging to individual railroad companies, into a single terminal. In Durham, I believe there were three - Seabord, Norfolk-Western, and Southern - scattered along the rail line from Dillard St. to Corcoran.

Looking west from the tracks, south of the courthouse.
(Courtesy The University of North Carolina)

Union Station was constructed in 1905 for $50,000 by the above-named railroad companies at the foot of Church St. It was an Italian Renaissance revival structure designed by Milburn and Heister, responsible for many of Durham's early buildings.

(Courtesy NCSU Libraries' Digital Collections:Rare and Unique Materials)

(Courtesy NCSU Libraries' Digital Collections:Rare and Unique Materials)

Rendering of the proposed station by Frank Milburn.

Its most distinctive feature was a 65-foot tall tower.

(Courtesy Duke Archives)

Above, looking east from the Hosiery Mills building, 1920s. Union Station is at the center and, immediately to its left, the courthouse (which people call the old courthouse, but given that we are about to build our fourth major courthouse, I'll call it the second.) The south-facing facades of East Main are at the extreme left (including the Malbourne Hotel) and the old JD Lyon tobacco company/city stables are immediately across the tracks (with a smidgen of the Venable Warehouse visible beyond it).

(Courtesy The University of North Carolina)

Those who feel that Durham mistakenly located its current jail at the main entry points to downtown should realize that this is a long tradition. As Steve Massengill notes in his book, "Images of America: Durham"

"As a youngster in Durham, the compiler recalls the prisoners' jeering taunts from the open windows of the jail on the top floor [of the courthouse]"

Below, the station in 1924 with the train pulling out. The courthouse is to the right, and the warehouses along Peabody are visible just beyond the station. There was also a jail located in the small structure just behind the tower.

(Courtesy Duke Archives)

But other than the greeting committee, it must have been a beautiful sight to step off the train, exit the station to the cobblestones of Church St. and Trinity Methodist Church as the terminating vista 3 blocks away.

A view of the tower and the station, looking east, 1930.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Below, looking west, a train pulling into Union Station, 1940, with the Durham Silk Hosiery Mill in the background.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Below, the view of the front of the station from East Main St., looking down S. Church during a snowstorm in 1945.

(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

The old engines were replaced by the 1950s with the less-embellished modern engines. Below, looking northeast from the tracks towards the station.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Below, the view east, 1950s.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

A blurry color shot from the mid-1950s
(Courtesy Barry Norman)

Union Station, looking south (unusually.) - Summer 1962. (Louise Hall Collection / Durham County Library)

Union Station interior, 1962.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

The rise of the automobile and plane travel were not kind to rail travel. The National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 began a massive investment of public funds into building national-scale automobile infrastructure (the name gives away the 'Red Scare' rhetoric that influenced passage of the bill, deemed necessary in part to ensure adequate troop movement should there be a war.) The same could not be said of the railroad infrastructure, which was showing its age. The loss of customers to cars and planes made passenger service unprofitable, and by 1965, the railway lines had discontinued passenger service to Durham

The front of "Vnion" Station, 1968, looking southwest

(Courtesy Duke Archives)

1968

1968

1968

1968
The station from the tracks, looking east, 1968.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

From the platform, looking northwest, 1968.

(Courtesy Duke Archives)

By 1968, Durham had been busy implementing the Tarrant plan, including punching through a road from the West Chapel Hill St. railroad crossing along the formerly intermittent Peabody St. to connect with Roxboro and Ramseur- the southern portion of the downtown loop. At the same time, using Federal Urban Renewal funds, the city had taken and demolished a swath of structures along either side of the path of the Loop, and was building a series of parking garages on that land. 1968 was the year that plan hit Union Station.

Looking southeast.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking northeast, September 03, 1968.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Looking south, September 05, 1968
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

And the Church St. parking deck was constructed on this land in 1978.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

And an addition was built behind the 'old' courthouse in the early 90s, with a similar red roof, on the eastern portion of the former station site.

The site today:

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will themselves not be realized," said Daniel Burnham. While I'm a fan of Burnham and the Plan of Chicago, I consider plans that 'stir men's blood' with a skeptical eye. Because the thrust of this website is that a group of people once considered the demolition of Union Station, the Loop, the Freeway, Urban Renewal, etc. a great idea. We like to consider ourselves more enlightened, but then, so did they - convinced that no one would ever ride the train again. What is our self-satisfied conviction?

Yates Avenue ran between West Chapel Hill St. and West Pettigrew St. - one of the core north-south streets of the West End - a neighborhood whose early residential core seems to have been concentrated along the Burch Avenue east-west axis between Yates and Milton (later renamed Buchanan.)

The most prominent structure in the 500 block of Yates Ave. was the St. Paul's Lutheran Church - a congregation formed in 1923 that built a stone sanctuary in 1929 near West Chapel Hill St. The church was built by Northup & O'Brien Architects. 

Blueprints of Saint Paul's Lutheran Church,  June 1927  

(Courtesy NCSU Libraries' Digital Collections:Rare and Unique Materials)

Blueprints of Saint Paul's Lutheran Church,  June 1927                                                                                                                  

(Courtesy NCSU Libraries' Digital Collections:Rare and Unique Materials)

Looking southeast, 1948. The intersection in the foreground is Yates Avenue and Burch Avenue. The stone church visible towards the right edge of the frame is St. Paul's Lutheran, and that block is the 500 block of Yates. Other structures visible in the background include The Eloise, the YWCA, and part of Duke Memorial Methodist before its addition was constructed at Gregson and West Chapel HIll.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

This block and the core of the neighborhood were demolished in 1967 for the Durham Freeway. Although the Freeway did not extend north of Chapel Hill St. for a number of years after this, these structures were demolished for the exit ramp for westbound traffic. (I'm not sure what year the freeway was extended to Erwin Road, which is where it ended in the mid 1980s, and stayed until the mid 1990s when it was extended to 15-501.)

Looking southeast from the 500 block of Yates Ave. towards West Chapel Hill St., January 5, 1967. St. Paul's Lutheran is the only structure that hasn't been demolished. The NC Mutual Building is visible in the background, and the white house in the distance is 607 Vickers

This piece of landscape has been fairly well obliterated.

Looking northeast from West Chapel Hill St. at the approximate location of Yates Ave. The line of the street would have extended towards the billboard from West Chapel Hill. 02.02.08.

There is a tiny part of Yates Avenue which remains, actually, which I profiled awhile ago; it has been renamed Conyers, and still has one house on it (the billboard base sits in their yard.)

There is so much unused land in the doughnut hole of the West Chapel Hill St. exit ramp - it's an unbelievable shame that it's not turned into a park, or developed or similar. Several people have mentioned the chunk of rock in the center - it shows how many people notice the little details of their environment.

02.02.08

So what is this? Well, I don't think it started out at this location - it appears to sit on the top of the ground, rather than being embedded. Where did it come from? Good question - it's certainly tempting to think that it was associated with the church, but it doesn't really look like it's been there for 40 years. I've wondered whether it was buried - as a piece of foundation or similar (the masonry work is pretty rough) and unearthed during some construction. I don't know - but it's a good mystery if someone has some insight.

(Above photos courtesy NCSU Libraries' Digital Collections:Rare and Unique Materials)

Per Triangle Modernist Houses:

The Dr. George W. Poland House, originally located at 3129 Arrow Road, Raleigh, above Crabtree Valley.  Over the years, the house became surrounded by commercial buildings and Crabtree Valley Mall.  Built by Frank Walser. After Poland's death in 2001, his family donated the house to Preservation North Carolina.  PNC put it on the market and imposed a buyer requirement to move the house to a suitable lot. Buyer Don DeFeo moved the house to 23 acres at 502 John Jones Road in Bahama, NC in 2002.  The move and simultaneous downstairs addition was designed by architect Ellen Cassily. Walser's son Bern was involved in the move.

The Jones House, looking south from West Chapel Hill St.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

The southeast corner of Willard St. and West Chapel Hill Street was first the site of a modest house. I'm unsure as to whether this house belonged to the Thaxton family or was the original cottage of Thomas Decatur Jones, but this picture likely dates from the 1860s or early 1870s.

(Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

The one-acre site became the longtime residence of the Jones and Southgate families - first Thomas Decatur Jones and his wife Mattie Southgate Jones built a brick mansion on the site in 1888. Thomas Decatur Jones was a tobacconist who built his large brick warehouse on Watkins/Morgan St. and the eponymous Great Jones St. in 1885. TD Jones died at age 37, however, in 1889. Mattie Jones' father, James Southgate, and her brother James Southgate Jr and his family, then came to live with her at 307 West Chapel Hill St. James Southgate had started the first insurance company in Durham in 1872.

The Jones House, looking south from West Chapel Hill St.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

The corner of Willard and West Chapel Hill Streets, looking east/southeast from West Chapel Hill St.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking south down Willard St. from West Chapel Hill St. The Jones house is on the left.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The description of the house from Southgate Jones, Sr.'s memoirs (here taken from a 2002 Jim Wise column for the Herald-Sun):

"It was built, in 1887, of red "Baltimore" brick, two-storied with basement and spacious attic. The parlor was furnished with antiques in mahogany and leather; the smoking room hearth was of Oriental tile. The dining room was "a mecca for businessmen, politicians, state and national leaders" - Uncle Jim Southgate was high up in the free-silver and prohibitionist National Party.

Most fabulous, certainly from a boy's point of view, was the conservatory, which extended off that dining room. It was "a cornucopia of beauty and splendor, even mystery." There were a dinosaur footprint and Egyptian carved scarabs, a foot-tall, marble model of the Taj Mahal, trays of gemstones, a quartz arrowhead from the Little Big Horn country and a skull from ancient Mexico.

Outdoors, there were fountains and garden walks, elms and magnolias, and trees from which to pick peaches and pecans. A wrought-iron fence ran across the front, demarcating this Edenic spot - "like Saint Peter's own Gatehouse" - from the "steam trains and rum-smelling tobacco factories across the street."

Mattie and Thomas Jones' son, Southgate Jones, and his family lived in the house after his elders.

Mr. Jones offered to donate his house - I believe in the late 1940s - to the City of Durham for a city historical museum. The City turned it down. By the 1960s, this house, along with the other large homes on Willard and Duke Street, were taken by the city using Federal Urban Renewal funds (over the protestations of the family) and demolished.

The appraisal picture taken of the house for Urban Renewal, looking south.

In 1967, the Downtowner Motor Inn was built on the site. The Motel, which operated into the early 1990s, was later called the Heart of Durham. (It is immortalized in "Bull Durham" as a motel the team stays at when they are supposedly away from Durham on a road trip.) Personally, I went to the Heart of Durham once for a college formal in 1989 - though I didn't get to eat at the "Four Flames" restaurant.

The site being cleared for construction of the Downtowner, 1967.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The Downtowner under construction, looking east (and down) from the Mutual building, February 1967.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

The Downtowner, in all of its glory.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The Downtowner was, along with the Washington Duke / Jack Tar Motel and the Holiday Inn at West Chapel Hill and Vickers, one of the new all-the-rage motels downtown. You could spend a night out at the Motel restaurant, the Four Flames.

Looking southeast, February 1968.

It thrived for a number of years before becoming the Heart of Durham Hotel. It slowly declined during the 1980s (you can catch it briefly in "Bull Durham" as the team bus pulls into the hotel as a place to stay during an 'away game.') I personally went to a college formal there in 1989. It was pretty seedy at that point. It closed not long after.

The motel sat vacant for at least a decade before the city began agitating about the site, which was owned by a trust of the former developer, Charles Wellons. In 2002, a Connecticut-based developer proposed to build two 27-story condominimum towers on the site, totaling 450 units. However, his financing appeared to evaporate, and the city decided to seize the property through eminent domain for $1.4 million for the third-choice site for a new transit hub and demolish the hotel.

Two views of the rooms of the Heart of Durham hotel during demolition.

Looking south from West Chapel Hill St.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Wrapped and prepped for demolition
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Death by excavator begins.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Here is the corner of Willard and West Chapel Hill Street from across West Chapel Hill, looking south, 2006.

Forty years and two 'takings' by the city bespeaks an Important piece of property. And what do we build when a piece of property is Important? That's right - bring out the glass and steel and the blank-wall streetscape.

(Freelon Group)

The current estimate says that this shiny edifice will be 'occupied' in 2008. A look at this in comparison with Durham's long-lost Union Station (subject of a future post) is disheartening. How fun does it look to walk east along West Chapel Hill Street by the blank grey wall with this towering above you before you cross under the dark railroad bridges? Ah, walkability.

Update 01.30.08: The transit station is underway, with footings going in the ground.

11.02.09 - This is its best side,with the immense parking area for buses minimized, the best face of the building visible, etc.

Much better than the Willard/CH side, which is what you see when you're coming into downtown from Duke.

11.02.09

Part of the wave of new motels that swept into the city in the 1960s - including downtown's Jack Tar Motel and the Holiday Inn. The Downtowner had high aspirations with its Four Flames restaurant, recipient of the first liquor-by-the-drink ABC license in Durham. The hostelry fell on harder times by the 1980s, and closed for good in the 1990s. It was demolished in 2002, and replaced with Durham's newest bus station.

The Downtowner, on the corner of Willard and West Chapel Hill, 1968.

The southeast corner of Willard St. and West Chapel Hill Street was first the site of a modest house. I'm unsure as to whether this house belonged to the Thaxton family or was the original cottage of Thomas Decatur Jones, but this picture likely dates from the 1860s or early 1870s.

(Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

The one-acre site became the longtime residence of the Jones and Southgate families - first Thomas Decatur Jones and his wife Mattie Southgate Jones built a brick mansion on the site in 1888. Thomas Decatur Jones was a tobacconist who built his large brick warehouse on Watkins/Morgan St. and the eponymous Great Jones St. in 1885. TD Jones died at age 37, however, in 1889. Mattie Jones' father, James Southgate, and her brother James Southgate Jr and his family, then came to live with her at 307 West Chapel Hill St. James Southgate had started the first insurance company in Durham in 1872.

The Jones House, looking south from West Chapel Hill St.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

The corner of Willard and West Chapel Hill Streets, looking east/southeast from West Chapel Hill St.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking south down Willard St. from West Chapel Hill St. The Jones house is on the left.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The description of the house from Southgate Jones, Sr.'s memoirs (here taken from a 2002 Jim Wise column for the Herald-Sun):

"It was built, in 1887, of red "Baltimore" brick, two-storied with basement and spacious attic. The parlor was furnished with antiques in mahogany and leather; the smoking room hearth was of Oriental tile. The dining room was "a mecca for businessmen, politicians, state and national leaders" - Uncle Jim Southgate was high up in the free-silver and prohibitionist National Party.

Most fabulous, certainly from a boy's point of view, was the conservatory, which extended off that dining room. It was "a cornucopia of beauty and splendor, even mystery." There were a dinosaur footprint and Egyptian carved scarabs, a foot-tall, marble model of the Taj Mahal, trays of gemstones, a quartz arrowhead from the Little Big Horn country and a skull from ancient Mexico.

Outdoors, there were fountains and garden walks, elms and magnolias, and trees from which to pick peaches and pecans. A wrought-iron fence ran across the front, demarcating this Edenic spot - "like Saint Peter's own Gatehouse" - from the "steam trains and rum-smelling tobacco factories across the street."

Mattie and Thomas Jones' son, Southgate Jones, and his family lived in the house after his elders.

Mr. Jones offered to donate his house - I believe in the late 1940s - to the City of Durham for a city historical museum. The City turned it down. By the 1960s, this house, along with the other large homes on Willard and Duke Street, were taken by the city using Federal Urban Renewal funds (over the protestations of the family) and demolished.

The appraisal picture taken of the house for Urban Renewal, looking south.

In 1967, the Downtowner Motor Inn was built on the site. The Motel, which operated into the early 1990s, was later called the Heart of Durham. (It is immortalized in "Bull Durham" as a motel the team stays at when they are supposedly away from Durham on a road trip.) Personally, I went to the Heart of Durham once for a college formal in 1989 - though I didn't get to eat at the "Four Flames" restaurant.

The site being cleared for construction of the Downtowner, 1967.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The Downtowner under construction, looking east (and down) from the Mutual building, February 1967.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

April, 1968

(Louise Hall Collection / North Carolina Collection - Durham County Library)

The Downtowner, in all of its glory.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The Downtowner was, along with the Washington Duke / Jack Tar Motel and the Holiday Inn at West Chapel Hill and Vickers, one of the new all-the-rage motels downtown. You could spend a night out at the Motel restaurant, the Four Flames.

Looking southeast, February 1968.

Downtowner 12.13.71

(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

It thrived for a number of years before becoming the Heart of Durham Hotel. It slowly declined during the 1980s (you can catch it briefly in "Bull Durham" as the team bus pulls into the hotel as a place to stay during an 'away game.') I personally went to a college formal there in 1989. It was pretty seedy at that point. It closed not long after.

The motel sat vacant for at least a decade before the city began agitating about the site, which was owned by a trust of the former developer, Charles Wellons. In 2002, a Connecticut-based developer proposed to build two 27-story condominimum towers on the site, totaling 450 units. However, his financing appeared to evaporate, and the city decided to seize the property through eminent domain for $1.4 million for the third-choice site for a new transit hub and demolish the hotel.

Two views of the rooms of the Heart of Durham hotel during demolition.

Looking south from West Chapel Hill St.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Wrapped and prepped for demolition
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Death by excavator begins.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Here is the corner of Willard and West Chapel Hill Street from across West Chapel Hill, looking south, 2006.

Forty years and two 'takings' by the city bespeaks an Important piece of property. And what do we build when a piece of property is Important? That's right - bring out the glass and steel and the blank-wall streetscape.

(Freelon Group)

The current estimate says that this shiny edifice will be 'occupied' in 2008. A look at this in comparison with Durham's long-lost Union Station (subject of a future post) is disheartening. How fun does it look to walk east along West Chapel Hill Street by the blank grey wall with this towering above you before you cross under the dark railroad bridges? Ah, walkability.

Update 01.30.08: The transit station is underway, with footings going in the ground.

11.02.09 - This is its best side,with the immense parking area for buses minimized, the best face of the building visible, etc.

Much better than the Willard/CH side, which is what you see when you're coming into downtown from Duke.

11.02.09

115-117 West Chapel Hill Street was the original location of the Budd-Piper Roofing Company - a company still located downtown, on Ramseur St. as of 2006.

View of Budd-Piper building, circa 1910. Looking south from the north side of West Chapel Hill St. (Durham County Library)

The Budd-Piper building (second on the right) during the underpass creation, 1920s (looking east up West Chapel Hill St.) A small, third building can be seen beyond those two, for which no picture is available. The fourth and fifth building are the buildings that constitute the Book Exchange, in later pictures, below.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking west from the Budd-Piper building across the roof of the TO Sharp building, early 1920s:

(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection.)

Looking southeast from the Liggett Factory, 1948:

(Herald-Sun)

1959 aerial

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

111-117 West Chapel Hill Street, 1940s. (Via picture of old photo by George Pyne; orginal provenance unknown.)

The Budd-Piper building and the TO Sharp building next door were two of the first to go in Durham's 1960's building blitzkrieg - to make way for roadway access to parking behind the buildings to the east along West Main Street.

Looking west, 1959 - underpass is at the right edge of the picture.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

After the teardown, but before the construction of the loop, 1960.

Looking southeast.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

After the creation of the loop, 1963.

Looking southeast.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

A wider view showing clear two-way-ness to the initial loop construction.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun)

And another view from 1964, which doesn't add much new except for the sign - can't wait for that parking deck!

Looking southeast

Same location, 2007. Not sure why or when the retaining wall got so high and the landscaping obliterated.

Looking southeast.

(Via George Pyne photo of an older picture; origin unknown) - 1940s. 111-113 is to the left. Looking southwest.

This may be the best picture available of 111-113 W. Chapel Hill St. - a double-bay one story structure that was evidently home to "Simp's Place." It was torn down along with the remaining structures in this picture in the late 1950s/early 1960s to make way for the downtown loop and a small parking area.

RF Morris Tobacco Factory at the NC railroad tracks ~300 feet west of present-day Corcoran St., 1890
(Courtesy Digital Durham.

The history of Robert Morris and his endeavors in the tobacco trade are an interesting, if patchwork, story about the earliest days of Durham. Per Jean Anderson:

"Morris first appeared on Orange County scene .... in Hillsborough, where he owned a variety store in 1847. The same year, he was granted a license to retail liquor at the Hillsborough House, the old Faddis' Tavern of the 18th century. In 1848 he was licensed to 'hawk and peddle' goods in Orange County. In 1850, then 36 years old, he was the hotel keeper of the Hillsborough House. He bought his first property for 10 dollars at a sheriff sale in 1851: 200 acres of William Copley's land near the Pin Hook area. Sometime in the early 1850s, recognizing the opportunity for his services in Durham, he moved to the tract of land that Andrew Turner had owned and took his chances running a hotel there."

Boyd reports that in 1858, Morris moved to Durham and open the town's first hotel.

"In 1858, Robert F. Morris moved 'to the hamlet and with his sons opened a factory in a small house that stood somewhere on the land now occupied by the Bull Factory. These were the pioneer tobacconists of Durham. Soon they took a partner, [Wesley] A. Wright of Virginia, and the firm name of Morris and Wright appeared. Mr. Wright invented a name for the product - 'Best Flavored Spanish Smoking Tobacco' .... In 1861, [Wright] withdrew from the enterprise, manufactured tobacco independently for a time on the farm of John Barbee, just east of Durham and in 1861 joined the Confederate Army. Dr. Richard Blacknall then became Morris' partner. About 1862 Morris and Blacknall sold out to John Ruffin Green, who had recently moved to Durham from Person County."

It appears that it is more likely that RF Morris' son, Thomas B. Morris, was the active partner with Wesley Wright - at least per later litigation over the use of the "Genuine Durham" trademark. Green, of course, would go on to partner with WT Blackwell, and that company would become Blackwell's Bull Durham. Morris grew at least a portion of the tobacco himself; in 1860, Morris grew 12,000 lbs. of tobacco. That same year, he donated an acre of land where the (the original) First Baptist Church stood.

By the 1860s, it appears that Morris owned land and buildings that had belonged to Bartlett Durham - the fact that he owned a hotel with an annex called "Pandora's Box" on the same site as Durham's home suggests that he may have turned the house into a hotel.

1865 map of Durham drawn in 1923 (Courtesy Digital Durham) - I've reproduced the legend numbers pertinent to Morris below as they appear on the map:

"7: One acre tract with log cabin given to George Bradshaw and his wife by RF Morris (Negroes)"
"15: Tobacco factory of RF Morris & Son (frame)"
"17: RF Morris Home and Hotel (frame)"
"18: Double, log kitchen to hotel. (logs)"
"21: Annex to hotel. Known as "Pandora's Box" 4 rooms & attic (Logs)"
"26: Dwelling occupied by JW Cox, owned by RF Morris"
"27: Small frame house used by RF Morris as an office."
"37: Frame feed house in RF Morris horse lot"
"38: Barn & stable of RF Morris"
"39: Blacksmith Shop on RF Morris' land"

Upon returning from the Civil War, Morris had established a new tobacco factory, as noted above, on the north side of the railroad tracks - either in 1865 or 1867. The tobacco business and Durham would grow rapidly from that point onward.

"In 1865 there was only one factory [in Durham]; in 1869 there were four, and in 1872 there were 12. Of these, the oldest, next to the enterprise established by JR Green, was that of RF Morris and Son, who in 1867 resumed the manufacture of smoking tobacco in a factory on Peabody St. just west of Corcoran. The brand established was called 'Eureka' and it bore the legend 'Best Spanish Flavored.' In a few years the manufacture of snuff was added, and such is the origin of the famous 'Ladies Choice Scotch Snuff.'.....The town of Durham was formally establishing itself, too, and was beginning to respond to the new prosperity that demand for its tobacco was bringing. The town as it was then is very quickly described. The nucleus was still Robert Morris' clutch of frame buildings, hotel, and annex, double log kitchen, blacksmith shop, office, barn stable, and feed house on the tract now bounded by the railroad, Corcoran, Main and Mangum Sts..... Morris' tobacco business (reorganized in 1865) and Green's were providing the vital spark which kindled the recovery to come..."

In 1868, Morris was elected an Orange County Commissioner; in 1869 a Town Commissioner. In 1869, Morris paid the largest property tax assessment in Durham, $40.62. It is noted by Anderson that Morris owned significant tracts of Hayti, and sold many of the initial tracts to African-Americans after the Civil War. He is also mentioned as owner of the Maplewood Cemetery tract - his heirs sold it to Dempsey Henderson in 1873.

In 1872, after the death of Robert Morris, RF Morris and Sons was sold to WH Willard and SF Tomlinson who continued the business. In 1884, Hiram Paul had wrote these flowery phrases about Morris and his company:

"Mr. Morris entertained the idea that Durham was one day to be a large and flourishing town ; and, incited by this idea, he invested largely in real estate in the future Chicago of the South. In consequence of his real estate investments, he cramped his tobacco business, which was rapidly growing. There was nothing selfish in his nature, but he felt a great pride in seeing Durham grow and prosper. He was generous to all.

Mr. Morris did not live long enough to see his pre-conceived ideas of Durham's greatness fulfilled, as it has been within the past seven or eight years that she has made her greatest progress and developed into a young city and a great tobacco mart.

The R. F. Morris & Son Manufacturing Co., of which W. H. Willard is president, and S. F. Tomlinson, Secretary and Treasurer, are the successors of R. F. Morris & Son, and under their supervision the " Eureka Durham " has sustained its high reputation as a smoker, helping to give the smoking tobaccos of Durham a world-wide reputation.

Their brands continue to grow in favor and their business is annually on the increase. Besides the celebrated 'Eureka Durham' they manufacture the 'Bear' and 'Gold Leaf Durham' the latter being of a beautiful golden color and made from the very finest tobacco grown in North Carolina, and only in a certain locality of the State. This tobacco, like the ' Vuelta Abass,' is of extra fine quality and has a flavor peculiar to itself, which no other tobacco has.

This firm manufactures also a superior article of Scotch Snuff, equal to any brand on the market. The name of their brand is '' Ladies' Choice Scotch Snuff.' It is made from the very best North Carolina sun cured tobacco, being entirely free from adulterations and injurious drugs or chemicals. This is a comparatively new enterprise, but a growing one. This firm is one of the leading manufactures of the town."

1888 Sanborn Map showing the frame RF Morris tobacco factory
(Courtesy Digital Durham)

In the early 1890s the company built a distinctive masonry structure facing south towards the railroad tracks.

RF Morris Tobacco Factory, 1895, from the Handbook of Durham
(Courtesy Digital Durham)

As described in the Handbook of Durham:

"The factory is a three-story brick, with large two story frame building connected by a passage way from the second story of one to the second story of the other. Both of these structures are situated on Peabody St., immediately in the rear of the 'Southern' passenger depot. This concern manufactures a number of popular brands of smoking tobacco and snuff, among which is the celebrated 'Eureka Durham,' one of the finest brands of granulated tobacco known to the trade. As snuff manufacturers, they have no superior competitors, and find ready sales for all the goods they can put up.

The three floors of the brick building are employed as various departments for granulating, packing and stamping, while their frame building is used as departments for snuff grinding and storage of the natural leaf.

WH WIllard, the president, is connected with various manufacturing and banking institutions throughout the state, either as an officer or director. Is president of the Morehead Banking Company of this place. Mr. SF Tomlinson, the secretary and treasurer, has the management of these works, and has succeeded in creating a business that is well known to the trade"

Looking northwest from Corcoran St., 1900. The original frame structure is in the right foreground, and the newer masonry structure in the background. The Southern Railway passenger depot is to the left.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

Looking west-northwest from Corcoran St. at the Southern Passenger Depot, with the RF Morris tobacco company in the background.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

1902 Sanborn Map
(Courtesy Digital Durham.

Tomlinson and Willard continued to business until 1903, when they sold it to the American Tobacco Company. Sometime between 1903 and 1906, the factory was torn down, and the Seaboard Airline RR built a freight depot in its place. The SAL freight depot was long, low brick structure extending along the northern side of the railroad tracks in the vicinity of the current surface parking lot behind structures in the 200 and 300 blocks of West Main St.

(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

This was the site of the city's first major attempt to deal with its parking problem in 1957 - by demolishing the freight depot and converting all of the space between the railroad tracks and the backs of the buildings on West Main St. into surface parking.

Partly demolished SAL Freight Depot, looking southwest from around Corcoran.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

Fully Demolished depot and 100 block of South Corcoran.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

Early use of the parking lot, looking southwest, 06.25.57
Courtesy of The Herald-Sun Newspaper

Early use of the parking lot, looking west, 06.25.57
Courtesy of The Herald-Sun Newspaper

The lot was soon paved and striped. Businesses on West Main St. began to convert their rear entrances into primary entrances to face the parking lot.

Looking west from the Silk Hosiery Mill, 1957.
Courtesy of The Herald-Sun Newspaper

Looking east from near West Chapel Hill St., 10.12.57
Courtesy of The Herald-Sun Newspaper

Looking north from Corcoran and the railroad tracks.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

By the early 1960s, Durham decided to build its first parking garage at the east end of this parking lot, abutting Corcoran St. Buildings at the east end of the lot were demolished to create an entry to the parking lot and garage from the east. A pedestrian 'mall' and entryway to the garage were created where there was once a short street

Building the pedestrian mall entrance, 10.29.64
Courtesy of The Herald-Sun Newspaper

Parking garage under construction, 10.29.64
Courtesy of The Herald-Sun Newspaper

Looking north from Corcoran and the railroad tracks.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The completed product, looking northwest from the railroad tracks.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

In 1969-1970, a roadway was created from the parking lot entry running along the north side of the railroad tracks, south of the parking deck, and connecting east with Roxboro and Ramseur St. - the Loop.

As for the parking deck, it hasn't changed much.

Looking northwest from Corcoran and Ramseur, 2007.
(Photo by Gary Kueber)

The approximate site of the RF Morris Tobacco Factory, 06.13.10
(Photo by Gary Kueber)

One of my favorite recently-solved mysteries involves the location of the Southern Conservatory of Music once it left the southwest corner of Duke St. and West Main St. in 1924.

I knew the SCM had moved to "Alston Avenue" - but I could not figure out where. This picture from the 1920s shows their 'new' building on Alston.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

and another from 1924

I could not find the location of this building for the life of me. I searched old Sanborn maps, old aerial photographs, old city directories (which merely would say "Alston Ave." or "Alston Avenue Rd." as the address) and even the catalogs and yearbooks of the SCM from the 1920s. All this provided me were some candid shots of young women on the porch, and a proud assertion that the school was "situated on 18 acres."

One problem was that the SCM had a very short lifespan on Alston Ave. - ~1924 to 1928. This made it especially difficult to tap certain sources of information.

I asked Jim Wise for help - who suggested that I speak with Audrey Evans, former librarian. Audrey responded immediately that she knew where this was. And furthermore - the building was still there!

It turned out that my failure was one of geographic imagination. I had continued to search Alston Avenue on the east side of town, presuming that the SCM wouldn't be located terribly far from downtown. In actuality, it was located way out of town - near Riddle Road.

I simply couldn't understand how I could have missed this building, having driven that way many times before. So I drove out with my camera and slowly drove the section of Alston just north of Riddle Rd. And there it was, past a parting in the trees.

I can't describe how amazing this was - since I had presumed for such a long time that the building had been torn down, it was as if it had been resurrected, and I had the chance to see one of the long-lost buildings that I chronically catalog.

The building evidently became a Salvation Army building, and later a "home for unwed mothers" during the 1960s. Since the 1980s, it seems to have been some sort of Shriner's temple (ZAFA temple?) with a lot of not-very-friendly signs at the entry gate. (Actually a Prince Hall Masonic Lodge; see comments below.) This was as far as I wandered onto the property; I understood when I looked for it how I had missed it for so many years. You need to look directly past the gate when you pass to see it - set back from the road as it is.
 

The northeast corner of Main and Corcoran Street has seen its share of building drama. For much of the 20th century, it was the location of one of the buildings on my Top Five list of How-Could-They-Have-Torn-That-Down buidings in Durham: the Geer building.

The northeast corner of Main and Corcoran Street has seen its share of building drama. For much of the 20th century, it was the location of one of the buildings on my Top Five list of How-Could-They-Have-Torn-That-Down buidings in Durham: the Geer building.

Before that, two buildings sat on the site of the later Geer Building: Blacknall's Drugstore was on thie corner, and Stokes Hall (the Opera House) sat immediately to its east.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Blacknall's Drugstore was established in 1873 by Richard Blacknall and his father.

Interior of Blacknall's Drugstore, 1900.
(Courtesy The Herald Sun)

Stokes' Hall, also known as the Opera House, was a performance venue and site of city council meetings prior to the construction of the Municipal Building / Academy of Music. The hall hosted theatrical performances, the Durham Choral Society, and early movies.

Looking east from Corcoran and West Main, circa 1900.
(Courtesy State Archives of North Carolina)

A dramatic fire in 1914 that broke out in the Brodie Duke Building (taller structure mid-block) destroyed much of the block (all except the easternmost two storefronts):

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Destroyed structures, 1914.

A new building was constructed on the corner of Main and Corcoran Streets, modelled on a Florentine Palace. It was called the (Frederick) Geer Building, and designed by Alfred C. Bossom, British-born (and later member of Parliment) and nationally renowned for his bank designs.

Architectural Plans for the Geer Building.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Construction of the 5-story building, L-shaped, with the L at an obtuse angle to match the angle of Corcoran and West Main Sts., was completed in 1915.

The Geer Building, 1915
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Fidelity Bank was the major tenant of the building. Fidelity was organized in 1887, capitalized with $50,000 by Washington Duke, Benjamin Duke, MA Angier, and George Watts. Fidelity was initially located in the Wright Building, diagonally across the intersection from this location. Presumably after the falling out between Wright and the Dukes/Watts, Fidelity moved to the Trust Building after it was completed in 1905. After the completion of the Geer Building, Fidelity became the anchor tenant, with the main branch and offices in the building.

Blacknall's Drugstore returned after the fire, located on the ground floor facing Corcoran, and remained a tenant until 1932, when it moved west on W. Main St. and became "Durham Drug Co." Woolworth's was located on the West Main St. ground floor of the building. The Geer Building helped form part of a corridor of signficant, sizable structures that straddled Corcoran Street. Multiple independent professionals (doctors, lawyers, accountants) had offices in the Geer Building.

Above, a view of the buildings lining Corcoran: the Geer Building, First National Bank building, the Durham Hosiery Mills buildings on the east side; the Croft Business School, and the roof of the old post office are visible on the west side. This was taken from the top of the Washington Duke Hotel; (all are gone except the First National Bank building) - late 1920s.
(Courtesy Durham Country Library)

A closer view.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

Corcoran Street, looking south from close to Parrish Street. The old post office is on the right, the Geer Building, First National Bank Building, and Durham Hosiery Mills on the left.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

It was a popular place for watching parades on Main Street. (Courtesy Duke Archives)

John Wily succeeded Benjamin Duke as president of the bank in 1922, and was succeeded by Jones Fuller in 1938. By 1939, Fidelity's offices has continued to expand, and they purchased the entire building, renaming it The Fidelity Bank Building. They later acquired the commercial structures immediately to the north of the building as well.

John Sprunt Hill was known to have been in keen competition with the Fidelity through the mid-20th century with his Durham Bank and Trust Company. In 1953, Fidelity was the largest bank in Durham, with $27,000,000 in assets; Durham Bank and Trust was second, with $22,932,000. Fidelity never expanded beyond Durham, with one branch in West Durham, one in East Durham, and one in north Durham.

In 1956, Fidelity Bank was acquired by Wachovia Bank of Winston-Salem, and absorbed under the Wachovia name.

Geer Building, known in the 1960s as the Wachovia Building - 02.20.61.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun)

Geer Building, 1971
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Wachovia demolished the original home of Fidelity, the Wright Corner / Croft Business School building and built a new branch on that corner (the southwest corner of Main and Corcoran).

In 1972, the vast majority of the Geer Building (and the Nancy Grocery to its north) was demolished.

Mid-demolition - 1972 (Photo by George Pyne, courtesy Milo Pyne)

Looking south, 1972.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Curiously, a not-so-large portion of the building remained - the part containing Woolworth's.

And you can see that they just chopped it off where they felt they needed to, leaving a chunk of the old arched doorway on the left side.

1983

Vacant lot next to Woolworth's, 1990s. (Courtesy Durham County Library)

Woolworth's eventually donated the remainder of the Geer building to the city in 1998, which let it languish. Fire ravaged the building next door (on the Parrish Street side) in 2001 and caused additional water damage to the building. The city eventually stated that there was a "toxic mold" problem in the building, and asbestos, and that it needed to be torn down. It would be good if they read the CDC page about so-called toxic mold. And asbestos, well, that's pretty much in every old building. But the city had plans.

The bulldozers are back, 2003. Think they cleaned up the 'toxic mold' before they aerosolized billions of evil spores through demolition?
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Getting ready to take down the last remnants of the Geer building, 2003.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

To quote the Office of Economic Development website:

"Woolworth Site Redevelopment"

"$10 – 15 M – Woolworth Site Redevelopment — located on the site of one of the first civil rights sit-ins in the country, the historic building stood abandoned for a number of years, simultaneously growing a toxic mold problem coupled by the presence of asbestos. Noting the serious problems of the old building, the City of Durham financed the demolition and cleaning of the site. Next a call was issued for proposals on the redevelopment of the space, and a local development team was selected. OEWD is currently discussing a development agreement with this team for a signature 75,000 SF building at the historic Woolworth Site."

So, the last vestiges of the Geer Building were in the way of economic development, and the building was torn down. The coda to this saga is the city's attempt to expand this vacant area for their "signature building" by going after privately-owned 120 West Main Street with the demolition crew back in January. But that's a story for another post.

View of site of Geer Building, looking north on Corcoran, from similar vantage point to 1971 photo, 2006.

View of vacant Geer Building/Woolworth's site, 2006.

After this site was acquired by Greenfire Development, there has been much talk of their development of the "signature building" on this site. As of June, 2009, Greenfire released renderings showing what their proposed structure would look like - an improvement over previous iterations that would have demolished much of the remaining structures in the block.

Looking northeast from Corcoran and West Main.
(Courtesy Bob Bistry / Built Form Architecture)

Looking southeast from Corcoran between W. Parrish and E Chapel Hill.
(Courtesy Bob Bistry / Built Form Architecture)

Looking southeast at the 100 West Parrish St. storefronts from W. Parrish and Corcoran.
(Courtesy Bob Bistry / Built Form Architecture)

By 2012, the site had once again entered the rumor mill as the site of a new tower.

On 11.15.12, the Herald-Sun reported that the property and adjacent storefronts had sold:

  A Colorado-based developer with Duke University ties has bought vacant land and several vacant buildings downtown, and is planning a development that could transform the city’s skyline.

The properties sold for $3 million Thursday to a limited liability company connected to Aspen, Colo.,-based Austin Lawrence Partners. Greg Hills, the real estate firm’s managing partner, said the plans are not final, but they envision a development with up to 26 stories including ground-floor shops and restaurants with office space and apartments above.

The project would also incorporate the renovated facades of several existing buildings on West Main and West Parrish streets, Hills said.

Hills is a Duke University alumnus and a father of Duke graduate and a university sophomore. He said his wife and a partner in the firm, Jane Hills, is a member of the Duke Athletic Leadership Board.

He said firm officials believe the redevelopment project will help transform the city’s downtown core.

The firm’s purchase included a vacant building at 117 W. Parrish St. that has interior damage as the result of a fire in 2001.

It also included vacant buildings with storefronts at 113 W. Parrish St., and at 118, 120, and 122 W. Main St.

In addition, the purchase included a neighboring a half-acre vacant lot that had housed a building with a F.W. Woolworth Co. store. The building was demolished by the city in 2003. A sit-in demonstration was held there during the Civil Rights era.

The firm’s vision for the properties that Hills described is similar to what was proposed by the properties’ former owner, Durham-based Greenfire Development.

Greenfire, which amassed a large chunk of downtown Durham real estate, particularly in the City Center, had hoped to break ground in the fall of 2008 on a mixed-use tower on the Woolworth site. That didn’t happen.

Last year, Greenfire hit several development obstacles. That list included the collapse of part of the roof at one of Greenfire’s properties, the historic Liberty Warehouse, following heavy rains.

The property at 117 W. Parrish St. came under scrutiny by city officials for its condition.

In addition, city officials urged forward momentum on a Greenfire proposal to redevelop another downtown building the firm owned, the SunTrust tower at 111 N. Corcoran St., into a boutique hotel.

Greenfire is planning to transfer ownership of the SunTrust building to a Kentucky-based hotel developer.

Paul Smith, managing partner of Greenfire Development, said in an emailed statement that Greenfire will continue as an investor in the Woolworth site project, and looks “forward to seeing the plans come to fruition.”

Hills said he believes that Greenfire was a victim of circumstance.

“I do believe they had a great vision for downtown, but I believe the world changed in 2008 before they could execute on that vision,” he said. “So I think, quite honestly, to their credit, they’ve been able to hold on to their properties and put them in the hands of people (that) can execute their plans,” he added.

Austin Lawrence Partners has done real estate development projects around the country, Hills said.

“We’ve done it, we’ve always been able to do it, we’re confident that we can do it here, but it’s not always an easy thing to do,” he said.

The company has several different scenarios for the development, Hills said. They recently started conversations with city officials about their plans, he said, and have not submitted formal plans.

“They’re all very similar in terms of programming,” Hills said.

On the ground floor, they envision retail uses such as a coffee shop or small market, and restaurants. They also want a community room or other use to pay tribute to Parrish Street’s historic significance as Black Wall Street.

The schemes vary in the amount of office space in the building, Hills said. He said there is a need for residential development downtown that isn’t met now.

“So ideally, we’d like to have it be a building that brings enough density to downtown, so we are probably in that 25, 26-story range,” Hills said.

Hills said the firm hopes to have the project under construction by the first quarter of 2014. They’re still working on the financing, but Hills was confident they can put together a plan to pay for the project.

“We’re in discussions – the lenders don’t really want to discuss too much in detail other than just a sit-down as to what we’re thinking,” he said. “(You) need to dot your Is, and cross your Ts, before you really talk to a lender in earnest.”

To address city concern about 117 W. Parrish St., damaged by the 2001 fire, Hills said they have a contractor looking at the building to see what can be done to it safe.

City officials had the building inspected and an engineer’s report deemed it “unsafe for use of any kind.” Hills said the firm plans to present a plan to the city for what to do with the building on Dec. 3.

“What we want to do is show a good faith that a new owner’s taken over the property, and we will be dealing with that building sooner, but we also don’t want to demolish the building and create additional expenses for the project by something we might do,” Hills said.

Bonfield said there haven’t been any discussions about city incentives to help pay for the project. He said city officials also plan to discuss parking with the developer.

The city has a downtown parking study under way. Bonfield said preliminary work for that study is due to him by the end of November. In some conceptual plans for the new development, on-site parking is included, he said.

Bonfield said he has confidence in the new developer.

Bill Kalkhof, president of Downtown Durham Inc., also said the fact that the firm bought the properties with “quite a bit of work left to be done on the project” was a show of confidence.

“They have moved ahead with the purchase of the property, so they have great confidence, as do we, in them,” Kalkhof said.

The group released a rendering of their proposed structure in March of 2013

That's a pretty intensely boring building. Given what they paid for the land and what they must be trying to project for rents in their pro forma to make this work, I'm sure they are going as off-the-shelf as they can.

Looking southeast at the Regal Theater and the Biltmore, 1946
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Although Dorothy Phelps' book opines the the Biltmore Hotel was built in 1923 by Dr. Clyde Donnell, it seems likely, based on the city directories, that the hotel was built in ~1929. Dr. Donnell's 1951 biography makes copious mention of his various endeavors, but no mention of the Biltmore - an unlikely omission. So the beginnings of the Biltmore are a bit unclear, but it was decidedly the pre-eminent hotel in Hayti, and in the segregated era, one of the pre-eminent hotels catering to African-Americans in the southeast.

Biltmore Hotel, likely 1930s.
(Courtesy John Schelp)

Another version of this postcard has writing on the right side of the card which reads:

"The Biltmore Hotel, Durham, NC. Half block from Union Station. America's Finest Colored Hotel. All out side [sic] rooms. Running hot and cold water in each room. The last word in comfort. 'Do It the Biltmore Way'. Atlas Barbee, Manager."

Ms. Phelps describes the typical scene at the Biltmore:

"Artists, educators, and just visitors who came to see the 'big name bands' and Hayti would stay at this 30 room hotel when they came to town. 'It was the only such facility opened to Negroes,' according to Amelia Thorpe. 'Children would gather near the Biltmore to gape at the buses and famous people.'"

The Biltmore featured a drugstore and grill/coffee shop on the ground floor (the drugstore to the left when facing the front of the building, and the grill/coffee shop to the right.)

Biltmore, Regal Theater, and the Donut Shop, 1940s.

In the 1940s, the hotel was managed by Lathrop 'Lath' Alston and James Baylor; in 1944, Lath Alston purchased the hotel with Pedro Ward, who ran the dining room. Alston described the hotel as:

"one of the largest institutions of its kind in the South, catering exclusively to Negro patrons. It has twenty rooms with ample baths, a dining room serving an unexcelled cuisine and is operated on the European plan. Mr. Alston is a well and favorably known promoter of musicals, bands, etc. He enjoys a reputation as one of the big-time dance promoters in the South."
(I tend to believe the 20 room description rather than the 30 room further above.)

Below, an excerpt from "Negro Durham Marches On" about the Biltmore - 1949.

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

And a brief bit of film on East Pettigrew, looking west towards the Biltmore ~1947.

York Garrett was running the Biltmore Drugstore by the 1940s, which was renamed "Garrett's Biltmore Drugstore."

Looking southwest, 1950s.

Hayti began to fade over the course of the 1950s; the progressive end of segregation meant less exclusive patronage of Hayti stores and businesses, and visitors to town could stay at hotels outside of Hayti. The general economic flight of the 1960s affected the African-American community as well as the white community. Those with means to do so began to move to suburban areas.

The language to describe Hayti in the 1950s is remarkably similar to the language used to describe structures in our historic neighborhoods today - 'blighted''obsolete' structures. The "What Is Urban Renewal?" public information pamphlet from ~1960 describes urban renewal as follows:

"1) The use of code enforcement and public improvements in order to prevent good areas from becoming blighted. 2) The removal of spots of blight and the rehabilitation of structures that can be saved. 3) The clearance and redevelopment of slum areas that cannot be saved."

Should sound familiar to those who follow the policies of our city administration.

Views of Hayti from the 1960s do not show a thriving area, but rather an area that was beginning to see economic difficulty - beautiful structures like the Biltmore looking more faded than fashionable.

Looking west on East Pettigrew Street, late 1960s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Structures to the east of Ramsey Street were torn down by the late 1960s. The Biltmore and surrounding buildings survived into the 1970s.

Biltmore and surrounding structures, early 1970s.

The use of the Biltmore seems to have, um, declined a bit by the 1970s. To recount the story one local told me.

"In the early 1970s, I was working to erect the radio tower for WAFR radio in a building two doors down from the Biltmore [ed note: WAFR was in the Donut Shop building]. We got permission from Dr. Garrett to tie our tower guy wire to the roof of the Biltmore Hotel."

"We went into the hotel and went upstairs - and it became very clear that we were in a whorehouse. Prostitutes, all white, were on the beds of the rooms, wearing only negligées, and there were several very large Black men who were looking at us as if to say 'what the hell are you doing here?'"

"I was 23 years old, and had never encountered anything like this before. We had to go back every day for two weeks and go through the rooms to get to the roof ladder, which was in the closet of one of the rooms."

Soon the Regal and the Donut shop buildings had been demolished, and the Biltmore was one of a few survivors.

Mid-1970s view of the Biltmore. The drugstore remains open while the hotel is boarded up.

1977 (Photo by George Pyne via Milo Pyne)

January 1977 view of the Biltmore from across the railroad tracks. Joel Kostyu wrote, in a rather odd passage accompanying this picture

"Biltmore Hotel reflects the change in the integrated south. Separate black hotels are no longer needed, so the old Biltmore will be demolished. It is reported that it will be torn down brick by brick and that these bricks will be cleaned by unemployed youth and resold." (From "Durham: a Pictorial History" by J. Kostyu)

Great. Wonder how that worked out?

The Biltmore was torn down in 1977. The spot has been some form of parking lot since that time.

Looking south at the site of the Biltmore, 09.04.08. The building extended from approximately the middle of the driveway left to the fire hydrant (notice the fire hydrant in the historical photos.)
 

Carolina Furniture Company on East Pettigrew St., 1902.
(Copyright Sanborn Map Company)

The block of East Pettigrew Street between Ramsey St. and Branch Place was the site of the wood-frame Carolina Furniture Company building. The Carolina Furniture Co. building had been constructed in the 1880s as the "Wortham Wooden Mills." This venture became the Carolina Furniture Co. in the 1890s. The buildings were purchased in 1903 by the Durham Hosiery Mill Company and Julian Carr and converted to the first branch of the Durham Hosiery Mill Company, Durham Hosiery Mill No. 2. The Durham Hosiery Mill had constructed their No. 1 mill a few blocks to the northeast in Edgemont in 1900.

From a postcard - this doesn't appear to much resemble the later mill - given the artistic license used for DHM No. 1 on the same postcard, it seems possible that this is inaccurate. 

One piece of particular uniqueness surrounding Durham Hosiery Mill No. 2 is the fact that Carr hired African-American workers to operate the machinery of the mill, and an African-American, John O'Daniel, to manage the mill. Sources documenting the mill state that, prior to that point, African-Americans has not been hired to run the machinery, based on the offensive belief, per Jean Anderson, that the "sound of the machinery would lull [them] to sleep" - and, likely, a host of other excuses. African-American workers had typically been hired by manufacturing plants only in more menial positions. Carr is quoted in 1919 regarding the 'experiment':

"Negroes had never before been employed in knitting mills; their work had been 'stemming' in the tobacco factories - pulling the leaves from the stems; they had never been used around machinery or in competition with white people.... There was a distinct shortage of white workers, and we could not have manned the mill with trained hands. when we announced the plan, the opposition was instant."

(Note: this is not the mill mentioned by both Booker T. Washington and WEB DuBois in 1911-12. That mill was located on Fayetteville St., and will profiled soon.)

Carr is an interesting fellow - both an innovator/philanthropist and a decidedly paternalistic old south Democrat who was likely looking for the cheapest labor he could find. I like anyone who, in my mind, so resists classification.

The historic inventory states that the old mill building was demolished in 1913, and a replacement mill constructed on the same site. I'm not sure that I believe that to be true, and I don't know their source. The Sanborn maps appear to show a faithful adherence to the original outline of the main building between the 1907, 1913, and 1937 maps.

There is little history available regarding the actual operation of the mill, other than that the intent was to produce marketable socks using cotton that mills typically discarded; O'Daniel died in 1917. Carr, upon purchasing the former Paragon Hosiery Mill on Gilbert Street, renamed the mill in O'Daniel's honor.

Hosiery Mill No. 2 appears to have gone out of business in 1930, and thereafter was leased by Liggett and Myers for warehouse space until the late 1940s.

Former Durham Hosiery Mill No. 2 in the background from the railroad tracks east of Dillard St., late 1930s to mid-1940s.

By 1947, the former mill had been converted to retail bays. Tenants would come to include some of the most important businesses in the Hayti community, such as the Service Printing Company and the Carolina Times newspaper.

The Carolina Times began as The Standard Advertiser in August, 1921. The newspaper was a weekly, which did not begin to flourish until Louis Austin came to head the paper. The motto of the paper was "The Truth Unbridled." Austin was heavily involved in the Durham Committee, née the "Durham Committee on Negro Affairs". The Times was located in multiple locations before moving into a portion of the Hosiery Mill in 1958.

Louis Austin.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The Service Printing Company began as a part of the Times. In 1932, Mr. and Mrs. TD Parham purchased the Times' printing operation and moved it to 608 Fayetteville Street, renaming it the Service Printing Company. In 1939, Day F. Reed, Walter G. Swann, George D. White, Jr. and Nathaniel B. White took over management of the company and purchased it outright in 1941. In 1947, the company moved to the hosiery mill building - into the 504 East Pettigrew bay. The printing company was, until its demise, the oldest African-American owned printing company in the United States. It primarily served the African-American community, printing forms for varied businesses - menus for the Donut Shop, stationery for the Biltmore, programs for White Rock Baptist, the school paper for Hillside High School, etc.

Interior of the Service Printing Company.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Other businesses included Faison's Market (later Johnson's Fish Market) in the 426 bay, Midway Sport Shop (later the Art Neon Sign Company) in the 428 bay, EN Toole's Electrical Contracting business in the 432 bay, Turner's Beauty Shop in the 438 bay, Elivra's Blue Dine-Et in the 440 bay, Southern Cleaners in the 442 bay, and Pee Wee's Shoe Shop in the 502 bay. Around 1949, approximately 1/4 of the warehouse was torn down - oddly, not an end of the warehouse, but, if one were to move from west to east, the '2nd 1/4' - and replaced with the Booker T movie theater. The pictures below are from 1965s, after the Booker T had closed (it closed by 1954) and been replaced by the "Church of the Lord Jesus Christ Apostolic."

426 East Pettigrew.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

430 East Pettigrew, 1965 - the former Booker T theater.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

434-440 East Pettigrew, 1965.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Edward N. Toole came to Durham in 1926 from Chester, SC, where he had been an electrician. He was the first licensed African-American electrician in Durham. Per Dorothy Phelps, he was still a licensed and practicing electrician in 1993, at the age of 95.

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

436 East Pettigrew - The Carolina Times, and 438 East Pettigrew, housing Turner's Beauty Supply.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

440 East Pettigrew - Elvira's Blue Dine-Et.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The Service Printing Company, 1965.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The Service Printing Company, 1950s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Rear of the Service Printing Company, from Branch Place, looking northwest, July 1965.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

By the late 1960s, the western bays (426-428 East Pettigrew) had been abandoned. On October 25, 1969, they were converted to a 'breakaway' university called "Malcolm X Liberation University". The school was an outgrowth out of the Allen Building (administration building) protests at Duke University in February of 1969.

The opening was evidently a festive affair, with bands, food, dancers and singers. Current city councilman Howard Clement, then a community activist, addressed the crowd with these remarks: "It has become evident that the existing educational system does not respond to the needs of the Black community. It does not provide an ideological or practical method for physical, social, psychological, economic, and cultural needs of all Black people."

The school was spearheaded by local activist Howard Fuller, who had come to Durham to work with Operation Breakthrough, along with a group of Duke students. The group received initial funding from the local Foundation for Community Development. By the Spring of 1969, the group was holding classes at the Your Own Thing (one-time Regal) Theatre.

In September 1969, the group obtained the use of the 426-428 section of the old hosiery mill (west of the Booker T theater) for the school. The exterior of the structure was painted red, green, and black to reflect the commitment of the school's founders to Pan-Africanism. Due to fundraising by Fuller and a grant from the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina of $45,000, the school was able to open its doors.

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

A full treatment of the evolution of the Black Power/Pan-Africanism movement in the late 1960s/early 1970s and the difficulty, for the entire community, in understanding how to negotiate a transition from the traditional segregated city to integration is beyond the scope of this site. But, to reduce it immensely - the struggle over identity, and whether racial identity would be subsumed by integration, was, at a minimum, palpable and passionate. The amount of anger, distrust, guilt, racism, pride coursing throughout cities such as Durham ensured that an institution such as MXLU would both be deemed a necessity, and be highly controversial to many members of the community. Per Jean Anderson, Fuller's initial fundraising tactic was to "demand reparations" from all of the 'white churches' in Durham. The grant from the Episcopal diocese generated a furor amongst some Episcopal churches; pledges at St. Philip's (one block north of the building) evidently dropped $13,000 immediately following the grant.

The school struggled in its first year, with few assets available to match spending. The commitment to a Pan-African curriculum and mission strengthened over the initial year, with the school first year dedicated to "reordering of priorities, development of a Pan-Africanist perspectives, and de-colonization of the mind."

After the first year, however, struggles to keep the school afloat figured in a move from Durham to Greensboro, with some small presence still in Durham. The school evidently continued to struggle in Greensboro, and formally closed its doors on June 28, 1973

(Most of this information was obtained from Brent Belvin's excellent thesis on MXLU, available here. I highly recommend it for further reading on the rise and fall of the university and the broader context in Durham.

Looking southwest at the 438-440 section of the warehouse - it appears the Booker T is being torn down - early 1970s.

It seems that the 426-428 section of the building (that had housed MXLU) and the former Booker T theater at 432 were torn down by the early-1970s.

The 434-504 section of the building, housing the Service Printing Company, Elivra's, Turner's, the Carolina Times, and EN Toole persisted as the last vestige of Hayti north of the Durham Freeway.

Mid-1970s (Photo by George Pyne via Milo Pyne)

Mid-1970s (Photo by George Pyne via Milo Pyne)

Mid-1970s (Photo by George Pyne via Milo Pyne)

Mid-1970s (Photo by George Pyne via Milo Pyne)

A fascinating article from 1979, published in a publication called "Tobacco Road" chronicles these last holdouts. When the author of the article, interviewing the Redevelopment Commission in 1978 (the agency tasked with carrying out Urban Renewal) why, despite 106 businesses having been cleared from Pettigrew and Fayetteville Sts., no redevelopment has occurred, the Redevelopment Commission representative points to this one last building on the map.

(Courtesy The Herald Sun Newspaper)

"This block of buildings hasn't been cleared yet, and it's holding everything up. There are these businesses at the end - the Service Printing Company, The Carolina Times, and an electrical supply store which haven't been moved."

Author: "Does the Redevelopment Commission own the buildings?"

"Yes, but those people refuse to move. We tried to relocate them, but they refuse to cooperate."

Author: "Why don't you evict them?"

RC: "If we evicted them we'd have a race riot on our hands."

The author notes that one month after the Redevelopment Commission moved their offices downtown at the end of 1978, the building burned in a suspicious fire, destroying the offices of EN Toole and the Carolina Times. Vivian Edmonds, daughter of Louis Austin and longtime editor of the paper was quoted as saying:

"I was in one of the closets, no lights ... and I heard with my ears ... I heard three firemen, who were standing maybe eight feet from where I was. They didn't know I was there- and they were just hanging and carrying on. 'The boys down at the police station gonna be mighty happy now the Carolina Times is out of business.' I came out of there at said 'well at least someone is telling the truth.' And there mouths went together like that. I said, 'You won't even admit now that you said what you said, would you?' Not a word. And they all turned their backs to me."

The Carolina Times moved to 'Tin City' on Old Fayetteville St. (metal buildings put up by the Redevelopment Commission for the purpose of relocating businesses evicted during urban renewal.) They remain in one of these buildings, since remodeled, in the 900 block of 'Old' Fayetteville St. Unfortunately Vivian Edmonds died in May 2008.

In the early 1980s, the single-bay remnant of the Durham Hosiery Mill No. 2, still housing the Service Printing Company, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By 1985, however, a second fire, also considered suspicious, sent the Service Printing Company out of business. The building remained standing through 1995.

(Photo by George Pyne via Milo Pyne)

Looking west on East Pettigrew St., 1994, at the remnants of the hosiery mill, mostly destroyed by fire.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

1994 aerial showing the small remnant of the Hosiery Mill Building.

After all the land north of the Durham Freeway - site of hundreds of homes and businesses - had sat vacant for 10-20 years, the Hayti Development Corporation brokered a deal with Rick Hendrick Chevrolet to buy the land. The last piece of the hosiery mill was demolished in January 1995 to make way for the dealership, which was completed ~1998. The head of the Hayti Development Corporation said it was "sad, but progress had to come."

Progress, on the site of the Durham Hosiery Mill No. 2, looking southeast, 09.09.08.

Below, an overlay map of Hayti streets.

35.990016 -78.897521

(Durham County Library)

01.28.58

01.28.58

(Photo by George Pyne via Milo Pyne)

(Photo by George Pyne via Milo Pyne)

(Photo by George Pyne via Milo Pyne)

Completed First Federal Building.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

04.27.13

The grand hotel of Durham for 50 years - and one of the worst architectural losses in Durham history

1950s shot, looking northeast from W. Parrish and Market.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun)

Just after the turn of the century, the City decided to replace the scattered offices of the city along Main St. as well as the old city market that was supplanted by Union Station with a new, impressive municipal building known as the Academy of Music, which would be located between East Chapel Hill St., Corcoran, Market, and Parrish Sts. The site cost $16,000. The city commissioned architects Hook and Sawyer of Charlotte, who also executed the Southern Conservatory of Music and Fire Station #2, to design the structure.

Rendering by Hook and Sawyer, 1902.
(Courtesy University of North Carolina.

Completed in 1903-1904 at a cost of $52,000, it contained the offices of the city government and a market on the first floor (thus Market Street;) the second floor was "almost entirely taken up" by a performance hall, the remainder being devoted to a "small city auditorium."

Academy of Music, looking northwest from W. Parrish and Corcoran.

Stokes Hall, at Corcoran and West Main Sts., had provided both performance and meeting space prior to the construction of the Academy of Music (including courtroom space prior to the construction of the courthouse,) but no longer operated after the opening of the new building. Wyatt Dixon relates:

"The Academy played a major role in providing entertainment for hte people of the community. Dramatic plays and musical comedies were regular attractions, and for a number of years, the theatrical season was opened by the appearance of Al G. Fields Minstrel. May concerts by prominent singers of the day were presented by the Durham Kiwanis Club and other organizations, and local talent shows attracted capacity audiences. Public meetings in the promotion of the city's interest also made use of the building a for a number of years the Elks' annual memorial services were held there."

Academy of Music, 1907
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

Rear of the Building, looking south-southwest from East Chapel Hill St., 1907
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

On June 17, 1909, the first Academy of Music was completely gutted by fire. The fire was discovered by employees of the Durham Morning Herald, whose office was directly across Market St. The walls remained upright immediately following the fire.

It was replaced with a very similar building, dubbed the "New Academy of Music." It was the city's primary performance venue - musical theater, orchestra, comedy acts - all performed at the Academy of Music. The market, however, was moved out of the building, relocating to the area between Corcoran, Morgan and Holland.

New Academy of Music, 1910s
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Next to the Academy of Music (on the west side) was a city park; this was the original Rotary Park with its bandstand, which had been established in 1916 as the first public gift of the Rotarians.

Looking south from East Chapel Hill St. and Market. The back of the post office and the Trust Building are visible, and the front of the Jordan Building is visible at the end of Market St.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Herald-Sun employees in Rotary Park - note the Academy of Music in the background.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

In 1924, the decision was made to build a new performance venue (the Durham Auditorium, now the Carolina theater) and to move the city hall into the former high school. The New Academy of Music was demolished. The bandstand at Rotary Park was moved to Bennett Place, where it still stands.

The Washington Duke Hotel was constructed on the site between 1924 and 1925. It was designed by Stanhope S. Johnson of Lynchburg, VA. Standing 16 stories tall at a cost $1.8 million, it was one of the most impressive hotel structures of its era.

I put together a little 'video' consisting of existing still frames of the hotel construction. (sorry for this annoying, cycling graphic - I'm having trouble getting YouTube to work for this one. If you didn't see it cycle, reload the page, as I had it cut off after 4 cycles.)

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Below, near the completion of construction, looking northwest from Corcoran St.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Completed, 1925. (Parnell)

Below, the Washington Duke in situ, soon after completion. Notable structures surrounding it include (moving, roughly, left to right) the Temple building, the Trust Building, the Wright Corner, the old Post Office, and the Geer building

(Courtesy Duke Archives)

It was part of an active streetscape - people have told me of regularly going to the newsstand on the first floor.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The main entrance - approximately 1950s.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The lobby was an impressive art deco interior.

The Lobby

(Courtesy Durham County Library - Parnell)

The downstairs bar

(Courtesy Durham County Library - Parnell)

It's impossible to recount how many events woven through the lives of people occurred at the Washington Duke. I've seen hundreds of photos of group meetings, important speakers, dances, dinners, etc. The Washington Duke was, however, segregated up until the 1960s.

1950s Bird's Eye aerial, looking southeast.

Occasionally, the hotel was the site of tragedy as well. Warning, the below photo is very grim, but it depicts a scene that shows the centrality of the hotel to the city.

"Walker, Raleigh Man, Leaps from the top of Washington Duke Hotel" - 12.26.52 (Herald-Sun) This is from the deck, ~2 stories up, looking east down West Parrish Street.

By the 1960s, the hotel had become the "Jack Tar Hotel" - evidently part of a chain. The impressive first floor was dampened by the decision to brick up the large windows - trying to give it that 'modern' look, I guess. It was later referred to as simply the "Durham Hotel".

Looking south on Corcoran from East Chapel Hill.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

As previously noted in the post for the Washington Duke Motel, the owners had attempted to keep up with the motel era by demolishing the buildings across Corcoran St. to build a motel structure with a rooftop pool.

09.11.61- Preparing to building the motel across the street. (Courtesy Herald-Sun)

09.11.61 - looking southwest from East Chapel Hill St.

It was connected to the older hotel via a skybridge across Corcoran.

Looking west on Parrish St.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Brad Bradsher, whose mother was the convention / sales manager for the hotel in the 1960s and 1970s told me about his experience of the hotel in that era:

"I spent many an afternoon roaming around the halls in the early '70's. I can remember staying there in the '60's when you could pull into the parking deck across the street and register via closed-circuit TV. Pretty cool for 1968!"\

(Norman Williams Collection)

From the CCB building, looking north. (Louise Hall Collection)

By the mid-1970s, the hotel was evidently no longer profitable and was no longer being used, pending needed repair work. As Mr. Bradsher recalls:

"They tried to sell it repeatedly...It just needed too much repair work (asbestos, etc.). At the end, they tried to give it away. They almost cut a deal with, of all things, the Boy Scouts of America, to use it as a national convention center of sorts--but the cost of fixing it up was too much. As I recall it came down to not even being able to GIVE the building away, and it was costing them a fortune just to let it sit empty."

George Watts Hill, the owner of the building, made the decision to demolish the building.

I rate the demolition of the Washington Duke Hotel as a tie (with Union Station) for the worst single-structure architectural/cultural loss for the city of Durham. The hotel was an icon - seemingly, among those I've spoken with, beloved by those who grew up here mid-20th century. George Watts Hill gets oddly reverential treatment in Preservation Society circles in Durham (with various awards named after him for big donors.) To me, that just about sums up what's wrong with traditional preservation societies. Tear down some of the best architecture in Durham (between this and Harwood Hall), but it's ok if you're a generous donor.

Below, the walkway being taken down in preparation for demolition.

(Courtesy Duke Archives)

In 1975, early one morning, the streets were closed and the hotel was imploded. I've made another little 'movie' of a few still frames below.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

A friend of a friend was in high school in Durham when this occurred, and made a movie of the event for school, which is below. It takes a bit to get to the the actual demolition, but very worth watching.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

From the present-day (2011) location of Durham Central Park/ the Farmer's Market, looking south (just north of Hunt St.)
(Courtesy Bob Blake)

(Photo by George Pyne courtesy Milo Pyne)

The more people I have talked to about growing up in Durham, the more I realize that this was one of those major life events that people remember with great clarity - just within the last month (May 2011) I've spoken to three people who were children at the time - all of whom remember with great detail where they were standing, what happened during, and what they did afterwards.

Below, the streetscape after demolition.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Inexplicably, the site became a longstanding surface parking lot, commonly referred to as "Bare Square."

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

When a 1980s push came along to build a hotel and convention center in downtown, Watts Hill made a push for his site, but the city, in its infinite wisdom, tore down the entire adjacent block (the 200 block of East Chapel Hill St.) instead.

The Bare Square remained a parking lot, owned by Oprah fan Ronnie Sturdivant, up until a couple of years ago. Under Nick Tennyson's administration and at DDI's urging, an important pillar of downtown revitalization became the construction of a direct connection between Corcoran Street and Foster Street. The benefits of a seamless north-south thoroughfare through downtown would evidently - well, I don't know what it would do, exactly. But it was Necessary.

This roadway (which I like to call the Kalkhof Konnector) now splits the former Washington Duke site into two pieces, one of which has become part of the block directly to the east. As a part of the streetscape work, these spaces are being turned into a brick plaza.

Looking north from Parrish, 2007.

I don't think this is the way to create public space - by chopping up space for roadways so as to move traffic more expeditiously and then primping the leftovers. I'd like to be optimistic about it - and the prospect of a place to sit and enjoy treats from Locopops on Market St. this summer sounds good. But it's an awkward space. Perhaps someday we'll get rid of the Washington Duke Motel ('Oprah') and build a new, trapezoidal building out to the new street-line. If that hypothetical building had the requisite first floor activity, it might create the kind of tight, active enclosure that feeds public spaces.

Five Points looking west, 1905

Between 1898 and 1902, the Durham Marble Works was built on land at Five Points that would become 421-423 West Main St.

Per the 1895 Handbook of Durham:

"Durham Marble Works: This business is conducted by Mr. Robert I Rogers, a gentlemen [sic] who has for a number of years successfully operated in Durham, Oxford, and Henderson, a business of large proportions in the making of monuments and tombstones, also brownstone and granite trimmings, curbings, &c. Besides his occupation in this line, he has for a long time been actively engaged in real estate transactions, as much for the material advancement of Durham as for personal gain. Being secretary and treasurer of the Durham Land and Security Company, he is in a position to give reliable information regarding the real estate interest in Durham."

1913 Sanborn Map showing the Durham Marble Works

Looking south from West Main St., ~1910. The Durham Marble Works building is partly visible immediately to the left at 423 West Main, and the TO Sharp Monument Company, another marble and monument retailer, is in the background.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

By the late 1910s, the Durham Marble Company had been replaced by two structures - a one-story garage at 417-419 (later 421) West Main, and a building at 423 West Main that was two stories on the West Main St. side and one story on the West Chapel Hill St. side.

In 1920:

417 Paschall Brothers
419 Motor Sales Company
423 Durham Ice Cream Company

1923:

417 Paschall Bros
419 Carolina Battery and Electric
423 Durham Ice Cream Co

112-114 East Chapel Hill: Carolina Battery and Electric
116 East Chapel Hill: Durham Ice Cream Co.

Looking west, 1920s.

Looking west down West Main St., 1920s - the curved parapet of the garage is visible on the left.

The East Chapel Hill St. side, looking north, 1925 - Hinnant's grocery and the Carolina Battery and Electric Company are visible.

Looking East-Northeast down East Chapel Hill St.

Looking west-northwest down East Chapel Hill St.

After the Five Points Drug Company building burned in the late 1920s, the garage structure at 421 West Main was replaced/remodeled with/as Tucker's Sinclair gas station. 423 West Main became Capitol Furniture.

Looking west, 1947.

By 1953, the gas station had become Matthew's Five Points Amoco.

1950s Bird's Eye view.

By 1957, First Federal Bank had purchased and remodeled the gas station as a bank.

01.28.58 (Courtesy Herald-Sun)

By the early 1960s, they purchased 423 West Main and either dismantled it or modified it significantly, extending the dimensions of the former gas station building to the west.

Looking west, 1960s.

After First Federal moved to their splendid new building across West Main St. in 1974, a group redeveloped 421-425 West Main St. as the Five Points Restaurant.

With the First Federal facade taken off, and brick beginning to be applied

(Photo by George Pyne, courtesy Milo Pyne)

Looking west, 1978 (Photo by Ralph Rogers, courtesy Durham County Library)

Completed, 1978 (Photo by George Pyne, courtesy Milo Pyne)

Unfortunately, it lacked longevity. The story goes that a homeless man, seeking shelter in the empty structure, died of exposure one winter, and the city demolished the structure soon thereafter.

The parcels have been empty since that time. Thank goodness there were no buildings for people to freeze to death in after that point - much safer with the emptiness and all.

9.12.10

9.12.10

Anna Ho Whalen owns this tragically vacant piece of property as of 2010. I can't say I understand owning a vacant piece of land in downtown for 30 years - not if you feel invested in the place you live, anyway. Seems like it's just waiting for the hard work of others to pay off for you.

Update 2013: The parcel sold to the owner of the adjacent Bull McCabe's bar and grill (at 427 W. Main) in 2013. As of late 2013 / early 2014, he was building a patio not-unlike the brick one circa 1978 above on a small portion of the parcel.

One of Durham's two great flatiron buildings at Five Points, both now gone.

Piedmont Building, 1940s

The Piedmont Building occupied the most prominent location in Durham for over 40 years - the eastern point of Five Points. But prior to that, this prominent spot had been the site of the first public library in Durham, which was housed in a small wood-frame building

Courtesy Durham County Library, circa 1910

Looking northwest (towards Five Points) from West Main St.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

The main public library was established in 1897 as the first public, non-subscription library in North Carolina. The "Canterbury Club" - a women's social group - began fundraising and enlisting support from other groups to build a library for Durham. Ms. Lalla Ruth Carr donated the land at the eastern point of Five Points, said to be worth $2500, as a location for the library, which opened in 1898.

When the library moved to its building on East Main Street in 1921 (still standing!), the wood frame structure was torn down and replaced with a flatiron building, called the Piedmont Building that same year. This building had a flat face, unlike the rounded front on the opposite point. (Which you can see the shadow of in this, evidently, late afternoon picture.) The building was built by the Piedmont Club, a newly organized 'men's club' that intended to build a structure that would provide facilities for their club (as well as retail space on the first floor - much like the Temple Buildng and Masonic Temple building further east on Main St. The building contained a ballroom and kitchen area on the third (top) floor. Judge Sykes was the president of the Piedmont Club, Foy Robertson the vice-president and JM Markham was secretary-treasurer.

Looking east, circa 1925
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Aerial view, looking east. Courtesy Duke Archives

Parade at Five Points, looking east Courtesy Durham County Library

Piedmont Building, 1940s

City Worker strike (heading to city hall) - 02.16.48

By the 1950s, the flat front of the building was a place for advertisements and a clock. (Notice the Washington Duke Hotel in the background - large brick building to the left, as well as the exterior cladding that has been placed over the three mid-block buildings that were Belk Department Store - the way to 'modernize' in the 1950s. I'll come back to these buildings later.)

Piedmont Building, looking east, 1954
(Courtesy Duke University)

01.28.58

Looking east at night, 02.01.58
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Piedmont building, looking east, ~1960
(Courtesy John Schelp)

Unfortunately, in November of 1965, this building burned.

Looking west from the Washington Duke Hotel, November 13, 1965.
(Courtesy Herald Sun)

Looking west-southwest from East Chapel Hill St., November 13, 1965.
(Courtesy Herald Sun)

This 1966 shot shows the building - which frankly looks salvageable in this photo - after the fire. It appears that the city may have planned to demolish it through urban renewal anyway, as it was appraised in 1964 by the urban renewal folks - before the fire.

Courtesy Durham County Library

View of the fire damage from the Snow Building, 11.15.65
(Courtesy Herald Sun)

In September, 1966, the building was torn down.

Courtesy Durham County Library

And thus attempt number one commenced to turn this focal point into a viable public space:

Creating "Five Points Park" - 10.19.67
(Courtesy Herald Sun)

And it became a bastion of peace and loveliness, frequented by folks out of the Chamber of Commerce brochures...

"Look Maude, it's a beautiful tree.....did you take the picture yet?" (03.30.68)
(Courtesy Herald Sun)

Wait, this isn't what we boostery folk planned on...

"Malcolm X demonstration, 02.21.69"
(Courtesy Herald Sun)

This may have been one of a handful of times that this plaza hosted this many people.

"I can't understand, we built such a lovely plaza in place of the building - why doesn't anyone use it?"

(Photo by George Pyne, courtesy Milo Pyne)

"That's better. Look how relaxed these young men are."

(Photo by George Pyne, courtesy Milo Pyne)

With the demolition of Durham Drug and Belk-Leggett, the 'plaza' has a large parking lot behind it. We're currently in the midst of remaking it as public space.

Five Points, looking east, Fall 2006 (Gary Kueber)

Multiple buildings behind (to the east) of this building have been demolished as well, which is why this very, very important space seems so empty. It is truly unfortunate that the city is rebuilding a 'plaza' at this point. The last thing downtown Durham needs is more open space. This space desperately needs buildings to give the necessary definition to make it feel like city instead of emptiness. That's what happens when you have economic development people doing urban design. This plaza will likely be as empty as the 1970s "Muirhead Plaza" version it replaced.

Five Points, looking east, 07.24.08

(Gary Kueber)