347-351 West Main Street

35.996729, -78.904128

347-451
Durham
NC
Year built
1920-1922
Construction type
Local historic district
National Register
Neighborhood
Building Type
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347-351WMain_1950s.jpg

347-351 West Main is part of a row of early 1920s-era row buildings along the south side of Five Points that replaced earlier industrial buildings and frame commercial structures. In 1923, National Dollar Store was the tenant at 347, Noell Brothers Hardware at 349, and Dixie Clothing Company at 351.

The earliest view I could find of the whole row is from the late 1920s, below. National Dollar Store had disappeared by 1928. 347 was then leased to Mrs. Osborne's Style Shop (with the Bluefield Coal and Coke Co. upstairs)

The best view I could find of the whole row is from the 1920s.

(Courtesy Duke Archives)

In 1932, Frank Critcher's Produce was at 347, with the Durham Dry Goods co. upstairs. 349 was the Independent Meat Market, and 351 the Joyce Food Store.

By 1937, ABC Lunch was established at 347, with the Art Display Co. upstairs. 349 housed Chicago Market Co., and 351 Staudt's Bakery.

1939 Duke Homecoming parade (Courtesy Retrochrome.net)

By 1941, 349 W. Main was the Liberty Market, and 351 W. Main was David's, a clothes store.

Below, a 1953 view showing a piece of 347 West Main, home of ABC Lunch. Specialties? Cigarettes and sandwiches, evidently.

343-345WMain_S_1953_0.jpg

Oh - and Barbecue.

343-345WMain_E_1953.jpg

 

347-351WMain_2_1950s.jpg

A 1950s era view that cuts off part of 347 West Main St., but shows the Liberty Market and Barringer-Whitfield furniture. These businesses remained in 1959.

libertymkt_wmain_1979.jpg

1979

The row of structures remains remarkably intact today. 

Looking south, September 2006.

347-351WMain_091011.jpg

09.10.11

As of 2011, 347 W. Main is home to Whiskey, a popular bar; 349 and 351 house offices.

347WMain_041911.jpg

04.10.11

04.27.13

Comments

One of my favorite downtown facades is a little farther down Main Street: the Kress Building (which unfortunately had some ornamentation removed recently). The Snow Building's facade is a close second.

The Kress building is amazing; I'm shocked to hear that they removed some ornamentation. Hopefully that is temporary, as I know they are taking historic tax credits, so shouldn't be messing with such things.

I drove by the Kress Building on Friday. Workers were on scaffolding in front, replacing windows. The replacements looked fairly similar to the existing ones. I think what happened was someone took off the large "KRESS" letters at the top, maybe regilded them, and put them back on. But now I can't remember exactly what I originally noticed had been removed. Anyway, the facade looks fine, thank god. Sorry if I scared anyone. :)

While writing this comment, I found a web site for the Kress Building put up by Greenfire, the developer. It's mostly for selling the property, but there are a few links and pictures. I also found this picture taken at the Mangum/Main intersection.

Joe

Thanks for the reassurance! It's still unfortunate to hear about the windows, but that almost seems to be a lost battle in historic preservation. One just hopes the depth and scale of the new windows is a close match. Thank you for posting the link.

i see the snow bldg side is brick, but the front is concrete or stone. is this common, and was it done for financial reasons?

coco

It was common to have a different material on the back and sides presumably, as you've surmised, to reduce costs.

GK

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