Art Deco

226 Morgan

The building at 226 West Morgan St. was built sometime in the mid-1920s, replacing earlier tobacco prizery buildings. 226 West Morgan was a plumbing supply wholesaler in 1937. 226 West Morgan St. looking northeast from Morgan and Foster. 226 West Morgan St. looking northwest from Morgan and Holland.

Old Morehead School

Morehead School, 1924 (from the Durham High School Messenger, via Milo Pyne) The Morehead School, 1924. (Digital Durham) Public schools were established in Durham in 1882 using leased space in the Wright Factory building on Main St. The Durham Graded School, on Jackson St. between Carr and Warren Sts., was Durham's first dedicated public school...

305 West Pettigrew / Peabody Drug Company

Peabody Drug Co, looking southwest, 1965. (Courtesy Durham County Library) 305 West Pettigrew was initially one of the small houses built just east of the Blackwell factory in the 1880s. In 1926, this house was torn down for a new building for the Peabody Drug Co., which had started its life in the 100 block of East Peabody Street in 1907. The new...

Biltmore Hotel/grill/drugstore

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...

Royal Crown Cola / Seven-up Bottling Co. / Fullsteam Brewery / The Pit Barbecue

Looking southeast, 1953. (Courtesy Keith Phillips) Lloyd Brown started his bottling company on Morgan Street in March 1925, but in 1934 moved to a building on North Church St. when he outgrew this structure. This space soon proved too small as well, and he constructed a new, 'modern' bottling plant at 321 West Geer St., which opened June 1, 1939...

943-949 East Main St.

943-947 East Main, 05.07.07 943-949 East Main appears to have been built in the mid-1920s, replacing earlier frame stores that stood on the site. The tenants varied significantly over the course of the mid 20th century. 1928 945 Edgemont Mercantile Co. 947 Crown Cafe 949 Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company 1933 943 Edward D. Glenn, Grocer 945 Parker's Drug Store 947 William Bros. Grocers

Southern Conservatory Of Music - Alston Ave.

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...

Whitted Elementary School / Hillside High School

(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Snow Building

(1930, Photograph by Albert Barden, collection available online at State Archives of North Carolina) The Snow Building was one of a 'second wave' of more impressive commercial structures to be built at Five Points. Situated between the core of downtown (Main between Church and Corcoran) and the Duke Factory, the Five Points area initially consisted...

East Durham Junior High / Holton School / Holton Center

Bulls at the East Durham Ballpark, 1913. From "Baseball's Hometown Teams: The Story of the Minor Leagues" by Bruce Chadwick By 1901 several local businessmen affiliated with the Durham Athletic Association attempted to pull together a team to play in the Virginia-Carolina league (or perhaps the Class C North Carolina League.) It seems that by 1902...