Downtown South

The birth of the tobacco industry in Durham started with a handful of people -none of whom were named Blackwell, Watts, Duke, or Carr - who saw the new 'town' of Durham Station as a place of opportunity. The first entrepreneur to see Durham Station as a central transportation hub that could pull tobacco from the counties around it for manufacture...

Much like the western side of the 400-500 block of McMannen St., the eastern side developed with a first generation of ~1870s-1880s houses (most likely) of which many were supplanted by larger dwellings during the 1890s-1910s. Some of the earlier dwellings persisted on the east side into the 1960s 507 S. Mangum All of these houses were torn down by the city using federal urban renewal funds in the late 1960s.

The east side of the 300 block of McMannen Street was developed as a residential area to the east of the Blackwell Factory. McMannen Street, 1881. The rise of the Austin-Heaton Flour Company and Kramer Tobacco company increased the commercial pressure on this section. The corner of Cora and McMannen was, by the 1890s, inhabited by MA Angier, a prominent figure in multiple early Durham endeavors.

Looking southwest from E. Pettigrew and Pine (S. Roxboro) (Courtesy Duke Archives) While we think of a relatively small number of early tobacco companies in Durham these days, there were many early companies, most of which fell by the wayside, one by one, as Blackwell and Duke became the predominant players. The Lyon Tobacco Company - "Pride of Durham" was one of those early companies.

The northernmost extent of McMannen Street (now South Mangum St.) featured a mixture of residential and industrial uses, including the large freight railroad depot between Vivian and Pettigrew Sts., the Austin Heaton/Peerless flour company, and, east of McMannen, along Pettigrew, a collection of very early residential structures. Above, the view...

Durham Light and Power, on the left side of Blackwell St., looking southwest, 1906. (Courtesy the University of North Carolina) The Durham Light and Power Company (which I believe later merged with the Durham Traction Company) had its primary power generation facilities on Blackwell St., along with its ice plant. Although the Durham Traction...