Lawndale Avenue

1974 The triangular building at the corner of Hillsborough and Lawndale appears to have housed a neighborhood store from the 1930s. Per the son of the owner, his father, Jack Cottingham, began his business in the building around 1940, with a specialization in making sausages. To quote Charlie Carden from one of several wonderful personal histories...

Jeff Monsein, aluminum baron of Durham, continues his reign of house replacement in Old West Durham with the demolition of 2700 Lawndale, seen above in 2006. I don't have any immediate history available on the house, but it was obviously an attractive little ~1900-1915 house. It appears none of the original mantels or other building materials were salvaged prior to demolition, an extraordinary waste.

About 10 years ago, amidst the apartment complexes and similar on Lasalle St., there remained three modest early 20th century houses, side-by-side. One day in late 2001, I was driving by these houses, when I saw the telltale signage presaging their imminent demise for development. The sign, though, offered that the houses could be moved off site by...