Institutional

Southern Conservatory Of Music (1898-1924)

The Southern Conservatory of Music was built in 1898 on the southwest corner of Duke and West Main Streets. Per the great-granddaughter of the founder, Gilmore Ward Bryant, Washington Duke invited 'GW' to Durham to "bring more culture" to the city and financed the construction of the conservatory across Duke St. from his house, Fairview. Architects...

Mcpherson Hospital / North Carolina Eye And Ear Hospital

McPherson hospital, 1920s. For the first ~40 years of its existence, Durham made do without a hospital. This was not unusual, particularly for a town of Durham's size. Medical care, when available, was provided in the home by visiting physicians. Dr. Albert G. Carr, brother of Julian Carr became an early proponent for the construction of a hospital...

Pearl Mill Lyceum

Looking north from Trinity Avenue, 02.18.57 When William Erwin (Jr?) decided in 1955 to give a large parcel of land just north of the Pearl Mill (across West Trinity Avenue) to the YMCA so that they could built a 'modern facility' to replace the original YMCA downtown, there remained one earlier structure on the site - the (Pearl Mill) Lyceum. The...

Camp Rota-Y-Ki / Sacarusa

(The Rotarian, Summer 1929) Not sure of the exact location of this, but Jean Anderson noeds that it was at "Roxboro Road and the Eno River." She notes: "It was the Rotary Club, for example, that began a school lunch program in 1924 for poor children, made loans to high school boys to enable them to remain in school, and persuaded the YMCA to...

2109 North Duke St.

Hope Valley Country Club

Designed by Aymar Embury - who taught architecture at Princeton and had designed houses in New York - he would go on to be involved in the design of a bevy of public projects in New York City, and, interestingly, designed the Distinguished Service Cross and Distinguished Service Medal for the Armed Services while serving in World War I - the Hope Valley Country Club was designed as the heart of the golf course and Mebane and Sharpe's development.

Duke (cameron) Indoor Stadium

(Courtesy Duke Archives) Like the rest of West Campus, the Indoor Stadium was designed by Julian Abele of the Hoarce Trumbauer firm in Philadelphia. Legend has it that the basic design was sketched on a matchbook by Eddie Cameron and Wallace Wade in 1935. It became the new home to the no-longer-Trinity-but-now-Duke basketball teams, far...

910 Ninth Street

910 Ninth Street, 03.28.12 (Courtesy Eric Heidt) A fine piece of historic Old West Durham, about to be torn down to bring you another stupendous new construction duplex, courtesy of Mr. Monsein and the Annihilation Company of North Carolina*. Aren't there some infill lots somewhere in OWD that could use some new housing? The raze and replace is...

Pick And Bow Club

John Roland Terry, on accordion, and his brother Edsel, on fiddle, play with two brothers named Smith (mandolin and guitar) at the Pick and Bow in the late 1940s or early 1950s. The stage is raised and at the center of the room. Dancers at the Pick and Bow, late 1940s or early 1950s, heading in opposite directions in concentric circles around the...

Lowes Grove Credit Union

Lowe's Grove Credit Union, 1916 (From "Documents of Durham" - Durham County Library NC Collection) (Map Location above is approximate.) From the NCDCR website: The credit union movement has its roots, in part, at Lowes Grove, once an agricultural community in Durham County, today enveloped by the burgeoning Research Triangle Park. The first credit...