Institutional

East Campus Steam Plant

(Courtesy Duke University Archives) 10.28.26 Under Construction, 06.02.1926 (Courtesy Duke University Archives) (Courtesy Duke University Archives) 10.28.1926 (Courtesy Duke University Archives) 1930s (Courtesy Duke University Archives) 1930s (Courtesy Duke University Archives) 04.26.08 11.06.11

Original Watts Hospital

Original Hospital and administration building at 302 Watts, late 1970s. 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...

Durham Performing Arts Center

The site of the $44 million Durham Performing Arts Center grew as a mixture of industrial and residential uses, located just south of the main railroad depot and just east of Blackwell's Durham Tobacco Co. Julian Carr established the "Carrolina Roller Mills" - a flour mill - in 1902, incorporating the concern on April 21, 1902. The firm was...

1800 Angier Avenue - Hudson Funeral Home

The Hudson Funeral Home was started in Apex in 1919 by Vance and Ora Hudson. In 1928, they opened a second facility behind Crabtree Pharmacy at Angier Avenue and South Driver St. in East Durham. In 1929, they moved into a house at 1800 Angier Avenue, pictured above.

White(s) Cross (roads) Community Center

~2004 Former White(s) Cross(roads) Community Center, now a private residence. 05.22.11 Find this spot on a Google Map. 35.992795,-78.98207

1800 East Main Street / 102-104 South Maple Street

Lions Club Workshop for the Blind, 1950s. (Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper) The southwest corner of S. Maple Street and East Main Street was the location of the Knit-Well Hosiery Mill by the 1930s; in 1937, the buildings are noted as "vacant" on the Sanborn Map of that same year. 1937 Sanborn. The Lions Club Workshop for the Blind was started in...

Geer Cemetery

The story goes that the Geer Cemetery - at times also called City Cemetery, Old City Cemetery, East Durham and Mason Cemetery - originated with the 1876 burial of an 11 year old boy working on the farm of Jesse Geer; he had been accidentally killed by a horse, and his family requested that he be buried under a tree near where he was killed. Per Allen Dew's excellent Cemetery Census site:

Edgemont Community Center

With the closure of the Durham Hosiery Mill No. 1 in 1938, the Edgemont community fell into significant socioeconomic decline - after having only been out of economic despair for ~40 years.

Blackwell's Park / Trinity College / Duke Women's College / Duke East Campus

1890 Map showing Blackwell's Park The land that would become the Durham site of Trinity College, later East Campus of Duke University, is first noted in Durham history as a horse racing track and occasional fairgrounds, known as Blackwell's Park. The 67.5 acres was acquired by James W. Blackwell in 1880-1 from Archibald Nichols and developed as a...

Thomas E. Rigsbee (junior?) House - Rigsbee Road At Forest Road

TE Rigsbee House, "in SW corner at intersection of Old Rigsbee Road and Forest Road leading to Cornwallis", June 1940 The geography of southwest Durham in the area of Duke Forest and the southwest portion of Duke's west campus has changed considerably since the early, despite its relatively 'undisturbed' appearance due to large scale ownership by...