Drugstore

One of the earliest mixed-purpose office buildings in Durham, Richard Wright's "Wright's Corner" survived in modified form until 1961.

(Courtesy Durham County Library) 114 West Main St. was the initial home of the Rawls_Knight department store. Like all of the buildings profiled thus far on the north side of West Main St., it was built in the mid-late 1910s, after the fire of 1914. The picture above was taken sometime during the late 1920s or early 1930s.

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...

As the West End developed along West Chapel Hill St., two commercial areas developed - one of the two was located at Vickers Avenue and West Chapel Hill St., the intersection between the main street of the West End and the main street of Morehead Hill. A set of early masonry structures was built here around 1910, probably replacing earlier frame...

11.13.10 933 East Main in 1919 housed Parker's Drug Store, run by Roland H. Parker. By 1923, it housed the Edgemont Candy Kitchen, run by either "GL Orthanos" or "Augustus L Orphanos", depending upon which page of the city directory you believe; he lived at 520 1/2 East Pettigrew St. 1933: Reeves Square Deal Cafe 1937: Lipscomb Bros. Barbers

Durham's first African American owned and operated textile operation, visited and praised by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, then home to the Royal Knights of King David fraternal order.

As downtown's beloved Jo and Joe's closed this weekend, it seems fitting to recall a previous lost love - the Ivy Room. The building at 1000 West Main Street was built in the 1930s and originally occupied by "The Goody Shop" (in the eastern portion) and "Pender's Stores" - a grocery - in the western portion. Looking northwest, ~1940 (North Carolina...

The intersection of Main St. and Mangum St. could be considered the center of Durham. Except for the rather odd Chapel Hill St., Main St. forms the dividing line between "North" and "South" streets, and Mangum St. the dividing line between "East" and "West" streets. It is at this intersection that Durham as a mercantile entity began, perhaps before...

Looking north-northeast, 1905. (Courtesy Durham County Library) The building on the northeast corner of East Main St. and Church St. was built between 1898 and 1905. While it isn't clear if the building was built to house the local telephone exchange, by 1905, it contained the Herndon drugstore on the ground floor and the telephone exchange on the...