726-728 Ninth Street

36.008705, -78.921948

726-728
Durham
NC
Year built
1920-1923
Construction type
National Register
Neighborhood
Building Type
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Ninth St., looking northeast from near Stack St., ~1920s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The building at 726-728 Ninth St. was built between 1920 and 1923 for the Bank of West Durham. By 1930, the northern half of the building, 728 Ninth, housed the DeLuxe Barber Shop. The bank folded during the depression, and by 1935, 726 was occupied by "The New Erwin Lunch" and 728 housed Martha's Beauty Shop. By the 1940s, Cheek's Dry Cleaners occupied 728.

By the 1950s, TNEL had been supplanted by Morgan's Restaurant, and Cheek's had built their own building at 720 Ninth St. The Clean-Rite dry cleaners took their place at 728.


A view southwest with the Morgan's Restaurant sign above a Long Meadow Dairy sign, 08.29.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Cheek's took over 728 once again by 1970. By 1975, 728 was occupied by Art Craft Framing. Between 1980 and 1985, Morgan's went out of business, and Art Craft moved to 726. Vaguely Reminiscent took their former space in 728. These two businesses have remained stalwarts on the Ninth St. business scene since that time.


726-728 Ninth St., 04.05.09

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36.008705,-78.921948

Comments

I think Ninth Street is looking very tired these days. This could be a great public street, but few of the buildings are well maintained, and many of the storefronts look tired or dated.

Some of the buildings are in really bad shape, especially the two story structure at the SE corner of Ninth and Markham (same owner as 728 Ninth). The street seems even grimmer now that George's is vacant and their parking lot is chained off.

I think the owners of many of these buildings have been able to sit back and collect high rents because this was the only "cool" retail area in Durham for a long time. Now there are lots of other options, and I would not be at all surprised to see some of the established retail tenants start jumping to downtown, West Village, Golden Leaf, or the DAP area, for example.

RWE is right -- Ninth Street does look a bit down-at-the-heels right now. But a lot of the problems are superficial, and could be fixed with some very basic maintenance: scrape, caulk, and paint.

Also, I think the business owners on the street should pitch in together to hire a contractor to come in and steam-clean the sidewalks and gutters -- they're filthy!

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