36.019002, -78.88907
Cross Street
Year built
1950-1960
Year(s) modified
1970-1990
Construction type
Neighborhood
Building Type
Piggly Wiggly, looking northeast from North Roxboro, 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)
Thanks to the readers who successfully identified this mystery photo over a year ago, it can join the ranks of the full-fledged before-and-after Endangered Durham post. The Piggly Wiggly structure above, built in the early 1950s after the construction of the US 70 bypass just to the south has been enlarged and converted into a multi-tenant suburban complex.
Looking northwest, 06.13.10
(Find this spot on a Google Map.
36.019002,-78.88907
Comments
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 7/1/2010 - 1:21pm
They had an incinerator on the back of the store inwhich they would burn their boxes. I think this later became a Western Auto.
Submitted by Steve R. (not verified) on Thu, 7/1/2010 - 1:24pm
Ah, but the original parking curb and island remain!
Submitted by RWE (not verified) on Thu, 7/1/2010 - 5:51pm
Cool building. Very cool signs. Unfortunate generic remodeling.
Why can't we still build commercial structures that have any character?
Submitted by Tar Heelz (not verified) on Thu, 7/1/2010 - 6:28pm
You'd have a heck of time getting a cool vertical sign like that approved under Durham's sign ordinance.
Many an architect will tell you that creativity has been beaten out of their venerable profession.
Generic, safe, boring, predictable and egalitarian is what the rules (e.g. zoning ordinances) prefer.
Something "cool" often requires a (expensive) struggle.
Submitted by Joe (not verified) on Sun, 7/4/2010 - 5:11pm
I don't think there's a Piggly Wiggly within 50 miles of Durham anymore. Odd.
Submitted by Wiggly Piggly (not verified) on Mon, 7/5/2010 - 8:52pm
BZZZT. Pittsboro has a Piggly Wiggly!
Submitted by Joe (not verified) on Tue, 7/6/2010 - 2:58pm
Really? That's great; thanks. They carry some things I can't find elsewhere. Thank you.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 7/10/2010 - 2:31am
Not sure when it sropped being a Piggly Wiggly, but by about 1970, it was a Winn-Dixie, and the taller building built beside it was Eckerd Drugs.
Submitted by Kym (not verified) on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 8:43pm
It was indeed Western Auto when I was a kid, and Eckerd's with the grill where you could eat lunch. Around back was the ABC store, a barber that was there for years, and also a florist.
Submitted by Wayne (not verified) on Thu, 2/7/2013 - 9:06am
The barber shop is still there .It's the oldest barber shop in Durham.It started in a hotel on main street in the 40's.Moved to Hyde Park and Holloway in the 60's.Then moved to this shopping center in the mid 70's.I am a barber there.
Submitted by Wayne Talley (not verified) on Fri, 1/3/2014 - 12:18am
After the Piggly Wiggly and before it was the Advance Auto it was a Winn-Dixie grocery store. I worked there the fall of 1965 till April 1966. I would burn all the cardboard in the incinerator in the rear of the building.
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