610 North Buchanan - Tyree House / 'lacrosse House'

36.008323, -78.91205

610
Durham
NC
Year built
~late 1920s
Year demolished
2010
Construction type
Neighborhood
Use
Building Type
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610 N. Buchanan Blvd., 1980
(Courtesy State Archives)

The land on which 610 Buchanan sat was conveyed with the land on the corner of N. Buchanan and Urban in 1912 from RO Everett to Wayne V. O'Briant. O'Briant sold off one of the lots, which would become 610 N. Buchanan, to William A. Tyree and his wife Helen in September 1926 - they likely built the house on the lot soon thereafter.

William was a Durham native and a 1922 graduate of Trinity College - he would go on to become director of the "Business Division" at Duke, an instructor at Duke, and a "field spec" (not sure what that is) at Duke. Helen and William's son Fred would grow up in the house during the 1940s and 50s and become a 1961 Duke graduate, living in the house while he attended Duke.

wreckonbuchananblvd_072261.jpeg

Captioned "Wreck on Buchanan Blvd." July 22, 1961.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

It appears that the Tyree family lived at 610 N. Buchanan until the death of William Tyree in 1990 - when the estate sold the property to Guy Solie. It then became part of the Trinity Properties/Solie empire of college student housing in Trinity Park until 2006, when Duke - in an effort to mitigate some of the conflict between the up-lifted houses of Trinity Park and the one-college-student-on-the lease/10-in-the-house nature of the Solie properties - purchased multiple Solie properties, reselling them to renovators.

Before that could happen with 610 N. Buchanan, however, the 'Duke Lacrosse Scandal' occurred, with the house accused as the venue of perpetration. Since then, and since the dismissal of that case, the house has stood empty.

On July 12, 2010, Duke demolished the house, without a public plan as to what to do with the lot.


Demolition of 610 N. Buchanan, 07.12.10
(Courtesy WRAL)

The quotes in the WRAL story are telling as to the unfortunate motivation - the house reminds people of something they'd like to forget, and I'm sure they'd like to obviate any future ability to point to the 'Duke Lacrosse House.'


610 North Buchanan, 07.12.10

Which is all rather unfortunate, because it was a nice enough little house - I'm sure it had some physical deterioration that was fixable by someone who isn't scared of broken houses. But all sorts of unfortunate or unpleasant things happen in houses - I would contend that the most effective way to move that property on from circa 2006 would have been to see it renovated and occupied by some nice people that would write a new chapter in its history. But for many, somehow putting the house (and its 80 year pre-lacrosse history) in the dump solves - something. I like to say that the great fault of old houses is that, unlike their occupants who break the law or anger people in some way, they can't run away when angry/upset/impotent-feeling people need to vent their frustration somewhere.

But I am sure that Duke's plan is actually to build a faux/ replicant Duke Lacrosse House in place of the Tyree house, in order to 'preserve it' - but in a new, improved way.

Find this spot on a Google Map.

36.008323,-78.91205

Comments

Gee, I hope nothing bad ever happens in Duke Chapel...

You know, I think someone was mugged in Central Campus.

Just saw the update on that linked post. Creepy is the right word.

A shame about the Tyree house. In the right hands, it could have been remodeled quite nicely.

Durhamite, Actually some unpleasant things have happened at Duke Chapel, so let's not give them any ideas.

Why did Duke build a fake Garden Street Grocery???

Not surprised, just surprised it took so long.

Back in the 90's Boston University inexplicably lost their accreditation to their nursing school. John Silber then the BU president, had the building emptied and all six floors and hundreds of rooms demolished within a week in order wipe out any memory of their failure. Turned it into a parking lot for years.

That logic follows Israeli military logic of bulldozing the homes of suicide bombers. Or perhaps it's the Abu Gharib approach. Knock it down, purge the memory, hopefully no one will remember. Either approach blames the structure for, what is fundamentally the fault of a human being.

I don't see what it solves. Someone would have rehabilitated that house, and it would have made a great home. Hell, someone bought the Michael Peterson house, and we ALL AGREE something bad happened there.

So instead of walking by a house and saying, "That was the Lacrosse House", now we walk by an empty lot and say, "That was once the Lacrosse House." I reject the strategy as a thinly veiled PR move. It's a total waste of energy, time, capital, and effort. They should have sold it to the highest bidder willing to do a rehab agreement.

I was particularly incensed by their justification. Someone from Duke was quoted on WUNC as saying that the house had been "abandoned for years".

Have the other houses that Duke bought in that area at that time been sold to people or are they vacant?

I always thought Duke bought them primarily to take them off the rental market and quiet down the neighborhood a little. They were getting a lot of complaints and were under great pressure by the neighborhood associations to do something.

The other houses have been sold and renovated.

GK

>> Hell, someone bought the Michael Peterson house

Not just "someone"; it was bought by Biond Fury.

Well, I must say I'm impressed that Biond Fury mustered the $23,600.75 to pay his 2009 tax bill in full (six months late, but paid). I was getting worried that 1810 Cedar, aka: The Michael Peterson House, was going to be abandoned.

I remember Fred Tyree, a Durham High classmate who grew up in this house, telling us at a reunion that during the lacrosse trial, a national TV network reporter called to interview him simply because he had grown up there. Fred, impatient with this interview, told the reporter, "Hey.....I don't see how anybody, even Harry Houdini himself, could have sex with anyone in one of those bathrooms!"

Guy Solie is such a jerk slum lord!

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