1109 Camden Avenue

02.07.11

I've always been fascinated by 1109 Camden Avenue (formerly the eastward extension of East Trinity); it's a curious house. The historic inventory essentially throws up its hands at the house, noting the odd mixture of early 20th century form and elaborate late 19th century elements - the beautiful stained glass on the front porch, the tall Italianate windows on the west side of the house, and concluding - that it was built that way. It notes that J. Stedman, a painter, lived in the house in 1930 as its "first occupant."

Honestly, though, I can't say that I can add much to the story beyond that, but I can certainly conclude one of two things about the house construction; either a previous, more elaborate house from the 1880s was demolished and materials reused in the construction of this house, or a more elaborate house was 'remodeled' in the early 20th century.

The deed trail goes back to the first decade of the 20th century, when Mary Umstead (nee Brogden) acquired the property from FP Umstead and Mary Belle Umstead (in the undigitized DB 39 Page 103.) Mary Umstead appears to have sold it to RT Umstead, and JW Stedman acquired the house/land in September 1923 from RT Umstead and his wife Alice Piper Umstead. It is currently owned by the Reynolds family, and has been under single ownership since the early 1950s.

One curiosity is that the ZI Lyon Farm appears to have been around this way in the 1860s, but the elements in the house appear to be from a later vintage than that. Lyon and his son were active in the Durham tobacco business into the 1890s - it's possible that they had a more elaborate dwelling out this far at that time as well. All speculation - hopefully someone else can dig up some interesting information.

Find this spot on a Google Map.

36.012181,-78.881605