115 North Dillard Street

(Courtesy Susan Griswold Herst)

The large house at 115 N. Dillard St., was built in a neoclassical revival style, and resembled the still extant 206 N. Dillard St.

After ~1910, the house was home to the Griswold family. William J. Griswold was mayor of Durham from 1910-1912, and president of the Griswold Insurance and Real Estate Co.

William Griswold, surrounded by ladies - 1910s - looking northwest from the porch. 411 Liberty and 415 Liberty are in the background.

By the 1920s, commercial succession had begun along the East Main corridor. Likely the most significant change to the district was the demolition of the WW Fuller house and construction of the Union Bus Terminal in 1942.

By 1944, the TJ Lambe house, adjacent to 115 N. Dillard, had become a rooming house.

Above, looking northwest up N. Dillard St. from near East Main, 1944. There is a "Colonial Rooms" sign in front of the former TJ Lambe house at 111 N. Dillard, in the foreground and the columns of 115 N. DIllard St. are visible beyond.

115 N. Dillard soon became a rooming house as well. 

115 N. Dillard, 1966.

115 N. Dillard, late 1960s.

Most of the houses on N. Dillard St. were torn down during the late 1960s via urban renewal. Likely during the 1970s or 1980s, Durham County built a social services building at this location. Urban Ministries, which had been established on adjacent land in 1985 as a joint operation between several churches that acted as a landlord for local non-profits, expanded to take over this building. The center became the home of two merged homeless shelters during the 1990s, and the facility expanded again in 2000-2001.

Their street frontage along Dillard is the popular style in East Downtown - Fortressian with a hint of Bunkeresque Revival.