1817 Cecil Street

Photograph taken by Cheri Szcodronski, National Historic District Submission, January 2018

A split-level in plan, this house is unique in that it is oriented sideways on the lot with the one-story section at the front and the two-story section at the rear, all under an asymmetrical side-gabled roof with deep overhangs giving it a distinctly modern appearance. The house is two bays wide with only a solid wood door with diamond-shaped light near the center of the façade and a wide, one-light window to its immediate left (north). It is three bays deep with aluminum siding, an interior brick chimney, fixed windows with clerestory windows above on the one-story section, and vinyl windows at the rear two-story section. County tax records date the house to 1957 and the earliest known occupants are George B. Smith, one of the first African American mail carriers in Durham, and his wife, Cynthia P. Smith, a French teacher at Hillside High School, in 1960.  They were the parents to two children.  Their son was a FBI Agent.

Mrs. Cynthia Pearson Smith was the sister of Judge William G. Pearson II, who lived at 126 Masondale Avenue.  Mrs. Smith died in 1991.

On July 19, 2007, George Booth Smith sold the property to George Lamont Kithcart.  Mr. Kithcart still owns and resides in the house.