1929 Cecil Street

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

 

This one-story, side-gabled Period Cottage is three bays wide with a front-gabled bay projecting from the left (northwest) end of the façade and a side-gabled, wing, flush with the façade, on the right (southeast) elevation. The house has a brick veneer and vinyl windows with soldier-course headers and brick sills. The entrance, located just right of the projecting front-gabled bay, is a solid door with three lights and is sheltered by a shed-roofed porch on brick piers. To the right of the entrance is an original metal-framed picture window with multi-light transom and flanked by multi-light, metal-framed casement windows. The left elevation features a single window in the gable. There is an interior brick chimney between the main block and the gabled wing on the right elevation. A later, flat-roofed, brick wing extends the full width of the rear elevation with an exterior brick chimney on its left elevation. The brick matches that of the garage and both were likely constructed in the 1980s. The city directory lists the building as “under construction” in 1950. The earliest known occupants are William H. McLaughlin, owner of Neighborhood Grocery Store, and his wife, Mozella. According to a neighbor, Mrs. McLaughlin, now in her 100s, was a public school teacher and still lives in the house.  They have three children.

Both of the daughters earned Ph.D. degrees and their son is a retired pharmacist.

As of January 2021, Mrs. McLaughlin is 103 years old and the oldest original resident in College Heights.

County deed records show that on July 29, 1946, J.F. Williams and his wife, Isadora Gray Williams sold the lot to William H. McLaughlin and his wife, Mozella L. McLaughlin.  Mr. McLaughlin died in the 1990s and Mrs. McLaughlin remains the owner of the house.

The following article appeared in the Carolina Times, June 20, 1953, page 4:

Receive Masters Degrees A Durham couple was granted Masters degrees at North Carolina College’s June commencement. The couple, Mr. and Mrs. William H. McLaughlin, reside at 1929 Cecil Street. Mr. McLaughlin, who operates a grocery store in Dur ham, was awarded the Masters degree in Mathematics. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1938 at St. Augustine’s College. His wife, the former Miss Mozella Lambert, was granted a Masters degree in Education. She received a B. S. degree in 1939 from Fayetteville State Teachers’ College. Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin met in Goldston, where they taught for several years, and were married in 1940. They have three children, Gwendolyn, 6; William, Jr., 4; and Beverly Ann, 16 months."

 

Mozella McLaughlin at age 103 Photograph from the McLaughlin Family Album, 2020