200-300 South Gregson Street

The 200 and 300 blocks of South Gregson were residential in character through most of the early 20th century, becoming progressively more commercial during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper

Above, the section of South Gregson between the railroad tracks (West Pettigrew) and West Chapel Hill St, 1948. Aside from commercial buildings at West Pettigrew (the Cooke's Cafe/former grocery profiled last week and Ingold Tire across the street - on the west side of S. Gregson) the remainder is residential. Burch Avenue exits the bottom (west side) of the picture and Memorial St. the top (north side). Note also the large field next to the Duke Memorial Church (behind the sizable house on West Chapel Hill.) Evidently neighborhood kids used to play baseball on this field, and were known to have knocked out a window or two on the church building next door. The house on the northeast corner of Memorial and South Gregson was evidently used as an office for the Durham Dairy Co. by mid-century

By 1959, the character of the neighborhood has become more commercial.

The commercial structure at the southwest corner of West Pettigrew and South Gregson has expanded, and two houses have been taken down for the original portion of the Medical Arts Building. Surface parking has increased throughout the neighborhood, taking the place of several houses.

Above, a fire at Ingold Tire, on the corner of West Pettigrew and South Gregson - looking southwest from the railroad track, 07.15.58
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper

(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper

Looking northwest past a new addition being built for Duke Memorial Church at South Gregson, January 8, 1964 - the parking lot in front of the Medical Arts Building is visible at the left edge of the picture, and some of the remaining houses at Burch and Gregson are to its right. The unidentified commercial building is just to their right, at West Pettigrew St.

By the later 60s, most of the remainder of these houses were taken down - the Medical Arts building expanded to Burch, and office buildings were built on the east side of the street. The Durham Freeway severed this area from the rest of its original neighborhood to the west, now known as "Burch Avenue."

The only remaining residential structure in this area is The Eloise, the Bill Fields-owned apartment building at South Gregson and West Chapel Hill.

200 South Gregson, looking east, 03.30.08

200 South Gregson, looking northwest - including a lost block of Burch Avenue, 03.30.08

300 South Gregson, looking northwest, 03.30.08.

I decided I would only dignify the Medical Arts Building with a partial view. If you want to get a sense of the condition of that Bill Fields-owned blight, you can look at my original post about that building from November 2006, because nothing has been done to improve that building since then. (And if you want to understand why I make that point, read the comments at that post.)

I consider this section of Gregson - from the tracks to the Freeway - as one of the most persistently downtrodden-appearing areas on the west side of town. It frustrates me that it looks exactly as downtrodden as it did back in the mid 1990s. I continue to hope that something will improve along here - although if Ronnie Sturdivant and Bill Fields have anything to say about it, it seems that it never will. This area is what I consider prototypical of a priority areas for development assistance/incentives and blight penalties - the moat of desolation separating Brightleaf and downtown from Morehead Hill/ Forest Hills / West End / Burch Avenue.

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