2000 Southgate Street – Cornelius Womble House

35.990224, -78.877501

2000
Southgate Street
Durham
NC
Cross Street
Park Avenue
Year built
1921
Architectural style
Craftsman
Construction type
Frame
National Register
East Durham
Neighborhood
East Durham
Use
Residence
Building Type
Residential
Local ID
112849
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2000southgate.jpg

(Below in italics is from the 2004 East Durham National Register listing; not verified for accuracy by this author.)

This is a 2-story hip-roofed house with asbestos siding, 2-over-2 original sash windows, and a full Craftsman porch sheltering 2 front doors. 1925-1940 CDs: Comelius S. Womble owner/occupant. 1937 SM. This became a duplex after 1960.  

Cornelius Womble lived in the house with his wife Victoria. Cornelius worked as a cooper, which is someone who makes or repairs barrels and casks, or other similarly constructed items like buckets, butter churners and tubs.

In the 1929 Hill's Durham City Directory, there were over a dozen people whose profession was lilsted as "cooper".  I would think it's safe to say that number is closer to zero nowdays. 

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Comments

Submitted by Durhamite (not verified) on Wed, 2/12/2014 - 12:07am

Coopers like Cornelius Womble were skilled laborers employed in large part in the tobacco factories handling the assembly and maintenance of the hogsheads, which are large barrels holding about 1000lbs. of tightly packed and flavored blended tobacco. The ageing of tobacco smooths out/mellows its flavor and may take a year to as many as three depending on the product. Recipes were proprietary, so specific ingredients for tobacco flavoring were guarded, In these hogsheads, the tobacco was stored and aged in the warehouse complexes around town near the factories. All the factories employed coopers.

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