336 South St.

336 South St.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

1891 Bird's Eye View of Durham, looking northwest.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection / Digital Durham)

South Street was developed early in Durham's history, along with the adjacent McMannen St. While the initial homes on both streets were quite similar in quality, these houses were later supplanted by larger Queen Anne structures on McMannen St. South St. remained, however, a street of larger and more detailed housing than, say Matthews St. or Tatum Place, just to the west.

Looking north from Proctor St., ~1950
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


These houses were all torn down by the City of Durham using Federal urban renewal funds. Part of this block became the Duke Power/DATA site, and part became an American Tobacco parking lot.

Looking northwest, 02.01.89

This area is in the midst of development by some combination of Capitol Broadcasting and Streuver Brothers., but is currently mostly a big dirt pile (north of Diamond View II).

Looking west towards the former west side of the 300 block of South St., 08.10.08

Looking northwest towards the former west side of the 300 block of South St., 08.10.08

Diamond View III is supposed to take up some of this area, as are two proposed residential structures.

I believe that the pink represents Capitol and the yellow Streuver. I certainly hope these come to fruition to begin to create more energy around American Tobacco - reducing the 'island' feel that the campus has currently. Given the current credit markets and the sense that Strevuer may be looking to head elsewhere, I'm worried that they won't.

Historic street grid overlaid on 2007 satellite imagery.


35.992848,-78.903265