402 Oakwood - The Roach House

(State Historic Preservation Office)

...as in J.N. Roach, a freight agent for the Southern Railway and early occupant of this house. Although the historic inventory notes that this house was typical of a "type built throughout Durham around the turn of the century" it appears quite unusual to me - incorporating both a simple Victorian farmhouse gable-front style in the two-story portion and an extended hall-and-parlor style in the wing. It appears from the early Sanborn maps that it was built this way, although it almost looks like one part was an addition.

This house was still around for the above photo in the mid-1970s (and this shows me that the scourge of too-small 6 pane over 6 pane replacement windows goes back at least 30 years) and made it to at least 1994, as verified by aerial photography. The property changed hands from the Cranford family (who've owned a lot of run-down historic property over the years, now mostly dispersed) to a new owner in 1995, which probably coincides with its tear-down. It was definitely gone by 1999.

402 Oakwood, looking northeast from Oakwood and Carlton, 2007.

Update: there is a new house being built on this lot as of October 2010

10.22.10