412 Cecil Street

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

Typical of post-World War II housing, this one-story, side-gabled, Minimal Traditional-style house is three bays wide with a projecting, front-gabled bay on the right (west) end of the façade. The house has a concrete block foundation, vinyl siding and windows, scalloped vinyl siding in the front gable, and louvered vents in the front and side gables. The entrance, centered on the façade, is a solid wood door with a single, diamond-shaped light, sheltered by a partially inset, front-gabled porch supported by decorative metal posts. There is an exterior brick chimney on the left (east) elevation flanked by small vinyl windows, and a full-width, gabled rear wing. The house appears on the 1950 Sanborn map and the earliest known occupants are James W. Hill, a teacher at Durham Business School, and his wife Beulah R. Hill, an employee at Hillside Shoe Shop, in 1952.

In the 1952 City Directory, James W. Hill is listed as the owner at this address.  Deed records did not show the purchase of the house to the Hills.  Mrs. Beulah Hill was the daughter of Mrs. Roxie Rowland of 2100 Fayetteville Street.  According to Mrs. Hill's daughter, Virginia Hill, she own this house as well as the house that belonged to Mrs. Roxie Rowland.  This information was not verifiable by deed records.