The Bigelow House

Designed by R.R. Markley and built in 1935 for Duke faculty member Lucius Bigelow. This Dutch Colonial was built as a three BR residence with an attached garage. The original plans called for a raised porch off the living room on the south wall, but economies of the time dictated a sealed door leading nowhere. The second owner built a brick stoop with stairs descending to a brick patio. The second owners also replaced the original garage to the right with a second-floor bedroom and 1st floor den with a brick floor and fireplace. The fourth owners finally replaced the patio with a screened porch and deck entered from the living room, added another upstairs bathroom, modernized the kitchen and master bath, demolished the garage chimney and brick floor (which were failing) and installed an oak floor system, and expanded the doghouse dormer in the garage bedroom with a wider one to expand the headroom.

During the kitchen renovation a tread on the stairway to the 2nd floor garage room was lifted, revealing sets of shoes from the Bigelow era. Mary Bigelow remembered that the family would store wet shoes there when they entered the back entrance, and they were inadvertently sealed in for decades.