Harry Morgan House And Store

The Harry Morgan Family Complex, a rectangular, hip-roofed, one-story box-and-canopy store and a Craftsman-style house, typify the house and business ensembles constructed to serve automobile travelers on newly improved roads in Durham County during the 1920s and 30s. The canopy projecting from the main facade of the store is characteristic of an early-twentieth- century service station; it served as a porte cochere, allowing cars to be serviced on either side of gas pumps that stood between its columned supports.

The store was operated by several entrepreneurs for short periods before it was purchased by the Harry Morgan family who operated a gas station and grocery business there from the early 1930s to the 1970s. The Morgans enlarged the store in the 1950s by adding a one-story wing on the east, and a shed extension on the rear where Mrs. Morgan could prepare meals while helping to keep shop.

Located approximately 50 feet northwest of the store, The Morgans’ home is a typical 1930s Craftsman-style dwelling with eave braces and an attached gable-roofed front porch. The porch is supported by battered columns on brick piers similar to those on the store’s porte cochere. Recent alterations to the house have included screening the porch and installing a covering of vinyl siding. As of 1990, the house and store were owned by the Morgans’ daughter, Gail Taylor.