Cleveland-Holloway

One of my favorite buildings in Durham is the O'Briant store. Established ~1 block away on Railroad St. by RP O'Briant (who lived in the house directly across the railroad tracks from this building) prior to 1905, the grocery store moved to this location around 1915. The initial wood frame structure was replaced by this brick building soon afterwards. This was the neighborhood grocery store for the immediate surround throughout the early 20th century. It was taken over by JR Beck in the 1920s and MD Fletcher somewhat later.

Above, 529 Holloway in 1964 529 Holloway is another of the early 20th century large Victorian houses built along the Holloway ridge line. Through the 1970s, the neighborhood had large shade trees, and neighborhood-scale streets (i.e., two-lanes, undivided) 529 Holloway and the remainder of the north side of the 500 block of Holloway St., 1970s...

Credit goes to Heather's comments on my post yesterday for today's historical background: She wrote that 523 Holloway, a cross-gabled Victorian with a front-facing bay and large corner brackets, was "likely constructed by Robert (and Susan) Gilbert who purchased the property in the mid-1880s." When Robert Gilbert died in 1908, RM Jones, the owner of 521 Holloway, profiled yesterday, purchased 5 properties on the north side of Holloway.

One of the earliest houses remaining in the Cleveland-Holloway district, the J.N. Umstead house was built during the late 19th century by a memeber of the Mangum family whose son, J.N. Umstead, was a longtime inhabitant of the house. By the 1960s, as can be seen in the above picture from 1964, the house had become a rooming house - as had so many...

605 Holloway in 1964 605 Holloway was likely built sometime between the 1880s and 1910 - although the Sanborn maps do not cover this area until 1913, the first date I can confirm its existence. As with most of Holloway St., it was one of the nicer houses along the trolley line, and remained so long after the demise of the trolley, as the 1964 picture shows.

The residence of two Durham mayors - Edward Hackney and Charlie Markham, 204 North Dillard is arguably the most elaborate Victorian structure remaining in Durham.

206 N. Dillard St. was built in 1908-1909 - one of the later additions to the 'Mansion Row' architecture of Dillard St. - by CC Thomas, who was a founder of the Thomas and Howard wholesale grocers. Above, the view north on Dillard St. - the large columns on the second house on the right belong to 206 N. Dillard.