Central Park

Reunion (sculpture)

Durham Brazing And Welding Abandoned Truck

103 Hunt St.

12.03.13 This small, t-shaped cinder block house was apparently built in the late 1940s on the back half of the lot of a house facing Mangum Street - with residents first appearing in the 1947 city directory and the structure depicted on the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. Fragment of 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance map - available via ProQuest/NClive...

Uzzle Used Car Pagoda

09.10.11 Built as the used car sales office for the Uzzle Cadillac dealership across the street, this building is certainly downtown Durham's only pagoda. Originally "on stilts," the ground level was later filled in and used by a realty company. Bobby Inscoe Realty was one former occupant. It's now owned by Acme Plumbing, located next door. This...

410 W. Geer St.

Originally the Hometown Sales and Service - a dealership for Kaiser Frazer automobiles, 410 W. Geer has housed the predecessor to Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC, the North Carolina Fund, and now is the Trotter building - an event center and retail space.

Clark And Sorrell Garage / Triangle Biotechnology Center

(Courtesy Scientific Properties) The Clark & Sorrell garage had its origins in an auto repair shop at 214 E. Parrish St. opened by LeRoy Clark in the late 1910s. Donnie Sorrell had left Durham to attend business school in New York ~1920, and returned to Durham intending to establish a business. Clark was interested in expanding his repair shop, and the two partnered as Clark and Sorrell, Inc. on January 1, 1922.

Durham County Agricultural Building / Curb Market / Extension

(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper) As detailed in the post about the John O'Daniel Hosiery Mill and later Farmers' Exchange, home demonstration agents (extension agents) and the Durham Women's Advisory Board established a 'curb market' at the Farmers' Exchange building on Gilbert St. in the 1930s. This was essentially what we think of as the...

Royal Crown Cola / Seven-up Bottling Co. / Fullsteam Brewery / The Pit Barbecue

Looking southeast, 1953. (Courtesy Keith Phillips) Lloyd Brown started his bottling company on Morgan Street in March 1925, but in 1934 moved to a building on North Church St. when he outgrew this structure. This space soon proved too small as well, and he constructed a new, 'modern' bottling plant at 321 West Geer St., which opened June 1, 1939...

Weeks Motor Company / Hutchins Auto Supply

Looking northwest from West Geer St., 1953. (Courtesy Keith Phillips) One of my favorite mid-century modern buildings in Durham is the former Weeks Motor Company / Hutchins Auto Supply building. Built in 1948, Weeks was started by Albert Weeks, who ran a service station at North Durham Five Points (Little Five Points) in the 1930s and 1940s. The...

326 W Geer St.

326 West Geer, soon after construction in October 1949 326 West Geer housed Paschall Brothers Plumbing Company until the 1970s, when it housed Acme Plumbing Company. As of 2008, it houses Common Ground, a "Green Building Center". Looking northwest from West Geer, 07.12.08 (Photo by Gary Kueber) From the NR listing in italics below: The one-story...