Northern Durham

Among things you may have not know Durham had - a sanitarium with carbonated springs, where doctors could send patients to recover from illness.

(Courtesy Robby Delius)

Christian's (West Point) Mill, 1890s. (Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection) West Point may the most persistently relevant site in Durham - a place of importance to Native Americans, early European settlers, and present-day residents of Durham. The West Point area was well-known to the Eno Indians, who appear...

North Duke Mall --- (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection) I'm a bit embarrassed by the lack of detail in this post, but I've found information difficult to uncover at best. The aerial above shows Fairfield Road, North Duke St., Roxboro Road, and Duke Homestead Road in 1959 - the mostly rural nature of the landscape is even...

--- Prison Farm / County Home, 1880s. (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection) On November 15th, 1881, the County Commissioners purchased a tract of 138 acres of land on Roxboro Road, then about three miles north of Durham, from WA Wilkerson for $1393.75 and erected a frame house for "the care of the aged, indigent and infirm."...

Huckleberry Hill Reservoir ---- Pumping Station, 1905. (Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Scanned by Digital Durham) Increasing demand for water in the city of Durham during the 1870s and 1880s prompted the city to enter into a contract with A.H. Howland of Boston to establish a water infrastructure/pumping system sufficient to...