South Gregson Street

Gregson Street is named for Amos Gregson, a Methodist minister appointed in 1886 to lead a mission church in the Duke tobacco factory. The mission, supported by the Duke Family,  became Main Street Methodist Church, located at the corner of South Gregson Street and West Main Street.

Per History Beneath Our Feet:

"Gregson Street" made its earliest appearance on the 1902 Sanborn Insurance Map, running north and east from Jackson Street to Main. North of Main Street, what is now a segment of Gregson Street is identified on a 1901 plat as "Hated Street."



The plat covers the southern section of present-day Trinity Park, an area Brodie L. Duke had laid out for development by 1901. If the street names on the plat are read east to west they read "Washington Duke Hated Watts" - presumably reflecting some animosity between Brodie Duke and George W. Watts, the only non-family partner in the Dukes' tobacco firm.

No doubt, the family found Brodie's joke an embarrassment, and on the 1907 Sanborn Map, the name appears as "Brody" - presumably a misspelling of "Brodie" - although "Hated" appears as late as a 1922 plat of property between Green and Demarius streets in northern Trinity Park.

Eventually, Brody Street was joined to Gregson and the entire street took that name. The plat covers the southern section of present-day Trinity Park, an area Brodie L. Duke had laid out for development by 1901. If the street names on the plat are read east to west they read "Washington Duke Hated Watts" - presumably reflecting some animosity between Brodie Duke and George W. Watts, the only non-family partner in the Dukes' tobacco firm.

South Gregson Street had its southern terminus at Jackson Street until ~1968. (For all intensive purposes, it ended at West Chapel Hill Street; the continuation south was a dirt road.) Upon the construction of the Durham Freeway, the former southern end of South Gregson was connected via a curving overpass to Vickers Avenue, effectively extending the roadway south.

See also North Gregson Street.

400 Block South Gregson

When writing about Gregson Street, I've frequently made the point that, until the late 1960s, it only extended as far south as Jackson Street. Well, after finding some cool photos a few weeks ago, I will say that, while this is technically accurate, Gregson as a significant traffic route effectively ended at West Chapel Hill St., and the 400 block, between West Chapel Hill and Jackson, was almost off-road.
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South Gregson Rr Bridge - "11foot8 Bridge"

Will you be its next victim?
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The Medical Arts Building

Mid-Century commercial medical office building that has been kept vacant/abandoned by Bill Fields since the mid-1990s.
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The Eloise

As the Sanborn maps I've shown in previous posts demostrate, large single family homes lined both sides of West Chapel Hill St. during the early 20th century. Per the Historic Inventory, in 1928, Dr. Baird Brooks commissioned well-known Durham architect George Watts Carr to build an apartment building that also held Dr. Brooks' medical office on the northwest corner of Gregson St. and West Chapel Hill St., which he called "The Eloise."
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YWCA

Looking south/southeast from the north side of W. Chapel Hill St. (Courtesy Durham County Library) Copyright Sanborn Fire Insurance Company The Durham chapter of the YWCA was established in 1920 at 303 1/2 West Main St. (the Sparger Building,) upstairs from the Charles Department Store. Mrs. IF Hill was at the forefront of the drive to establish...
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513 Jackson St.

Feb. 1982 Prior to ~1968, South Gregson Street "T" ed into Jackson Street, and there was no southward extension - i.e., this house did not sit on a corner. That changed during the construction of the Durham Freeway, when the curvy bridge connected Gregson with Vickers was added (Durham has many instances where a major E-W or N-S artery stopped...
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Holiday Inn / Tq / Urban Merchant Center

---------------------- The south side of the 600 block of West Chapel Hill St. consisted of residential structures into the 1950s - bookended by a commercial area to the west at Vickers Ave. and the YWCA to the east, across South Gregson. Looking southeast at the intersection of South Gregson and West Chapel Hill St. (Courtesy Herald-Sun) In 1959...
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209 S. Gregson St.

2001
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Amoco - 601 W. Chapel Hill St.

09.20.60 (Herald-Sun) This 1950s era Amoco station received a ~1970s treatment of brick veneer and a shingled projecting roof; it was a pretty junky convenience store / Pure Oil gas station from the time I moved nearby in 1997 until 2012. (Although the practice of the winos imbibing beer in the parking area on the side of the building abated after...
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205 South Gregson - Tobacco Workers Local 176

2001 03.30.08
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