Park

Nature / Children's Museum - Northgate Park

Built in the 1930s for park ranger use, the so-called Lavender House in Northgate Park was the mid-1940s home of the Durham Children's Museum, before it moved to larger quarters and eventually became the Museum of Life and Science. Long used for storage, the wooden frame was demolished after repeated flooding in 2014, with the stonework left behind as a kind of memorial.

410 Watts Street / Trinity Park

410 Watts St. (Courtesy Adrienne Baroff) The house at 410 Watts St. was built in 1906 for James B. Warren, who is listed variably as a "manager" at 107 1/2 East Main St. later as vice president of Merchants Bank with an office at the same address. There are various JB Warrens in the city directories prior to that date who are listed only as living...

Leigh Farm

Little-visited 19th century farmhouse and city park on the edge of I-40 and 54 in southwest Durham

Bay-Hargrove Park

1981 I don't know when the small park at the corner of Bay and Hargrove streets was created; the 1950 Sanborn map shows five houses on the future park site. Interestingly, some of the older-appearing houses across Bay Street also don't appear to be present on that map, making me wonder if at least 1-2 might have been moved. As the photograph above...

Durham's First Playground

Looking northwest at the later intersection of Duke and Main, 1890. (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection The area around the Duke & Sons tobacco factory still had quite an agrarian feel to it into the 1890s; only the factory itself and Fairview, Washington Duke's mansion at the left edge of the picture, betray something more...

Edgemont Park

When Julian Carr established the Durham Hosiery Mill No. 1 (above), and the Golden Belt Hosiery Mill, he developed two communities - Edgemont and Morning Glory. At the center of those two communities, he developed a park (seen in the foreground above) with a baseball diamond, gazebo, trees, etc. This park was the center of the community - a place...

West Point Mill / Christian's Mill / West Point On The Eno

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...

Long Meadow Park

07.18.60 "Children Playing at Long Meadow, 06.17.55" (Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper) Long Meadow Park was established in 1932 through the donation of land by John Sprunt Hill to the City of Durham; the park was initially segregated, accessible only to whites. East End Park was established at the same time (also donated by Hill) one block to the...

East End Park

There are a lot of aspects of Durham's history that are poorly documented and difficult to research. But sometimes it seems like I may be the only person who has ever been interested in the history of Durham's parks. Like many of Durham's parks, East End and Long Meadow are comprised primarily of lowlands adjacent to one of Durham's multitude of creeks - in this case, Goose Creek - a tributary which flows north-northeast into Ellerbe Creek.

Oval Park

"Oval Park Before Improvements, 05.02.49" (Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper) 05.02.49 (Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper) 05.02.49