Rockwood Food Center

35.974428, -78.92459

2510
Durham
NC
Construction type
Neighborhood
Building Type
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Rockwood_FoodCenter_1951.jpg
Rockwood Food Center, 1951 (Mac Connery via Robby Delius)    
Rockwood_Commercial_aerial_1959.jpg
 
QShack_040311.jpg
04.03.11

Comments

I vaguely remember RFS. It may have opened around the time Nana's did. Impressed by how that little niche of commercial real estate has really become a destination food neighborhood. Even the Thai restaurant (which was an Enterprise Rent A Car in the 80s -- the only food sources in that immediate area were McDonalds, KFC and a Wilco gas station) and the wine shop across the road are excellent.

The building has changed but I spent many summer afternoons hanging out at the Dairy Bar, especially while my neighbor friend was behind the counter. :-)

Rockwood Dairy Bar was the building on the right in the picture ?

The Herald-Sun published this in an article about a year and a half ago: It was the Q-Shack owners’ desire to overhaul the somewhat dilapidated sign that led to their asking the Durham Historic Preservation Commission to label the sign an historic landmark. The owners, Dan and Amanda Ferguson, think the sign was erected at the site where University Drive flows into Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard when the Long Meadow Dairy Bar was there. The ice cream shop operated from 1954 to 1976, and Amanda Ferguson thinks the sign’s rotating top may originally have been an ice cream cone. The Fergusons plan to replace the sign’s panels and lights, and the motor that turns the top. The dairy, of course, was right up James Street: http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2008/05/lakewood-dairy.html

I remember that building as the Rockwood Dairy Bar.

Any pictures of the Dairy Bar? I remember the cool glass block walls.

James street, does anyone remember when/why it had official 27 MPH speed limit signs on it?

It was indeed an ice cream cone, with a red top. It never rotated in my memory. Perhaps the mechanism broke. My sisters and I would sometimes walk there for desert during the mid-70s.

I use to ride my bike down to The Dairy Bar to get their ice cream. Only had a few flavors then. My favorite thing though was their grilled cheese sandwiches, w/chips and a pickle. I use to love to sit at the counter and watch them flatten the sandwiches with that huge hot grill. Funny how some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around food. I just commented on the HOJO page about their fried clam strips. Good times with the fam!!

No mention of the Rockwood Filling Station? It existed sometime between the late 1980's and the early 1990's. Run by a warm, friendly older couple.

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