Cottingham's Store

1974

The triangular building at the corner of Hillsborough and Lawndale appears to have housed a neighborhood store from the 1930s.

Per the son of the owner, his father, Jack Cottingham, began his business in the building around 1940, with a specialization in making sausages.

To quote Charlie Carden from one of several wonderful personal histories on the Old West Durham website:

"When I was growing up, my Mama never cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas; she and my Daddy said the meat was too dry. Instead, Mama would get Mr. Wagner, from Jim Wagner's store on Ninth Street, or Mr. Cottingham, from Cottingham's Grocery at the corner of Hillsboro Road and Lawndale Avenue (depended on where we lived), to order her a fresh hen and ham."

The building had a tall Coca-Cola cutout sign perched above the vertex of the triangle, lighted, and reaching about 10 feet high, and similar to the logo below which "probably saved the building from being utterly destroyed by tractor trailer trucks too many times to count." The sign greeted travelers along highway 70, entering Durham.

Longtime manager of the store Benny Bolling was well known to neighborhood residents, and lived nearby on Alabama Avenue. In the 1960s, the store began to transition from a grocery store to a convenience store.

The roof was evidently always flat, and refrigeration equipment was visible from the ground. The siding was white clapboards; in the 1970s, architect Charles Knott designed the mansard roof (which was orange) and new siding consisting of grey vertical panels.

The store later became a "high-end wine and cheese shop" and then a camera store. Later, it became the Sock Shop; it appears to currently house the Spirit and Way Christian Church.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 5/22/2009 - 12:43pm

It was Accent Imaging (large format printer) for several years between being the "Sock Shop" and church.

Accent did some work to the exterior, although it looks now like the paint on the roof wasn't the best long-term choice.

Submitted by robby (not verified) on Mon, 5/25/2009 - 12:47am

this was university photo in the late 70s

Submitted by Michael Bacon (not verified) on Tue, 5/26/2009 - 4:55am

I think some of the most recent altering happened about 4-5 years ago. John will probably read this, but at one point I think OWDNA got an agreement from the owner to provide paint for a neighborhood mural on his building. Shortly after that, the roof of the building experienced a significant failure, forcing the tenant to have to move out. The landloard apologetically canceled on the mural, and spent a good deal of money renovating the building to the point we see today.

I could be mistaken about a good bit of this, but that's the way I remember it at this point.

Submitted by Kenneth E. Rasberry (not verified) on Sun, 5/31/2009 - 4:28pm

My uncle W. J. Wilson [Dubba J] and his wife, Corinna [my mother's sister] both worked at Cottingham's at the Durham store. He was in the meat department. She did the books and advertising. By the late '50s, though, they had gone to work in the Raleigh store for Mr. Cottingham.

Submitted by jon (not verified) on Thu, 11/3/2011 - 10:02am

I am Jack Cottingham's oldest son and of course have many memories associated with this store--I worked there on and from the age of ten until graduating from high school. I have so many great memories from growing up in Durham and from the store in particular.

JonEden at yahoo.com

Submitted by Richard Miller (not verified) on Sat, 7/27/2013 - 1:22pm

I remember Cottingham's mainly from when I was a little boy. They were very nice people and we would stop there often on our way headed west towards our home which was in the Cole Mill Road area. Eddie Cottingham was a good friend and in high school (DHS Class of '64) with my brother Stephen E. Miller. A good old-fashioned grocery -- friendly service always.

Submitted by Jack markham (not verified) on Fri, 12/6/2013 - 5:49pm

My wife and I lived on W. Club Blvd. from the time I got out of the Army in the early 70's until about 1978. We shopped often at Cottingham's and while it was not a full service grocery store like Kroger or Food Lion, it was a grocery store and not a convenience store at least thru 1978. We bought steaks, sausage, ribs, Smithfield hams, milk, as well as fresh vegetables from Cottingham's. In the picture, the fellow on the left is Artis Ellis who was the butcher in the 70's and the fellow on the right was Bob ( don't remember his last name). There was a young boy named Johnny who started working at Cottingham's as a teenager and when Artis and Bob left Cottingham's sometime after 1978, Johnny went went with them to Food Land at the intersection of Hillsborough Road and Sparger Road. Artitis cut meat at Food Land and Johnny eventually managed the store. Food Land was much like Cottingham's but unfortunately it closed about 10 years ago. Artis is now deceased and i'm not sure what happened to Bob and Johnny.

Submitted by Kevin Spain on Mon, 1/9/2023 - 1:45pm

Johnny was working at Kings Red and White on Club Blvd the last time I saw him.

Submitted by Wanda Howard (not verified) on Sun, 3/23/2014 - 6:12pm

Artis is not deceased however Bob is. Johnny is my brother in law (is sitting here reading this) and he works at Kings Red & White on E Club Blvd. Why don't you go visit him at Kings.

36.014786, -78.933787

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