Carr, Julian Shakespeare

Building 6, 1950s (Courtesy Herald-Sun) The history of Blackwell's Durham Tobacco (later American Tobacco) and the Golden Belt Manufacturing Co. are inextricably mingled. In 1887, the Golden Belt Manufacturing Co. originated in a portion of the Bull Durham Tobacco Factory (the white building at the northern extent of the American Tobacco complex)...

A dye house built for the Golden Belt Manufacturing company in 1927, Building Five became part of Hillcrest Hosiery Mills in the 1940s before reverting to GBMC. It was restored and renovated by Scientific Properties as office space in 2008-2009.

Under construction, 1901. (Courtesy Duke Archives) The history of Blackwell's Durham Tobacco (later American Tobacco) and the Golden Belt Manufacturing Co. are inextricably mingled. In 1887, the Golden Belt Manufacturing Co. originated in a portion of the Bull Durham Tobacco Factory (the white building at the northern extent of the American Tobacco...

Building Two at Golden Belt was the original bag factory - where the sheeting from the Cotton Mill (Building One) was cut and sewn into bags for Bull Durham tobacco. As of 2012, it is a repurposed mixed-use building housing retail, office, and event space.

Building One, looking southwest, 1950s. Building Two, Warehouse A+B, and Building One, 1901, moving from foreground to background (Courtesy Duke Archives) The history of Blackwell's Durham Tobacco (later American Tobacco) and the Golden Belt Manufacturing Co. are inextricably mingled. In 1887, the Golden Belt Manufacturing Co. originated in a...

Looking southeast from East Pettigrew St., 1895. (Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection / scanned by Digital Durham) The oldest still-extant (at least partially) hosiery mill complex in Durham is the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Company complex at East Pettigrew and South Driver Sts. The Durham Cotton and Manufacturing Company was...

Carolina Furniture Company on East Pettigrew St., 1902. (Copyright Sanborn Map Company) The block of East Pettigrew Street between Ramsey St. and Branch Place was the site of the wood-frame Carolina Furniture Company building. The Carolina Furniture Co. building had been constructed in the 1880s as the "Wortham Wooden Mills." This venture became...

A mysterious little tidbit of Durham History involves Julian Carr's farm, Wa-Wa-Yonda (also called Wa-Wa-Yanda or Wa-Wa Yonder.) This farm is referenced only a few times, and appears on a single map. Chapel Hill Road, 1910. (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection) The farm was built on the east side of the Chapel Hill Road in...

Hosiery Mill No. 6 (between the water tower and the smokestack) looking south, 1950s. (Courtesy State Division of Archives and History) With growth in the demand for hosiery - particularly silk hosiery - Julian Carr expanded his Durham Hosiery Mill 'empire' with the Durham Hosiery Mill Number 6 (2 was on Pettigrew St., no.3 was in High Point, and...

The Durham Hosiery Company had its beginnings in 1894, when it was organized by George Graham, and began operations in a building on Church St., and subsequently, Morris St. Later that same year, Julian Carr and John W. Smith organized the Golden Belt Hosiery Company (a different entity than the Golden Belt Manufacturing Co.) and located the new company at Five Points, at "the southward intersection of Main and Chapel Hill Sts." Given that the current buildings at that location were built during the 1920s, this building is likely gone.

A textile factory intimately linked with tobacco production, the Golden Belt Manufacturing Company started in the Old Bull Building at American Tobacco before Julian Carr constructed the large plant on East Main Street to cut and sew bags for loose leaf tobacco. The company later branched into hosiery production and paper products - cartons and packaging for Lucky Strike cigarettes were made here. After outlasting all of of its early textile contemporaries, Golden Belt closed in 1994. In 2008, the property was redeveloped as s a mixture of residences, artists studios, office space, and retail.

The site of the 2008, $44 million Durham Performing Arts Center grew as a mixture of industrial and residential uses, located just south of the main railroad depot and just east of Blackwell's Durham Tobacco Co. Julian Carr established the "Carrolina Roller Mills" - a flour mill - in 1902, incorporating the concern on April 21, 1902. The firm was...