109 and 107 BROADWAY

Owner: City of Durham

Just north of the houses pictured yesterday is a large parcel of vacant land (between Hunt, Broadway, and Mangum), all owned by the City of Durham




This land was residential at one point in time, but is now zoned commercial. While most of the houses along Mangum were demolished before I was aware of the area, two of the houses along the Broadway portion of the property (to the right in the above picture), 107 and 109 Broadway, were demolished recently, and were not owned by the COD prior to demolition. In the above picture, you can see the upturned soil and debris from the most recent demolition site by the trees.

Here is a picture of 109 Broadway and a part of 107 Broadway, now demolished


The question surrounding these demolitions, and the ongoing demolitions around the city is - why? Was the house really a threat to public health, the ostensible justification for demolition power? Certainly the house was in worse shape than this picture at the time of demolition. But it seems a mite suspicious that the city owns a large portion of the surrounding land, and it prioritizes the demolition of houses that give it a square-ish piece of property to sell. How did it aquire this land? Soon after the demolition of 109 Broadway, the "For Sale" sign went up on this now-squarish piece of property, now zoned commercial. Did development prospects drive the demolition of 109 Broadway?

I don't think it is bad that this block should go commercial in and of itself. Even the loss of the historic architecture, while painful, is not what bothers me the most here. The question is - public health, or the possiblity of economic development? The city is not vested with the power to demolish property for economic development. Yet, economic development seems to continually lurk in the justification for which abandoned properties are demolished, and when. Sure the city wants to collect property tax on this land. But at what cost to the neighborhood? Supposedly the city wants residents in and near downtown - will this be a big warehouse with vast surface parking in front? Or first floor retail compatible with Little Five Points?

500 BLOCK CLEVELAND ST. (WEST) / NEW FIRE STATION #1

The 500 block of Cleveland St. was, by the early 20th century, filled with large Victorian houses, constituting part of the first wave of fashionable houses of the well-to-do built along Mangum and Cleveland Sts., just to the north of downtown.

By mid-century, these early neighborhoods had seen significant transition due to commercial growth of downtown and outmigration of the wealthy. Many were transformed into rooming houses / apartments, and some were torn down for commercial uses.


Looking south, 1952. This Texaco station has replaced a house on the scale of the one remaining in the background.
(Courtesy Wayne Henderson)


1961
(Photo Courtesy Durham County Library)

In 1961, the remaining houses on the west side of the 500 block of Cleveland St. were demolished to make way for the extension of Morgan Street east from N. Mangum St. to Holloway St.


"Destruction of Houses for Morgan Street, 07.24.71"


"Destruction of Houses for Morgan Street, 07.24.71"

In 1964, the new Fire Station #1 was constructed on the remaining chunk of this block face, when the Fire Department abandoned the original station location on North Mangum St.

Former 500 block of Cleveland St., looking southwest, 2006.

815 CLEVELAND/ROSENSTEIN HOUSE

Name: Rosenstein House
Built: ~1920
Demolished: ~ after 1980
Owner: Shirley Taylor, Jejuan Taylor

The Rosenstein House was built later than most of the original structures on Cleveland Street - around 1920 - by Nathan Rosenstein, a local optometrist. It was a Tudor Revival house, very different in style than the Victorians that otherwise lined the street.


This structure was torn down sometime after the architectural inventory was taken in 1980. It has been an untended vacant lot for many years.

CLEVELAND/HOLLOWAY/ROXBORO

It took me quite awhile to figure out what I was looking at in these archive photos, because the streetscape doesn't look anything like this now. The northeast curve of the downtown loop was put through here in the 1960s (see Aug 15th "Cleveland Street" post).


(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The photographer took this photo on the east side of Roxboro St. (which is in the foreground). He was facing northwest. Holloway Street is to the right, with the laundry building facing on it. Cleveland is at the peak of the hill, and the white house behind the laundry is on Cleveland. The only current-day marker in this picture is the Fuller School (Durham County Schools), whose corner is visible. Today, it would be blocked by the fire station.


(Courtesy Durham County Library)

This photo was taken about 1/2 block west from the prior vantage point. Holloway St. is in the foreground, and Cleveland St. is the cross-street. The white house in this picture faces east on Cleveland (and would be across the street from the house whose back we see in the previous photo.

Today's view of this area, from a spot somewhere between the previous two photos (since these landmarks are gone). In this picture, this spot looks sort of nice because of the oak trees, but it is desolate. It really isn't usable space, as it is trapped between an overabundance of speed-abetting roadway.

801 CLEVELAND/ FREELAND MARKHAM HOUSE

801 Cleveland St., February 1966

The Freeland Markham house, built ~1905, was one of three houses belonging to members of the Markham family on Cleveland Street, and the only one still standing. It is the most architecturally impressive house remaining on Cleveland Street, with copious neoclassical Victorian detail.

Many of the houses along Cleveland Street were built by small business owners; Freeland Markham was a partner in a tailor shop downtown.


Freeland Markham House 1980


Freeland Markham House 2006

801 Cleveland and the house across the street, 802 Cleveland, are both owned by Oscar Hicks of Creedmoor.

WALKER WAREHOUSE

While I have a few more posts on Cleveland Street, I'll move west of downtown today to show the Walker Warehouse. I noticed this morning that Blue Devil Ventures is in the process of (almost finished) knocking down the 1950s addition on the east side of the warehouse, thus re-exposing the original brick side. For those who don't know, BDV began their adaptive reuse project to reddevelop the former Liggett-Myers company complex last month.


The Walker warehouse, looking southeast, 1980s
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)


A photo I took for another purpose a few months ago, but showing the windowless brick box of the addition in main view.


The newly re-exposed east side of the original warehouse, with one wall of bricks still remaining of the addition (sitting on top of the old wall, partly covered in black roofing material.)

The Walker Warehouse, built in 1897, was the first of the parapet/chimney Italianate style brick warehouses to be built in Durham, and would be used as a model for multiple others, including the Watts and Yuille warehouses, the Toms and Hicks warehouses and the Hill Warehouses at American Tobacco.

Update: 5/25/08

The Walker Warehouse appears to shell-complete, and it also appears that, after it appeared that there would be parting of the ways between NC Railroad and BDP, that Walker is again slated to house the new Amtrak station.


Looking southeast, 05.25.08

905 CLEVELAND

Name: Hackney House
Built: ~1900
Demolished: Between 1980 and 1994



Close to Little Five Points, the Hackney House was the home of Robert P Hackney, who owned the "Durham Seed House" on West Parrish Street. The corner tower was a not-uncommon feature on these large houses, although few survive.
The house was demolished sometime between 1980 and 1994.

The land sat vacant until recently, when a new house was built on the vacant lot. Since this is a local historic district, plans for this house must have passed muster with the city Historic Preservation Commission. I'm glad it has a house on it instead of remaining a vacant lot, but it looks like suburbia with some awkward I-don't-really-want-to-add-this elements to me. The current building is owned by a California landlord.

CREWS HOUSE/ 526 HOLLOWAY

Name: Crews House
Built: ~1905
Historic District: Cleveland-Holloway


I'm going back to Holloway Street today briefly to highlight the Crews House.



The Crews house was built by Paul Crews, an executive at the nearby (now defunct) Golden Belt Manufacturing Company. It has a similar multi-sided front and wrap-around porch to the single-story house next door at 524 Holloway.


526 Holloway in 1980

This house recently sold after being on the market for several months. I hope the new owner gives it the renovation it deserves.

Durham GIS Page for 526 Holloway

Durham County Tax Records for 526 Holloway

SAMUEL L. LEARY / COLETTA HOUSE - 809 CLEVELAND ST.

At the turn of the century
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection / Chamber of Commerce Collection)

The house at 809 Cleveland St. is referred to in the architectural inventory as "one of the foremost late 19th century architectural designs surviving in Durham." The house was built by Philadelphia architect Samuel Leary around 1890, who designed the original Washington Duke building at Duke (burned), St. Joseph's AME, the original Fire Station #1, the First (white) Graded School (later Morehead School), and the Foushee House (now Camelot Academy on Proctor St.)

Leary was evidently brought to Durham by the Duke family to design the new main building at Trinity College (the Washington Duke Building) and, per Jean Anderson "tobacco warehouses." If Leary had a hand in any of our tobacco warehouses (for which the architect(s) are, generally unknown) the extent of his involvement and/or with which warehouses is unknown. There is some speculation that he may have had a hand in the design of the Watts and Yuille warehouses, now known as Brightleaf Square.

Leary suffered a significant setback to - perhaps even the destruction of - his career when the main tower of the Washington Duke building collapsed immediately prior to its intended opening in 1892. Perhaps this is why Leary's name appears to disappear from the historical record after the 1890s, despite so many important local commissions in just a few years. He appears to have left Durham soon after the turn of the century.

The house was owned by a series of owners before being purchased by the Coletta family in 1938 - owners of the Royal Ice Cream Company, site of one the earliest civil rights sit-ins in the country in 1957. They lived in the house until 1978.


1980 - note addition of brick stair

This house is one of several rental houses owned by Martin Rudin, who owns five of the remaining 16 houses on Cleveland St. My current photo is rather poor, as I could not find an unobstructed vantage point, but the house is remarkably intact on the exterior.


Summer 2006.

606 CLEVELAND

Name: FL Hunter House
Built: ~1900
Demolished: ~1980
Owner: First Baptist Church

As with much of the neighborhood, Cleveland Street began to lose houses from commercial intrusion during the 1950s. Once construction of the Loop and the new fire station removed the southern end of Cleveland Street, the process accelerated. As noted previously, urban churches lost their neighborhood congregations and began to rely on automobile patronage. They thus aggressively expanded parking into the neighborhoods abandoned by their congregations.

By the late 1970s, there was only one house left on the east side of the 600 block of Cleveland Street, 606 Cleveland.



This house had survived the commercial intrusion, the loop, the fire station, and urban renewal that had taken out hundreds of its neighbors. However, it was demolished soon after the above picture was taken and is now parking owned by the First Baptist Church. In the current picture below, you can see the tree and the small concrete wall behind the sidewalk as common elements to both pictures

BLACKWELL MARKHAM HOUSE/ 506 CLEVELAND

Dr. Blackwell Markham's house once stood at the southeast corner of Cleveland and Seminary streets, one of three Markham houses along the street.


(Courtesy Duke Archives)


Looking east, 09.27.66
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)


Looking southeast from close to the corner of Seminary and Cleveland, 09.27.66
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)


Looking north from the front porch, 09.27.66
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

You can also see a view of the house in the H. Lee Waters films of Durham, viewable at the entry for the First Baptist Church (Cleveland St.)

It was torn down in the late 1960s as part of the city/Federal Urban Renewal program, and promptly became a parking lot for the First Baptist Church.


506 Cleveland St., 1966 Urban Renewal appraisal photo
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

CLEVELAND STREET

Cleveland Street, early 20th century
(From "Images of America: Durham" by Steve Massengill)


Cleveland Street, similar vantage point, 2006

Cleveland Street was, along with Dillard Street, a preeminent address in Durham during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The 'East of Downtown' neighborhood that is now largely gone extended to the east along Holloway, Liberty, and Main to approximately Dillard St. and, along Holloway, the railroad tracks. The neighborhood extended to the west and north along Cleveland Street and Roxoboro.

Cleveland Street southern extent, 1959

Cleveland Street southern extent, 2006.

Cleveland Street still has several outstanding houses, however, the neighborhood has been severely diminished. The southernmost blocks of Cleveland, from Seminary to where Liberty and Church Streets once intersected with Cleveland, are basically non-existent due to the downtown loop and realignment of Liberty Street. The 500 and 600 blocks of Cleveland are badly damaged due to teardowns by First Baptist Church and the City of Durham. Only one of the remaing houses, extending from the 600 block to Little Five Points is owner-occupied. They are in varying states of repair and disrepair. Vacant lots, neglect, and encroachment of cul-de-sac development all detract from the integrity of this local and National Register historic district.

601 and 603 N QUEEN STREET

Owner: James Marvin Bradford
Year Built: ~1920s

Around the corner from 502 and 504 Roxboro (which I wrote about several posts ago) on Queen Street are these great small Craftsman houses.

601 North Queen St.

603 North Queen St.

Unfortunately, they have the same owner as 502 and 504 North Roxboro. Together with those damaged houses, and other parcels owned by Mr. Bradford, they form a chunk of property that takes up about 2/3 of the block.

This entire neighborhood is severely threatened by neglect, those who are amassing parcels as an investment, institutions looking for surface parking, and a city that 'fixes' such problems by knocking down houses. No non-profit, city agency, or downtown booster organization is fighting for the integrity of this neighborhood.

It is a common tactic by absentee landlords (another top 5 winner in the anti-preservation sweepstakes) to milk historic properties for all they can get out of them, investing nothing in them. Once the properties become truly uninhabitable (because they push it way past what should be the definition of habitable), they wait for the city to tear it down. If the city doesn't move quickly enough, they push people to complain about the property. If that doesn't work, sometimes there is a fire, which can always be ascribed to the homeless folks who were squatting in the house.


James Marvin Bradford's abandoned property, outlined in red, including 502 and 504 N Roxboro (see my earlier post) and 601 and 603 N Queen.

Update: Four years have passed, and this mess is still going on. Bradford thinks he is going to sell these houses to someone to move for him, saving him the demolition costs - all for a development pipe dream that will never come to pass. Meanwhile, two houses that could be part of the rejuvenation of Cleveland-Holloway continue to rot and bring down the neighborhood. This should be criminal.


601 Queen, 10.22.10


603 Queen 10.22.10

GUEST CITY STUPIDITY: NEW BERN

Property: McLellan's Five and Dime
Built: 1927
Torn Down: June 2006 for "green space"

My girlfriend and I were at the coast this weekend and visited a town I usually enjoy, New Bern. Walking down Middle street, I noticed an empty corner of brown grass where I was sure a building had been. Sure enough, after asking around a bit, we found out that the First Baptist Church next door had torn down the 1927 commercial building for the usual reasons - they bought the property to expand, they found some inspectors to tell them that it was 'unstable', and tore down the building over the protests of the local Historic Society. I managed to find a copy of a brochure with picture of a watercolor with the before picture and take an after with the camera phone. Best I could do under the circumstances...

Why do churches hate history? A great downtown street in a downtown that has great spaces and architecture is irretrievably damaged.

Before


After

MV LAWRENCE HOUSE- LIBERTY & ROXBORO (213 LIBERTY)

Year Built: 1890s
Looking northwest at the corner of Liberty St. and North Roxboro.
(Photo Courtesy Durham County Library)

This beautiful Queen-Anne House was located at the northwest corner of Roxboro and Liberty Streets (across from the current location of the main library.) It was representative of the quality of architecture located in this neighborhood from the late 19th century until the 1960s.

It was taken and demolished as part of the Federal Urban Renewal program.



Same vantage point today:


Looking northwest, 2006.

Aerial view of neighborhood in 1959, MV Lawrence house in red box