Quick Updates: Little Five Points

It appears that the city and Haskell properties (aka James 'Fireball' White) have reached a memorandum of understanding that has staved off demolition of the buildings at Little Five Points. UDI and Haskell are, according to principals at both organizations, discussing a joint renovation plan of the buildings at the corner. Jim Wise has some more information in his column in yesterday's Durham News. (One error in Jim's article - the city planned to raze the property as a nuisance first and then UDI would have somehow gotten their hands on the vacant lot.) The city, despite the positive outlook, grumblingly notes that they will 'wait and see' before committing to renovation of their building next door.

This has the potential to be a win for the neighborhood; most importantly, it is what should have happened in the first place. Unfortunately, it takes derailing business-as-usual in order to get some creative thinking to occur.

Happy Holidays

Christmas Tree at Five Points, 1920s
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

ED will be on vacation/sporadic over the next week. I hope everyone has safe and happy holidays.

Demolition in Chapel Hill

Another Triangle-wide note, as a property-owner began tearing down one of the oldest houses in Chapel Hill (mid 1800s) yesterday, the Dey House. It serves as a reminder that our weak preservation policy in this state does not allow a municipality to prevent the demolition of a historic structure, no matter how important or historically-relevant that structure is. Our own Historic Preservation Commission can only delay the demolition of a structure for up to a year, but the owner can then tear down a historic landmark.

Such is the case in Chapel Hill, where demolition was delayed for a year, and the owner has now begun tearing it down - for no particularly clear reason, either.

Only one North Carolina city, Statesville, has received city-specific enabling legislation that allows their city council to deny a demolition permit for structures in local historic districts/local landmarks.

EMMANUEL AME

The Emmanuel AME church on Kent St., near the intersection of Kent and Chapel Hill St., is the oldest brick church building in Durham, constructed in 1888 on land donated by the Fitzgerald family. The church is now covered in stucco, obscuring most of the original brickwork, but some can still be seen on the tower. Most of the original stained-glass lancet windows and transoms remain. The building is now the Deliverence Temple Apostolic church.

ROME AVE/ BROOKSTOWN

Tucked away in the farthest northern portion of West End/Burch Avenue is a somewhat hidden street named Rome Avenue. I lived in Durham for years without knowing that it was there, until I began to wonder where the houses I could see from the Durham Freeway were located.

Travelling the one block from Wilkerson to Rome feels to me like entering a different world; it seems like it is very similar to how it might have looked 80 years ago. Rome Ave. really doesn't 'belong' to the West End/Burch Avenue at all, but is the easternmost remnant of the community of Brookstown.

Most of Brookstown is under the Durham Freeway now; the African-American community straddled Swift Avenue and extended east along Ferrell St. (now Maxwell) and Thaxton Avenue towards its diagonal intersection with Spring St. (Rome.)
This is the house at the end of Rome now, which used to be at the point of that intersection.



This is the 1937 Sanborn map view of the area, showing many of the houses of Brookstown, and the original street configuration.

Copyright Sanborn Insurance Co.

While people know about the loss of part of Hayti to the Durham Freeway (most was lost to Urban Renewal), many other communities were lost as well, including Brookstown. Most of the houses in the above drawing were lost. On the Sanborn, you can see the outline of the West Durham Baptist Church, central to the community on Thaxton Avenue.

Here is a similar view today:



I thought for years that Thaxton and the church were under the Durham Freeway, but comparing old aerials, Sanborns, the current sattelites seems to indicate that Thaxton followed a path along the side of the Freeway, and the site of the church is still extant. If you look at the satellite, there is actually a clearing where the church was.

This is an 1890s picture of the church. Presumably it was refurbished/replaced at some point because I can't imagine it would have lasted another 60-70 years in this condition.

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

I've walked back in these woods with a friend to find the site of the church. No sign of the structure, other than the clearing. But you can see a line of cedar trees that surround the site still. Next time you are driving east on the Durham Freeway between Swift and Chapel Hill St., look for them on your right once you pass over Campus Drive.



Cedar trees at the West Durham Baptist Site, facing on what was Thaxton Ave. (looking east down Thaxton towards the former intersection with Rome/Spring.)


Same view, looking east on Thaxton Avenue, 1940s. You can see the obelisk street marker at the intersection of Gattis and Thaxton on the left.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)


Thaxton Avenue (I believe) looking north, 1940s
(Courtesy Durham County Library)


Mack's Hot Dog Stand, on Thaxton Avenue, 1940s
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

1620 DUKE UNIVERSITY ROAD

The house at 1620 Duke University Road, owned by Jan Katherine Smith and her husband, has been abandoned for at least a decade now. These are baffling situations that I still can't really grasp - I contacted the owner a few times about 6 years ago about whether she and her husband would sell the house through HPSD, and she stated that they were "going to fix it up." I wrote up information about renovation and financial assistance programs and sent it to them. Multiple people have contacted me about wanting to buy this house to fix it up, and come away from the conversation self-assured that they would be the person to convince the owner to sell the house. They have failed.

I simply have trouble understanding the motivation to pay property taxes and periodically cut the lawn/rake leaves on an abandoned house for ten years. It is clear that the owners have no intention to fix up the property, despite what they may say. They also seem to have no intention of selling the house.

This the crux of the problem with our legal/policy remedies for this problem. This abandoned house exacts costs from its neighbors - the houses on Swift, the converting-to-condos building next door, and the entire West End. In a very prominent spot, it is the gateway of decay as one enters the West End from Duke territory to the west.

What policy remedy do we have? If we call 'Neigborhood Improvement Services' about the house, the result is demolition. But the house isn't the problem - there are plenty of people out there willing to invest the money to renovate this structure, which still has great detail/massing. It is also a very difficult lot to build a new structure on.

The problem is the owners, who do not pay the costs they inflict on the neighborhood. The people at NIS are too bull-headed to consider more creative solutions to this problem.

The policy model that most interests me is vacant property receivership. While the full details would require a long explanation, the crux of the model is that the courts appoint a receiver to assume partial control of a property for the purpose of repairing the property/code violation(s). The receiver can then place first-priority liens on the property for the cost of nuisance-abatement. If the owner pays off the liens, then the owner retains the property, and the community's costs have been abated. If the owner refuses, the receiver can apply to the courts to foreclose on the property for recoup the cost of the repair.

It's more complicated than that, and typically includes provisions for dealing with economic hardship, stipulations about who can be a receiver, specific aims of foreclosure (whether housing foreclosed upon has first priority for affordable housing), etc.
You can read in more detail here. (You'll need to scroll down - but you can also note on this excellent website how un-creative and backward Durham is in dealing with this issue in comparison with other cities.) We would need state-enabling legislation to create receivership; about 20 states grant their municipalities this power. It has been used quite successfully in many cities with vacant property problems - Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Baltimore, and others.)

What would make everyone happy would be to see the house at 1620 Duke University Road renovated and occupied. Why don't we go about creating policy to reach that goal instead of our currrent policy, wherein everyone loses?

907 JACKSON

The house at 907 Jackson Street (the southeast corner of Jackson and Buchanan) is another of West End's small Victorian houses built in the early 20th century, characterized by a generous front porch and sawnwork details.



I noticed a few months ago that the house had been foreclosed upon, and it went on the market for $37,000. It was bought fairly quickly, and I watched over the summer for signs that it might be gutted/vinylized. As work started on the house, I was optimistic, as it looked like they were taking pains to preserve the detail.


907 Jackson in August, 2006.

And they appear to have done a fine job with the restoration of the house (although it never would have had a railing like this, particularly unpainted.)


It's now back on the market for a pretty astounding $149,000. Considering that a house twice this size around the corner sat on the market for nearly a year at about that price, I don't think they'll get it.

Update: The property sold after ~3 weeks on the market.

RICHARD FITZGERALD HOUSE - 'THE MAPLES'

The most prominent African-American family in the West End during the early 20th century was undoubtedly the Fitzgerald family. If you've never read the book "Proud Shoes" by Pauli Murray, I highly recommend it; the book is a fascinating story of the Fitzgerald family, West End, and, more broadly, issues of race and Durham during the early 20th century.

The Fitzgerald family moved to Durham from Philadelphia (via Hillsborough) in the 1880s. Richard Fitzgerald established a brickyard near the current intersection of Jackson St. and Kent St. Within several years, he was the leading brickmaker in Durham and had expanded his business in real estate and banking. In 1890 he built a large home for his family at the west end of Wilkerson and the north end of Gattis Sts., which he called 'The Maples'.



(Courtesy Durham County Library)


Looking west from Gattis St.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

Other members of the Fitzgerald family soon moved to Durham as well, and built houses along Chapel Hill Road (the current Kent St.) which became the location of many of the homes of the well-off African-American families living on the west side of town. These houses are no longer standing.

The Fitzgerald family had a hand in most of what came to define West End - including their brickyard along Kent St., the office building they constructed at the corner of Chapel Hill St. and Kent St. (still standing), and the land they donated for St. Emmanuel AME church (still standing).

By 1937, 'The Maples' had burned down. In the 1960s or 1970s, Duke University built a hospital laundry facility on this land, which overlooks the low ground of Campus Drive. I believe the laundry facility is no longer in use.


Looking west from Gattis and Wilkerson.


The site of 'The Maples' and the laundry facility.

ROBERT FITZGERALD HOUSE / PAULI MURRAY HOUSE

The most prominent African-American family in the West End during the early 20th century was undoubtedly the Fitzgerald family. If you've never read the book "Proud Shoes" by Pauli Murray, I highly recommend it; the book is a fascinating story of the Fitzgerald family, West End, and, more broadly, issues of race and Durham during the early 20th century.

The Fitzgerald family moved to Durham from Philadelphia (via Hillsborough) in the 1880s. Richard Fitzgerald established a brickyard near the current intersection of Jackson St. and Kent St. Within several years, he was the leading brickmaker in Durham and had expanded his business in real estate and banking.

Other members of the Fitzgerald family soon moved to Durham as well, and built houses along Chapel Hill Road (the current Kent St.) which became the location of many of the homes of the well-off African-American families living on the west side of town. These houses are no longer standing.

The Fitzgerald family had a hand in most of what came to define West End - including their brickyard along Kent St., the office building they constructed at the corner of Chapel Hill St. and Kent St. (still standing), and the land they donated for St. Emmanuel AME church (still standing).

Richard's brother, Robert, built his own house on what is now Carroll St, but was then an isolated tract on the West side of town, overlooking the ravines of 'the Bottoms.' He had a small brickyard of this own, but failing eyesight did not allow him to acheive the same success as his brother. His grandaughter, Pauli Murray, grew up in this house and later became a preeminent Civil Rights and Feminist scholar/activist, professor, attorney, and Episcopalian minister. Read/hear more about Dr. Murray's life from this fascinating oral history done with her in 1976.


The house in 1910 (From "Proud Shoes" by Pauli Murray)


And in the 1970s, above.

Robert Fitzgerald and Pauli Murray's house still stands. It is set far back from the street, backing up to Maplewood Cemetery (which came after the house). Built in the 1890s, it is one of the oldest surviving structures in the West End.



From Carroll Street, looking West, 2006

Find this spot on a Google Map.

35.992748,-78.916442

618 ARNETTE AVE.

One meaningless, throwaway line I often hear when people are trying to justify why something needs be torn down is - "it's not worth saving." I heard it a fair amount about 618 Arnette Ave back in 2002.

618 Arnette Ave. was built in the early 20th century as one of several small Victorian houses ornamented with multiple sawnwork details and a wraparound front porch. It was originally the house of Sidney Bragg, a farmer.


Picture taken in 1978, looking northwest from the intersection of Arnette and Jackson.

The house was still in apparrently good shape when I lived across the street from it in the early 1990s. However, by the late 1990s, it had deteriorated significantly. The foundation had collapsed in spots, and the back of the house was laying on the ground. A new owner placed the house on a new foundation, but was unable to proceed with further repairs.


The house in Spring 2001.

I was working with the Historic Preservation Society's Endangered Properties Program at the time, and we identified the house as one that we wanted to try to save. We acquired an option to buy the property, and attempted to find a new owner to do a complete restoration.



The house in 2002 after a cleanup day. Unfortunately, this was the good side of the house. The back was wide open and rotted away.

We were unable to find someone to take it on. Meanwhile, Housing and Community Development was chomping at the bit to tear down the house. We met with them several times to ask them to delay demolition, which they did.

Eventually, we decided to purchase the house ourselves and begin renovation. Marty Hanks was the contractor, who worked very hard on this house to resuscitate it, and did a very good job. A core handful of dedicated volunteers in the Endangered Properties Program gave a lot of time and effort to this project.

Here was the house after many months of renovation. It had some structural integrity again, and although still fairly shell-like on the interior, was starting to take shape.


A second contractor crew completed most exterior work on the house; here it is in 2004:



The current owner purchased the house in - I believe - mid to late 2004. He completed the interior renovation, and did an amazing job with it.

Here is the house today:



So, was it "not worth saving"? It was a lot of work, to be sure. But had this house been torn down, loss of history and architecture notwithstanding, it would have been a basically unbuildable lot, in a very prominent spot. Now it is occupied by a homeowner who is renovating two other houses in within 1-3 blocks and obviously cares deeply about the neighborhood. I'd call it a win.

WEST END NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESS DISTRICT

The West End looking southwest from West Chapel Hill and Buchanan, 1978

The primary neighborhood business district of West End at Buchanan Blvd. and West Chapel Hill St. developed early in the 20th century. Early wood-framed buildings were replaced with brick structures during the 1920s. As with other neighborhood commercial districts such as Little Five Points, Driver & Angier, and 9th street, the exodous to suburban shopping centers and the loss of population in the immediate neighborhoods caused decline. While 9th St., due to the presence of Duke, never fell as far and was able to reinvent itself in the 1980s, the decline has continued here. The opposite side of the street, which was still primarily residential into the 1950s, is dominated by parking frontage. One neighborhood activist told me that the district provides few services that the residents need and had 'too many storefront churches.'

The Durham Food Co-Op is somewhat of an anomaly here - they've recently had some change in management which seems to be a positive direction. It seems like they could be a central place for the community, a la Weaver Street in Carrboro. But Carrboro, this ain't.

My feeling is that revitalizing our neighborhood commericial districts is essential; for those who support tight-knit, walkable communities, they provide the nexus at the center of those communities. While in-the-loop downtown can be that as well, it isn't convenient or realistic for people in the West End to walk to there in order to get neighborhood services.


The West End looking southwest from West Chapel Hill and Buchanan, 2006


The West End looking northwest from West Chapel Hill and Buchanan, 2006

HOLIDAY INN/ TQ / URBAN MERCHANT CENTER

The south side of the 600 block of West Chapel Hill St. consisted of residential structures into the 1950s - bookended by a commercial area to the west at Vickers Ave. and the YWCA to the east, across South Gregson.


Looking southeast at the intersection of South Gregson and West Chapel Hill St.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

In 1959, most of the houses in the block bounded by Jackson, Gregson, West Chapel Hill St., and Vickers Ave. were torn down in order to build a Holiday Inn.


Aerial shot of construction in 1959.


The Holiday Inn in the early 1960s. This shot is taken looking southwest, with West Chapel Hill St. in the foreground. Note that this is prior to the construction of the Durham Freeway, and most of the houses in the immediate background are no longer extant.
(Courtesy of Whig Hill)


Looking southwest at a cool cat waiting for the cocktail crowd by the pool, 09.11.61.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

The Holiday Inn operated for many years, and I am unsure of when it closed. It appears that in 1993 someone defaulted on their loans, and Ronnie and Diane Sturdivant bought the property. It has been a fun road ever since.

The Sturdivants operated the hotel as a week-by-week room rental facility, which they called 'Temporary Quarters.' By the late 90s, TQ had turned into a major nuisance. Problems peaked in 1997-98, when repeated health code violations (and eventual refusal to allow health code inspectors on the property) caused county officials to revoke the Sturdivant's permit to operate the establishment. They continued to rent rooms at the facility, which was the source of 525 911 calls between Jan 1997 and July 1998. In July 1998, a schizophrenic man stood on the rooftop and fired shotgun blasts at police headquarters, across the street.

Turned out the county Mental Health Department was continuing to use TQ as a housing option for people coming through their department, despite the lack of an operating permit.

In September 1998, TQ was ordered shut down for good. The Sturdivants eventually started using the front of the building as a thrift store, which they call the 'Urban Merchant Center'. The majority of the facility remains empty and derelict.

While the Sturdivants continually let this property (as well as The Washington Duke Motel, of 'We Want Oprah' fame) fall behind on taxes (I can't keep track of how many times it has gone to foreclosure) they always pay it off on the day of foreclosure. Of course, all of this work by county employees costs all of us money.

But the property itself is miserable - amenities include old refrigerators and furniture stacked around in the cracked, heaved parking lot. It seems to be used as a school bus parking facility now as well. The place is surrounded by high chain-link fence topped with razor wire.

This is the third, and perhaps most egregious, part of the Dead Zone between Trinity Park/Brightleaf and Morehead Hill/Forest Hills - the stretch of Gregson dominated by this eyesore, the massive police department parking lot, and Bill Fields' dilapidated property. There's no logical reason why, given its great geographic situation, this shouldn't be a vibrant part of the city. But Bill Fields and the Sturdivants see to it that it is kept in a state of perpetual desolation.


Looking southeast from West Chapel Hill St., 2006.


Looking west/southwest from the police department parking lot.

SECOND / TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH

During the early 1880s, Reverend C.C. Durham of the First Baptist Church began a movement to establish Sunday schools in other parts of the city. One of these was located in the house of J.W. Blackwell at 602 South Duke St. J.W. was the brother of W.T. Blackwell, who lived nearby on West Chapel Hill St.

With the growth in population in the West End, the Blackwells and William Vickers donated land and money for the construction of a church at the southwest corner of West Chapel Hill St. and Shepherd St. The church was formally organized and constructed as Blackwell Baptist Church in 1888. It was then renamed Second Baptist Church in 1890, and is pictured in the engraving above, circa 1895.

During the time that WG Barrett was reverend of the church, during 1905-1911, the congregation had grown to the point that more space was necessary, and the original church building was expanded. In ~1918, the name was changed to Temple Baptist Church.

Looking southwest from West Chapel Hill St., ~1910s.
(From "Images of America: Durham, NC, by Steve Massengill")

The original 1880s sanctuary and 1900s addition were still around in the mid 1950s.


Looking southeast from near S. Buchanan and W. Chapel Hill.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

In 1957, the church built a new sanctuary on the site of the white frame house in the above picture.


Looking southwest at old and new sanctuaries, 1959.
(Courtesy Bob Blake)


Looking southeast at old and new sanctuaries, 1959.
(Courtesy Bob Blake)

The church tore down the old sanctuary within a few years of completion of the new.


Demolition of the old sanctuary,
(Courtesy The Herald Sun)

The church congregation remained here until 2003, when they decamped for the suburbs. Healthy Start Academy, a charter school, bought the church buildings and continues to operate here.


The site today. The original sanctuary 'came up to' the corner of Shepherd St. and West Chapel Hill, now only an intersection of sidewalks.

614 ARNETTE

614 Arnette, 2006

MILDLY RADICAL IDEA DAY: CHAPEL HILL ST. CAP

While there are quite a few dimensions to the problems with the current landscape of West Chapel Hill Street, one of the more egregious ones is the interchange with the Durham Freeway. On the north side, the interchange is 707 feet wide (0.15 mi); on the south side it is 382 feet wide (0.07 mi). This is a huge, gaping hole in what was once a continuous streetscape.



So what to do - get rid of that pesky Durham Freeway? Nah, this is only mildly radical idea day. While I think the Freeway was ill-conceived and has cost Durham more than it has gained Durham, I recognize that it isn't going anywhere. So while I think it's instructive to look at the decisions that led to the Freeway (particularly when some of the same ideas go into similarly ill-conceived projects like the widening of Alston Ave., or Eno Drive,) the focus should be on how to minimize the Freeway's negative impact on the landscape. Because right now, no one is trying very hard to do that.

So, what, more flowers on the roadside? No, not good enough. I'm a fan of landscaping, but it is kind of an-aspirin-for-your-amputation when it comes to the Freeway.

I've always been fascinated by the idea of a modern-day London Bridge (not the one in Phoenix or wherever) - with buildings lining the side of the bridge. Then, about a year ago, I read about a project in Columbus, OH called 'The Cap at Union Station' that did just that.

Building something over the freeway isn't unique - big modernist structures spanning the freeway have been around for awhile in several large cities. What makes this project innovative is that they have turned a freeway overpass back into an actual streetscape by combining innovative reuse of wasted space with great design.


Aerial view of The Cap.
(Melaca Architects)


Corner view of The Cap.
(Melaca Architects)


Streetscape view of The Cap.
(Melaca Architects)

Streetscape view of West Chapel Hill St., looking west.


The West Chapel Hill St. topography is such that the overpass would be well suited to structures on either side of the overpass, spanning the Freeway. For the parking worriers, I've filled in potential space for parking in grey.



An even more ambitious proposal would extend the 'cap' on the south side back to Jackson, or even Vickers, thereby reconnecting the grid. But this requires closing or figuring out what to do with the eastbound on-ramp. While this is hardly infeasible, it moves the project out of mildly-radical territory.



Beyond Vickers, the topography changes significantly as the Freeway moves into the streambed of a branch of Third Fork Creek that runs in the woods near Gregson and Jackson (which is culvert-ed under the Freeway and, I believe, re-emerges behind JJ Henderson).

Must be talking scary costs, huh? Well, what I've read about the Columbus I-670 cap states that the cost was $7.8 million. For those counting, that's somewhat less than 1/6 of a Performing Arts Center. If it costs $18.5 million to fix the Loop, as per Bill Kalkhof, that means that we could build a cap at Chapel Hill St., another at Fayetteville St., another at Mangum St. (or Swift), and fix the Loop for about the same price as the theater.

I'm not suggesting that we run out to spend another $44 million. I am suggesting that when we talk about spending huge sums of money, fixing our infrastructure problems should be on the table. My opinion is that repairing some of the damage caused by the Loop and the Freeway would do more for the overall quality of life of the people who actually live downtown and in the near-downtown neighborhoods than the Durham Gritty Performance Center.