117-121 EAST PARRISH
117-119-121 East Parrish Street was contstructed during the late 1910s-early 1920s.
Looking northwest, 1924. 117-121 East Parrish is the lighter, 2-story building between Public Hardware and the May and Page corner building
(Courtesy Duke Archives)
O'Brient's Music was a tenant of 121 East Parrish during the 1970s - and it seems that the "Durham Notion Company" - ? was a one-time tenant of 117-119. I have no idea how one sells notions.
Looking northwest, 1977.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)
117-119 was demolished during the late 1970s for surface parking.
Looking northeast, 1983.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)
During the 1980s, the front was stripped off of 121 East Parrish and a new one put on. It houses law offices today.
Windows are so important in determining how a building looks to a pedestrian on the street - these looked wrong to me, and it took me a minute to figure out why - it's the first floor windows. They just look too low to me, given the height of the door opening and the height of the first floor.
Posts
5 comments:
Notions are for sewing...thread, buttons, thimbles, needles, etc.
:)
Ah! I see. Thank you Megan - I had no idea (resisted...bad...pun).
GK
The sign seems to say, "Durham Notion Company Wholesale." Every department store used to have a "notions department," and since there were a lot of local department stores and clothing stores, I would imagine that Durham Notion Company supplied them.
I believe the O'Brient music store later moved elsewhere. Ms. O'Brient worked there for 50 years or so, and lives in my neighborhood -- she's lived here I believe about the same amount of time.
O'Brients Music Store moved into what became the commercial district of Chapel Hill Road, near the corner of CHR & Morehead Ave. The property (a nicely detailed older home) sold a few years back, but I haven't seen any life breathed back into it yet....
Post a Comment