600 FOSTER ST.

600 Foster St. was built circa 1958-1959 as a branch of the Home Savings and Loan. By the late 1960s, the building had been re-purposed as an appliance store known as Miller-Hurst.


Miller-Hurst, late 1960s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

By 1970, the building was definitely no longer selling dishwashers.


Paradise Lounge, 12.30.70
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun)

Architect Ellen Cassilly purchased the building in 1997 and converted the building to office space, including an office for her architectural practice.


600 Foster St., 06.07.08

Like much mid-century modern architecture, this building demonstrates how architecture/landscape began to shift from orientation towards the pedestrian to the vehicle, most notably the advent of drive-through banking. But it also does so through the presumption that the primary entry to the building would be from the parking lot rather than from the sidewalk.

Nonetheless, this building demonstrates how mid-century modern architecture can be beautiful as well, with a bevy of intersecting 90 degree angles and sweeping wing-like canopy?(not sure what to call it) supported/cantilevered by stone-faced, curved walls. Unfortunately, I think good mid-century modern design has often been lumped into the same pile with much of the rubbish that began to be produced in the 1960s and 1970s. Although it's rarely been the focus of this website, you can read more about the loss of modernist housing in the Triangle at the aptly named Triangle Modernist Houses.


36.002288 -78.900975

DURHAM ATHLETIC PARK

El Toro Baseball Field, circa 1930. The Jack Tar/Washington Duke Hotel is in the left background.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

Despite the preeminence of basketball in North Carolina today, baseball seems to be far more tightly woven into Durham's DNA.

Local baseball teams were formed in Durham as early as the 1870s - in 1875, the "Eno Bottom Rangers" of Hillsborough played against the "Durham Base Ball Club." Jean Anderson notes that the early games were a bit of a free-for-all. One Durham player evidently died after a game against Hillsborough's team from a combination of too much "redeye whiskey and sun".

Baseball games were a common local pastime, with a bevy of non-professional teams. Across from Maplewood Cemetery (which itself almost became a baseball field) - in the area that I imagine is now the modern portion of the cemetery, the first night baseball games were played in what was then called the "George Lyon Ball Park." Wyatt Dixon chronicles the first such game as "a team of Indians opposing a local team" and reports that the local press derided the event the next day. Other accounts note that the first electric streetcar ride was timed to bring people to a baseball game at the Lyon Park (although the electricity failed, compelling the operators to seek horses to draw the streetcar for the remaining distance.

The history of the Durham Bulls seems to have as many versions as there are sources - I've tried my best to summarize the most consistent elements.

By 1901 several local businessmen affiliated with the Durham Athletic Association attempted to pull together a team to play in the Virginia-Carolina league (or perhaps the Class C North Carolina League.) It seems that by 1902, a "Durham Bulls" team was established. The Durham Bulls' website inconsistently refers to this early team as the "Tobacconists" or the Bulls. The team evidently played on the Trinity College field - at the north end of what is now Duke's East Campus. The team had disappeared again by July of that same year.

City baseball, however, continued to thrive. By 1907, the Durham Hosiery Mill had fielded a baseball team comprised of employees, and in 1909 the Durham Traction Company built a ballpark on North Driver Street, at the later site of East Durham Junior High School. Special streetcars would take people out the East Durham route - down E. Main to Angier, east on Angier to S. Driver, north on Driver to the ballpark. (The streetcar then continued north to Holloway, and west on Holloway to Mangum.) By 1910, a Durham city league was established, with teams from the Hosiery Mill, the YMCA, East Durham, and West Durham.

In 1913, a more successful attempt to establish professional baseball in Durham was undertaken. That year, the North Carolina League was re-formed, and the local team was again named the "Durham Bulls" - a Class D farm team for the Cincinnati Reds. The Bulls played in the East Durham ballpark as well.


Bulls at the East Durham Ballpark, 1913.
From "Baseball's Hometown Teams: The Story of the Minor Leagues" by Bruce Chadwick

The games were interrupted for World War I, and then the league disbanded.

The Piedmont League was established in 1919, and the Bulls were one of the members. The Bulls were successful, and in 1926, private funds were raised to build a new ballpark for the club closer to downtown, on open land near Corporation and Morris Streets. The $160,000 facility was known as El Toro Ballpark. The first game was played at El Toro on July 7, 1926.


El Toro Ballpark, looking northeast, late 1920s
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

In 1930, the Bulls won the Piedmont league, but the financial backers of the park were struggling in the Depression. John Sprunt Hill gave the city $20,000 in funds to buy the park in 1933 with the stipulation that, were it ever sold, the funds should be used to buy additional land for recreation. El Toro Park was renamed Durham Athletic Park.


El Toro Baseball Park, 1930s.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

From 1932 to the 1940s, Durham was the headquarters of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. In 1932, the Bulls became a farm team for the Phillies. In 1933, the Bulls became a farm team for the Yankees, but by 1934 the Bulls had folded due to the Depression. In 1936, the Wilmington Piedmont League team, a Cincinnati Reds farm team, moved to Durham, and was renamed the "Durham Bulls."

On June 17, 1939, the original stadium burned to the ground. The city hired George Watts Carr to design a new ballpark, again paid for by John Sprunt Hill. The result was the present Durham Athletic Park, with its signature conical tower at the entrance. The wooden structure of the original ballpark was replaced with concrete and steel.


View of the stands from near first base, with the fire tower in the background ~1940s.
From "Baseball's Hometown Teams: The Story of the Minor Leagues" by Bruce Chadwick

By 1940, the team had become a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers. World War II put a strain on baseball leagues, and the team folded again in 1944. In 1945, the Bulls were re-established as a Red Sox Farm Club in the Class C Carolina League. By 1948, they had switched over to the Detroit Tigers.


Durham Athletic Park from West Geer, late 1940s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Durham Athletic Park from Corporation St., looking northwest, late 1940s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Interest in baseball slowly waned over the 1950s and 1960s. In 1962, the Bulls became a farm club for the expansion Houston Colt .45s. Attendance figures were poor enough that, in 1968, the Raleigh and Durham teams merged, becoming the Raleigh-Durham Mets.


Durham Athletic Park at the time of the Anti-Poverty March, 05.16.68.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Durham Athletic Park at the time of the Anti-Poverty March, 05.16.68.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

They split home games between the Durham Athletic Park and Raleigh's Devereaux Meadow. In 1970, the combined team was renamed "The Triangles" (inspired, eh) and folded in 1971.

No baseball was played in Durham until 1980, when Miles Wolff developed an expansion franchise in the Carolina League - farm team for the Atlanta Braves named, once again, the Durham Bulls.

The Bulls developed a following once again, and attendance grew each year. The 1988 movie "Bull Durham" made the Bulls one of the, if not the most recognizable minor league franchise.

But the success of the Bulls nearly took them away from Durham again. As I've detailed previously, the 'deterioration' of the Durham Athletic Park had prompted calls for a new facility, and the city made plans to build a new stadium on the University Ford Site downtown. The 1990 referendum failed to pass, in no small part due to strong editorializing by Jim Goodman, who had acquired an option to purchase the team and wanted to move the Bulls to a more RBC Center-like location near the airport. Nowhere, but a more equidistant car ride from all the actual places in the Triangle. History is mute as to whether he would have renamed the Bulls "The Triangles."

Fortunately, the city made a strong and, at the time, controversial choice to build a new ballpark anyway, on a former American Tobacco parking lot to the east of American Tobacco.


The DAP during the 1993 Season - their last at the DAP
(Courtesy Simon Griffiths

This was completed in 1995, and the Bulls moved to their new stadium (the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, or DBAP,) that year; they became an AAA franchise in 1998.

The Durham Athletic Park has hosted its share of events and baseball games since them - semi-pro teams, the Durham Dragons Softball teams, events like the Blues Festival and Beer Fest. During that time, the facility's need for renovation has grown, and the city has responded by allocating bond money for renovations. Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse responded to a request for proposals to renovate the park, and hired D'Agostino Izzo Quirk Architects (who renovated Fenway Park in Boston) to oversee the design. NCCU has discussed using the field as the home field for their expansion into Division One baseball. In addition, discussion with Minor League Baseball about bringing a "fan experience museum" to the area around the DAP seems to be ongoing. Who knows what structures will need be sacrificed for the fan experience.

Although I definitely enjoy an occasional baseball game at the DBAP, I must admit that I miss the Bulls at the DAP. My first experiences seeing the Bulls - as a college student around 1991-1992 - were at the DAP. It had an incredibly convivial feel to it - although I'm sure it didn't meet the aspirations of owners and branding types who realized their vision in the current DBAP, the DAP had loads of charm. You certainly felt like you would run into people you knew, and the ground-level look-out-at-the-neighborhood bleachers made you feel like you still had a connection to the Durham around you.


The entrance, from Washington and Corporation, 06.06.08.


The outfield, from West Geer looking south, 06.06.08


36.002831 -78.902417

BC REMEDY COMPANY / MEASUREMENT INC.

Looking southwest, likely late 1940s or early 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

BC Headache Powder was invented in 1906 at the Five Points Drug Company by Germain Bernard and Commodore T. Council (really.) Prepared at the counter initially, the drug was later manufactured for distribution and sale on the top floor of the flatiron building at the western point of Five Points.

After the Five Points Drug Company burned around 1928, the company constructed a new larger facility at Morris and Corporation Sts., which opened that same year. This facility was expanded twice (likely in the 1940s and 1950s) as operations grew. By the early 1950s, the company employeed 150 people.


Interior of the BC Powder manufacturing facility, 06.24.58.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The company evidently stopped manufacturing in this facility in 1972. I'm not sure how the transition occurred, but BC Powder is now owned by Glaxo Smith Kline and manufactured in Memphis.

In 1980, Measurement Incorporated - an educational testing company, got its start in Durham. I'm not sure when they purchased the BC Powder building and renovated it for office space, but the company has evidently had ongoing success, as evidenced by their ongoing acquisition of buildings and land around their buildings at Corporation, Morris and Liggett Sts. They've done a fine job of adaptively reusing these structures, as well as the Brodie Duke warehouse to the north - I hope this ethic extends to their newer acquisitions.


Former BC Remedy facility, now Measurement, Inc., 06.02.08.


36.001691,-78.903921

BRODIE DUKE WAREHOUSE

Looking northwest, 1925. The Brodie Duke warehouse is located directly behind the water tower.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

In 1878, Brodie Duke constructed what is now the oldest warehouse remaining in Durham. Duke has come to Durham in 1869 to set up his tobacco manufacturing business. He constructed a frame building on West Main St. for tobacco production, but, with the growth of his business, needed separate warehousing space. Brodie joined the remaining Duke brothers and his father in business in the late 1870s - it's likely that this warehouse became part of the Duke of Durham tobacco business at the same time.

Brodie built his house ~2 blocks away on a large parcel of land, now occupied by the Durham School of the Arts.

The warehouse became part of the American Tobacco Company, but split with the Liggett and Myers portion of the company after the breakup of the Trust, and was utilized as a tobacco factory rather than a warehouse.

By the 1930s, a north-south oriented addition was built on the south face of the warehouse.


Bird's Eye view, looking southwest, 1930s.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

The warehouse remained in operation throughout the middle of the 20th century.


View of the warehouse behind street sweepers, 05.04.55.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


The east end of the warehouse, 11.20.63.
Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

In 2000, Measurement, Inc. purchased the warehouse and renovated the building (plus addition) for office use.


Looking southwest, November 2007.


36.002165 -78.904629

FIRE DRILL TOWER

The Durham Fire Drill Tower was constructed in May 1926, designed by Durham architects Atwood and Nash, who likely also designed the adjacent Durham City Garage. The name makes the use rather evident, but the 61 foot tall tower provided a practice facility for Durham firefighters. It included a standpipe system, smoke room, safety net, and platforms.


(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

As you can note from the picture above, the fire tower originally lived on its own island between Washington St. and Morris St., with ample space around it for other drill activities or impromptu parking.


Firemen at drill tower, 05.31.56
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Firemen at drill tower, 05.31.56
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

In 1963, the roads were realigned and the portion of Washington St. separating the tower from the City Garage was closed.


Fire drill tower amidst the street work, 11.20.63.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The fire department used the tower until the early 1970s, at which point they felt that the tower was no longer safe for drill activities.

The tower languished until purchased along with the City Garage by Todd Zapolski. The tower was exterior/shell renovated at that point - I believe many ideas were floated at the time (and likely have been since) on how to make the tower a usable interior space. Unfortunately, I think if you put an interior stair or elevator in the tower, you wouldn't have much of a floorplate left.


Fire Drill Tower, November 2007.


36.002612 -78.903551

DURHAM CITY GARAGE

City Garage, looking northwest, 1940s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The Durham City Garage was built in 1930 to house a burgeoning fleet of non horse-powered city vehicles. In 1931, the city Sanitation department was the primary user of the space. The long brick facade held at least 13 bays that could be used for vehicle storage and maintenance.


City Sanitation truck, likely late 1940s.
(Courtesy Barry Norman)


Fire Truck, 01.15.49.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

In 1950, the sanitation department established headquarters elsewhere, and the city garage was devoted solely to fleet maintenance.


City Garage from across Washington and Corporation Sts., 11.20.63.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Of note, Washington St. once ran directly in front of the city garage (between the garage and the fire tower.) The above picture documents the roadwork to close that portion of the street and realign Corporation, Washington, and Morris.

In 1980, three city departments moved into the garage: parks and recreation, asset management, and transportation. The garage housed 100 city vehicles at that point.

In 1997, a group first proposed renovating the garage, but the deal fell through. In 1998, Todd Zapolski (and his firm Zapolski + Rudd) purchased the building from the city; the city agreed in the deal to move the three city departments to other buildings. Zapolski and Rudd renovated the building into office space, renaming it City Place. The building opened in 1999.

I returned to Durham in 1997, and, this, to me, is what I remember as the first comer in the still-ongoing wave of downtown renovation in Durham. Zapolski and Rudd seem to have split up at this point. Although his name was mentioned in connection with the old Geer Building site downtown, Zapolski seems to have moved on to various suburban developments in the Triangle - and historic developments elsewhere. But I believe that his office is still located in City Place.


Looking northwest, November 2007.


36.002812,-78.903999

NU-TREAD TIRE COMPANY

Nu-Tread Tire company, 1953
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

In 1951, the Nu-Tread tire company was described as "rendering a wide range of services to the motoring public," which included a "nationally advertised line of tires, tubes, batteries, and auto accessories" as well as "the General Electric line of electrical appliances such as refrigerators, ranges, radios, etc., including televisions." They were noted to have a 'recapping plant' that was "one of the most modern in this section, and manned by a crew of experienced workers."

The Nu-Tread tire company was started around 1930 in one bay of a commercial structure in the 300 block of McMannen St. (now S. Mangum.)

S. Coley Ray came to Durham in 1933 after working on his father's farm for several years. He worked for a "local tobacco company" until 1937, when he started a service station at the corner of Pine (now Roxboro) and West Pettigrew. This service station was located on the large open corner next to the Venable Warehouse.

In 1943, he purchased the Nu-Tread Tire Company from the previous owner and in 1947 moved the company to a newly constructed building on Foster St.


Nu-Tread Tire Company, 06.16.61
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The Ray family ran Nu-Tread Tire until quite recently - I'm not sure exactly when it shut down - 2006?

The building was purchased by Measurement, Inc. and, in March of 2008, they essentially 'swapped' structures with Accent Hardwood Flooring (so that they could control the entire block between Morris, Roney, Corporation, and Hunt - including one of the last remnants of the one-time beautiful houses on Morris.) The former Nu-Tread building became the new headquarters for Accent.


Looking northwest, 06.07.08


36.002276 -78.901808

UZZLE CADILLAC - FOSTER ST.

Looking east from West Geer St. to catch a small piece of the Uzzle Cadillac dealership, late 1960s.
(Courtesy University of North Carolina)

Uzzle Cadillac was started by Wilson Uzzle in a rather elaborate service station building on the southwest corner of Dillard and East Main Sts. around 1930.

In the 1940s, Uzzle moved his dealership to a new building on Foster St., designed by Archie Royal Davis (who has been mentioned on this site in the context of the round houses.)

Wilson's two sons, Dan and Gran, joined the business around this same time. Commenters noted the appearance of Martha Uzzle, Dan's wife, in one of the pictures of the Naval Reserve Building a few days ago.

In the early 1960s, the Uzzles built the pagoda-style building across Foster St. as a used car dealership. In 1969, they moved their Cadillac-Oldsmobile dealership out to Chapel Hill Blvd/15-501.

Weeks Lincoln-Mercury on W. Geer St sold their business to Bradley Lincoln-Mercury in about 1975, and the dealership moved to this location. They remained here until the 1980s when they built the present-day Michael Jordan Lincoln-Mercury on 15-501.

The building is now owned by Greenfire, another of their seemingly odd property-ownership choices (other the logic of just buying anything in DDO-1 that they can.) It houses Peter's Design Works, an architectural salvage and design/construction business (which was housed in the Venable Tobacco warehouse for a number of years before moving here) as well as Southern Portico, an apparent furnishings store.


Looking south-southwest at the former Uzzle Cadillac, 06.08.08.


36.003331,-78.901684

KING'S SANDWICH SHOP

Unfortunately, a break with my usual pattern - no old photo today. But I couldn't let that stop me from writing up King's. From a search of old city directories, it appears that King's first opened around 1950-51. (But may have been as early as 1942.)

Eleanor Cox, who sent me some great remembrances of the curb market (which I added to that post) wrote me this about Kings's and other food places in Durham she remembers from growing up.

"Mama would send me to King's Sandwich Shop when she'd work at the Agricultural Building. My favorite was a grilled pimento cheese sandwich! Everything was great, though. Back then, Durham only had a handful of restaurants and that was our "fast food" joint. Bullock's was where some ate on a budget and the Saddle and Fox Steak House was where people went if they had money or a special occasion. I worked downtown at Belk's while still in High School and also held a part-time job at the Jack Tar Hotel for a short time. There was a great restaurant downtown at the corner of Corcoran and Chapel Hill Streets, and I can't remember the name of it. A Greek family owned it and they had reasonable "one meat, two vegetables" type offerings. Most of the Belk's workers ate there for lunch on Saturdays. The rest of the time, we'd go to Amos and Andy's for hot dogs or the pizza place next door (our first experience with pizza!)."

King's was one of the few 'institutions' that persisted into the modern era, still dishing out greasy-but-delicious fare. It closed in January 2007 - rumors have swirled, as they seem to do in this Central Park neighborhood of high drama but little action - that King's would be torn down to build some condo-y thing. But who knows. What is clear is that we're a bit poorer as a community for the loss of places like King's - places that provide a bridge between Eleanor's childhood and successive generations.


King's at night, looking west during the last season of Durham Bulls baseball at the old ballpark, 1994.
(Copyright JC Rostagni, via DIAQ)

Update: 04/16/11

This post is long due for a fuller update, but thanks to entrepreneur TJ McDermott, King's re-opened on August 3, 2010.


08.25.10


08.25.10

It's a thrilling and unlikely rejuvenation, and one which Durham has embraced wholeheartedly. Moving into 2011, King's has become a fixture in the revitalized and otherwise repurposed West Geer St. corridor, which has long included Manbites Dog and Stone Bros. and Byrd, but has lately seen the addition of Motorco, Fullsteam, the Trotter Building, and more.

Local ABC journalist Lou Davis did a nice video profile on King's on 03.20.11


36.003935 -78.901569

644 FOSTER STREET / GULF STATION - GEER AND FOSTER

Gulf Station at the southeast corner of Foster and West Geer, 1952
(Courtesy Wayne Henderson)


Looking east from the west side of Foster Street, 08.03.61.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Perhaps oddly, the small former Gulf Service Station on the southeast corner of West Geer and Foster St. is one of my favorite buildings in Durham. Built in the early to mid 1930s, the service station was certainly operational through the 1970s. But it has certainly been abandoned since awhile before I first became aware of it in the late 90s.

It demonstrates a kind of gas station architecture that I've noted previously - particularly with regard to the Pure Oil stations of the 1920s-1930s - often small stuccoed structures with details more reminiscent of a small cottage than what we think of as a gas station today.

As such, this little building, though badly bedraggled, has great potential to be any number of uses - restaurant/coffee shop, bike store, comic book shop - whatever. It has enough charm - obvious even in this advanced state of disrepair - to pull it off.

Unfortunately, the building is owned by MM Fowler, whose family I believe owned all of the Gulf franchises and distribution in Durham. This is one of several great buildings that he is allowing to fall into the ground for no good reason. Others include my second favorite old gas station in Durham, on Angier Ave one block east of Driver St., and the Catsburg Store. I attempted to contact Mr. Fowler years ago to see if he would sell this through Preservation Durham, but he never returned phone calls. I know other folks have tried too.

Which is unfortunate, falling into the Fieldsian/Fireballian/Sturdivantian category of property owners that would rather see buildings self-destruct in the middle of their community than provide them with a positive future - through their own means or by selling them. I really can't find anything good to say about their 'contributions' to their city, and their seemingly irrational and antagonistic posture to their fellow Durhamites earns nothing but scorn from me.


06.07.08

Update, August 2010:

Amazingly, this building has been saved from the MM Fowler dereliction, and is currently being renovated by Bob Chapman. It will house a beer garden by late spring of 2011, called "Geer Street Garden, " helmed by Andy Magowan of Fowlers/Federal/Piedmont local culinary heritage.


08.25.10


04.17.11

As of May, 2011, the "Geer Street Garden" is open; it was a thrill to eat on its back patio, having watched with sadness for so long as this building deteriorated, and having very little hope that it would survive. Kudos to Bob Chapman and Andy Magowan.


05.21.11

Find this spot on a map


36.003556 -78.901175

TEXACO/SINCLAIR STATION - NE CORNER GEER AND FOSTER

Looking north at the Texaco Station. , 1952. The Scott and Roberts Cleaners is in the left background on Foster St.
(Courtesy Wayne Henderson)

The Texaco station at the northeast corner of W. Geer and Foster Sts. appears to have originally been built in the 1940s. By the 1960s, it had become a Sinclair Station.


Looking northeast, a partial view of the Sinclair station at Geer and Foster St., 08.31.61.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

It was one of three service stations located at this intersection. I'm not sure when it went out of business as a gas station, but it has seemed fairly abandoned over the last ~10 years.


Above, former Texaco/Sinclair Station sometime in the 1990s.

Recently however, it has undergone significant renovation and is really wonderfully transformed. My understanding is that will become some sort of fitness studio (I may not be right about that.) But this kind of renovation shows the possibilities inherent in well-constructed and interesting small buildings.


Looking northeast, 06.08.08


36.003959 -78.901109