BELVIN'S GROCERY

The one-time LD Belvin Grocery, looking southeast, late 1950s.
(Courtesy Bob Blake)

LD Belvin's grocery appears to have been established in Bragtown between 1907 and 1911. I have very little information about the store, although it appears to have been no longer run by Belvin - and potentially no longer a grocery store - by sometime between 1920 and 1923.


Looking east, late 1950s.
(Courtesy Bob Blake)

I do not have a clear record of when this building was torn down, but it's long gone today, replaced by the vehicular entrance to a fried poultry mecca.


Looking southeast at the junction of North Roxboro Road and Old Oxford Highway, 10.26.08.

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36.034607,-78.891803

OLD HICKORY MOTOR COMPANY

(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

I know nothing about the Old Hickory Motor Company, but this shot from 06.13.63 gives the sense of a far different feel of this part of Bragtown in the mid-20th century than present-day


Former Old Hickory Motor Company, 10.26.09.

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36.034089,-78.891929

THE WRIGHT REFUGE

Wright Refuge, looking northwest, 1920s.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection / Chamber of Commerce Collection)

Richard H. Wright - one of Durham's prolific early entrepreneurs (of early association with the Dukes, Durham's streetcar system (including development of the East Durham Ballpark and Lakewood Park, real estate development, and the Wright Machinery Company) founded the Wright Refuge in 1923. Per Boyd, William H. Young, judge of the Juvenile Court at the time, implored Wright to help provide funds to house orphaned children. Wright responded by offering $10,000 for its construction, provided that the "citizens of Durham provided an equal amount." The Chamber of Commerce raised the matching funds, and 22 acres of land were purchased on North Roxboro Road, 3 miles north of Durham. The home was completed in October 1923. Total costs were closer to $30,000; the shortfall was paid by Wright, who also provided a $50,000 endowment to run the facility.

The Refuge was managed by a board of trustees elected by the city council, the county commissioners, the county board of health, the city board of education, the Ministerial Association, and the Red Cross. In the first 6 months of operation, 35 children were placed at the Refuge.

Wright himself initially lived in the former EJ Parrish house at East Main and North Dillard Sts., but later lived not far to the north of the Wright Refuge in his former summer house, Bonnie Brae.

After Wright's death in 1929, his will made no provision for the Refuge, having been drawn up in 1921. Wright's sister assumed responsibility for the home, though, providing $100,000 to it in 1930, in addition to funds for operation prior to her death in 1932.


Wright Refuge, 10.11.46
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Wright Refuge, 10.11.51
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

A new structure was built in 1950; it appears that the original frame structure was likely demolished soon after the construction.

This replacement structure remains on the site. The Wright name appears to persist as the "Wright Refuge Fund" of the Triangle Community Foundation, founded in 1983, which is now the owner of this 22 acre site. The building is now used for The Wright School which, per the front page of their website "provides best practice, cost-effective residential mental health treatment to North Carolina's children, ages six to twelve, with serious emotional and behavioral disorders; and supports each child's family and community in building the capacity to meet children's special needs in their home, school and local community."


Site of the former Wright Refuge, 10.26.08.

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36.031724,-78.889309

BRAGTOWN

It may not have occurred to you to wonder what this collection of 1920s-era structures is doing up Roxboro Road, mostly surrounded by 1950s and 60s residential structures. If you heard the name "Bragtown", though, you might have surmised, correctly, that this area was a separate, unincorporated community until it became part of the city of Durham in 1957.

The natural bottomlands of Ellerbe Creek separated Bragtown from inner Durham during the early 20th century, such that for the most part, there was a distinct urban-greenbelt-urban transition that occurred when heading north/east/northeast out of Durham or the reverse. You can get a sense of this when traveling east on West Club Blvd from Washington St., where you drop into the lowlands along the creek in Northgate Park, passing 1940s-1960s era houses, and re-emerge into the fringes of Bragtown at Roxboro Road with some still-extant 1920s bungalows.

Some settlement may have occurred in the area of Bragtown as early as 1781, when Richard Rhodes gave land for a meetinghouse to be established in the area, later called the Eno Meeting House and associated with the Primitive Baptists.

However, Bragtown had more official beginnings in 1880 when John S. Carden was appointed postmaster of the small settlement.

Former Cameron Plantation slaves established Cameron Grove Baptist Church in 1901, which moved from the plantation to Bragtown.


1881 map of soon-to-be Durham County, showing Bragtown north of
Durham on the Roxboro Road.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

Bragtown developed significantly in the 1920s, and many of the structures of that era - both commercial and residential - persist. Notable structures include the former AT&T repeater station, built in 1928 (still a phone service building, now owned by Verizon) and commercial row structures immediately to the south, lining both sides of the street, as well as numerous frame residential structures, particularly to the east of Roxboro Road. The bungalow is a particularly popular structure in Bragtown.


Durham County Map, 1920, showing Bragtown.)
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)


Map of Durham, 1950, showing how separate Bragtown remained from the remainder of Durham.
(Copyright Sanborn Map Company)


Miles Restaurant, looking southwest from Roxboro Road, ~1940
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)


The 2900 block of Roxboro Road and Miles Restaurant, looking southwest from Roxboro Road, ~1940.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Bragtown had its own, separate Xmas parade into the 1950s.


Bragtown Xmas Parade in the 2800 block of N. Roxboro Road, looking southwest, 12.17.51
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

After Bragtown became an official part of the city of Durham in 1957, its distinct identity began to fade, abetted by the development of the US70 bypass (later I-85) and much accompanying residential development in the 1960s in the former 'gaps' between the core of Durham and Bragtown.

Although the volume of traffic on Roxboro Road makes the main drag a fairly uninviting place for pedestrians, if you get out and walk around, it does still have the feel of a place a bit apart from Durham proper. In recent years, the storefronts have become progressively more representative of the burgeoning Latino community in this area.


The former AT&T switching station at 3000 N. Roxboro Road, built in 1928, which now belongs to Verizon (along with the looks-like-a-tree-to-me cell tower,) 10.26.08


The building at 2929 North Roxboro Road - the former Miles Restaurant, and later, for many years, Leo's Seafood #2, 10.26.08


2842 N. Roxboro Road, looking southeast, 10.26.08


The main commerical strip on the east side of the 2800 block of N. Roxboro Road, looking southeast, 10.26.08

Bragtown is, unfortunately, as Endangered as any part of Durham. Both the Bragtown Trading Post at 2810 N. Roxboro Rd. and the unique Whitehead House bungalow at 2804 N. Roxboro Road were demolished by a company named "LTH Investments" in August 2008 - as noted by Barry Ragin on his site.


Tax Record photo of the Bragtown Trading Post.


Tax Record photo of the Whitehead House


Google Street View of the pair, looking northeast.


Demolition, August 2008
(Courtesy Barry Ragin)


Demolition, August 2008
(Courtesy Barry Ragin)


Site of 2804-2810 North Roxboro, 10.26.08.


The main commercial strip on the west side of the 2800 block of N. Roxboro, looking northwest, 10.26.08. (The same strip poorly visible in the Xmas parade shot above.)


Residential Bragtown - one of multiple bungalows in the 2700 block of N. Roxboro, 10.26.08


Residential Bragtown - one of multiple bungalows in the 2700 block of N. Roxboro, 10.26.08

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36.028651 -78.891009

Quick Note: Comment Spam

Just a quick note that I'm going to have to start turning off new comments on some older posts due to incessant comment spam. Obviously, this annoys me as much as it does anyone - often the legitimate comments on older posts come from someone new who just found the site, and sees their grandmother's store or similar - which I love to get. There is no global way to notify people of this, but if you aren't selling something and want to make a comment on a post that has comments turned off, please let me know.

GK

FOWLER'S FOOD STORE - ROXBORO ROAD

Looking northwest from Roxboro Road, 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Fowler's Food Store was founded in Chapel Hill by the Fowler family in the 1920s. The store occupied several locations on West Franklin Street; in 1942, the grocery opened a Durham location on North Roxboro Road, just south of East Club Blvd. In 1950, the store is noted to be the "first modern super-market in the Bragtown area. They carry a complete line of quality meats, produce, frozen foods, and groceries, and feature quality, economy, complete variety, and home delivery. Owners are RL Fowler and MM Fowler, the former being in active charge."

After the family sold the Chapel Hill store in the mid-1970s, the Durham store became the one-and-only. The grocery changed at that time to focus heavily on wine and more 'gourmet' food items. It remained at the North Roxboro Road location until ~1981, when it became one of the original tenants of Brightleaf Square, before moving to the former Dillon Supply building on South Duke St. Fowler's closed for good in 2006, and Parker and Otis subsequently assumed the gourmet grocery mantle in that space.

The former grocery on North Roxboro is currently unoccupied.


Looking northwest from Roxboro Road, 12.07.08

(As a bonus from our sister ship over at Crumbling Chapel Hill, old + new of the Fowler's in Chapel Hill:)


Fowler's on West Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, 1950s


Same building, 01.17.09

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36.019208 -78.890314

US70/I-85 AT ROXBORO ROAD - GAS STATIONS - N ROXBORO AND HIGBEE

The 1927 comprehensive plan described the area north of Knox Street between Duke St. on the west and Roxboro Road on the east as comprised of "a great variety of scenery - some of the finest in Durham - rugged bluffs and deep ravines, as well as smooth meadows. It is so accessible and varied in its scenery and so well adapted to park purposes that it should be promptly acquired." The plan advocated a large greenbelt park running through this area that would follow Ellerbe Creek, and encircle Durham. I've posted the whole map before here.


An excerpt of the map showing the greenbelt, inclusive of Duke Park.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Priorities had changed by World War II, and, by the late 1940s, it was deemed necessary to relieve traffic pressure through downtown by building a bypass for US70 through the 'fine scenery' - construction on this bypass began in 1952-53. The formerly rural/wooded area between the Duke Park neighborhood and Bragtown to the north was transformed into a landscape typical of the highway penumbra: fast food, gas stations, and other bits of Americana.


Looking southwest, 1960, at new gas stations at the intersection of Higbee and Roxboro, adjacent to the newish Highway 70 bypass.
(Courtesy Wayne Henderson)

The bypass was eventually integrated into the interstate highway project, linked near its west and east ends with Interstate 85.

While on the south side of the freeway, Duke Park gives a sense of the beauty once characteristic of this landscape, there is little reminder here.


Looking southwest at the same location, 01.17.09

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36.015982,-78.890593

DUKE PARK / DUKE PARK POOL AND BATHHOUSE

Duke Park, originally part of Brodie Duke's large landholdings, was farmed by farmer Lee Perry during the early 20th century. It was also evidently used by surrounding neighbors to surface mine coal - Durham's primary heat source prior to its usurpation by oil/gas heat in the mid-20th century.

Per Jean Anderson, the Junior League was at least in part responsible for persuading Duke to donate the land for a park sometime in the 1910s. Duke owned most of the surrounding land, and had begun plotting streets and selling off building lots, primarily to the south of the current park, between Glendale and North Roxboro prior to his death in 1919.

The residential neighborhood of Duke Park, surrounding the park itself, came into its own in the 1920s with the rise of private automobile ownership. Large period revival homes and bungalows, in particular, were developed along adjoining streets.

There is little information about the park itself during this era - because the area immediately to the north, now occupied by I-85 was a natural ravine, the park likely had no distinct northern boundary, blending with the rural landscaped that stretched north to Bragtown. Most likely, the land stayed as it had been, although it's unclear whether grazing, farming, and coal digging still went on.

In the early 1930s, though, Duke Park became one of several Durham parks that were redeveloped by the Civil Works Administration and Emergency Relief Administration of North Carolina as agents for the Federal Works Progress administration. Jean Anderson notes that "CR Wood applied for Reconstruction Finance Corporation Funds to establish five recreation centers [in city parks]" I don't know who CR Wood was.

Evidently the construction at Duke Park was opposed by some of the tony new neighbors, who were likely not digging up their own coal and grazing their cows nearby. The opposition included Richard Wright, II who lived nearby at 1429 N. Mangum, and local lawyer Basil Watkins. Per Jim Wise, the opposition claimed that the park would attract "an influx of undesirable elements." Despite 75 names on a petition and a rant about cutting down trees for swimming pools, the trash produced by visitors, and the expense of maintaining the park, the anti-park posse lost.

Marshall Spears, chairman of the recreation commission, pushed forward with the construction of a pool, tennis courts, swings, shelters, stone entrances, and a bathhouse, all completed between 1933-1935.

These facilities appear to have been extremely popular through the 1940s and 1950s. I simply stopped scanning pictures of the Duke Park pool after awhile, as it appears to have been the reliable annual harbinger of summer for the crowds to arrive at Duke Park pool. Duke Park was segregated, as all Durham Parks were, and only accessible to white people.

I was rather surprised to discover the "Duke Park Water Pageant" in existence as early as 1949. I have no idea if the present-day "Beaver Queen Pageant" organizers were aware of this history of Duke Park, but, if not, it's rather amazing.


Duke Park Water Pageant, 08.11.49.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Duke Park Water Pageant, 08.11.49.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Duke Park Water Pageant, 08.11.49.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Duke Park pool opens for summer, 06.05.57
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Duke Park pool opens for summer, 06.05.57
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Duke Park pool opens for summer, 06.04.55
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Duke Park pool, 08.23.56 - the headline was "Duke Park Pool with No Swimmers" - due to a polio scare.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Duke Park pool, 06.17.57.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Duke Park Pool, 08.09.61. I think this is probably staged. I'm putting this in primarily to show the bathhouse in the background.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Evidently the bathhouse was renovated in 1962.


Inspecting the renovations, 06.07.62.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The park seems to have fallen on harder times in the late 1960s and 1970s, as did many city parks. The reaction of the white populace to the integration of parks (not specifically Duke Park, but all Durham parks) was not to embrace change. I don't know of violence or similar - but community investment in parks declined.

Per Barry Ragin, the Duke Park pool closed in 1993 due to "irremediable maintenance issues" that related to the the pool developing a leak into the underground stream below it. I always have to suspect that anything is remediable with enough money, which, granted, Durham Parks and Rec rarely has. Sometime in the early 2000s, as part of the renovation of the play equipment at Duke Park, the pool was removed, and the hole filled in with dirt.

The 1933-34 bathhouse has remained shuttered for 15 years, despite the efforts, chronicled by Barry, of the surrounding community to lease the structure from Durham Parks and Rec for a community center. It seems that DPR has a desire to raze the structure, but hasn't done so due to community opposition. So they've opted for traditional option #3 = neglect. It's the standard practice of owners in these situations - if you can wait, try to get the structure to deteriorate enough so that 1) ideally, it falls down of its own accord, 2) you can get a pliable structural engineer to sound the chicken little-esque refrain of "unsafe! unsafe!".

Which is all a shame, because Duke Park clearly has the community resources to make this a thriving community center and, by doing so, save a historic structure that helps us remember some of the things we and our elected officials did last time the economic sky was falling.


A general shot of Duke Park, looking northeast, 01.17.09


Former Duke Park pool and boarded-up bathhouse, 01.17.09

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36.014318,-78.893752

Martin Luther King Day

"Negro Open Housing March Downtown, 10.29.67"
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


"Negro Open Housing March Downtown, 10.29.67"
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Here's to - this year - feeling good about how far we've come.

YARBROUGH MILLS / WRIGHT MACHINERY COMPANY

Yarbrough Mill, ~1925 - looking northwest from Calvin St.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The Yarbrough Mill, a hosiery mill, was established on Calvin St., near Holloway St. around 1925. There is very little extant detail about the origin or operation of the mill.


Yarbrough Mills interior, undated, but mid to late 1920s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

By 1929, the mill was out of business. In 1930, the building was taken over by Richard Wright's Automatic Tobacco Packing Machine Company.

Richard H. Wright, at one time associated with the Dukes' ambitions to monopolize the tobacco industry before the relationship soured, had continued to work to secure control of tobacco production and packaging machinery, even after dissolution of the partnership with the Dukes. After working to secure the rights to the Bonsack cigarette machine, and securing North American rights to a tobacco package wrapping machine from the Rose Bros. of Gainesborough, England, he established the Wright Automatic Tobacco Packing Machine Company to produce packaging and wrapping machinery. One source notes that the company was established by the 1890s; however, it does not appear to have been a physical operation until 1930. After establishment of the factory on Calvin St., it was noted to be "one of the pioneers in the South in the manufacture of automatic packaging machinery." (I'm not sure that there were copious packing machinery manufacturing companies in the south contending for this title.)

The name of the company was soon changed to Wright's Automatic Machinery Company. During World War II, the company, again renamed as Wright Machinery Company, worked with the Sperry Corporation to manufacture "gun-fire control instruments for the US Navy." The large plant at Holloway St. was constructed for this, and employment peaking at more than 1000 people during the war. One previous commenter has posited that is the plant manufactured triggering mechanisms for bombs during the war. The plant received "four of the coveted Nacy 'E' awards for efficiency" during the war.


Bird's eye view of the entire plant, looking northwest from above Holloway and Calvin St. Goose Creek winds along the western edge of the plant.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

By the 1950s, the company was run in part by Richard Wright's nephew, a vice-president - also named Richard H. Wright. After the war, the plant had returned to manufacturing packing and wrapping machinery.


Undated, but 1950s view of the rear of the new building - looking southwest.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Chamber of Commerce Collection)

Strikes occurred at the plant in 1956.


Looking southwest at the 1940s building.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Looking northwest at the original Yarbrough Mills building.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Looking southwest at the 1940s building.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The company was still active at the Calvin & Holloway location into the mid 1960s.


Looking east from near Goose creek, between the two buildings, 1966.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Interior shot of the plant, 1966
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

In 1969, the Wright company moved to Camden Avenue. The building was occupied by former wartime partner Sperry-Rand Electronics Corporation into the 1980s. In the 1990s, the building was occupied by Honeywell, Inc. Sometime between ~1970 and 1994, the original Yarbrough Mills building on Calvin St. was demolished.

It is currently owned by "Yarboro & Hesee Warehouses, LLC". The city agreed in November 2008 to lease ~16,000 square feet of space in the warehouse for the District One police substation, which will include both the District One staff, and the community services division.


Looking northwest from Calvin and Holloway at the front of the 1940s structure, 01.11.09. Some very large Magnolia trees that once graced the front of the building have been removed recently.


Looking northwest from Calvin St. at the former location of the older, Yarbrough Mills building.

This location is a vast improvement over the previous location, a sorry shopping center on Holloway St., east of 70. It may have provided office space, but did not contribute to a sense of community commitment to the inner neighborhoods of Edgemont/Cleveland-Holloway, and East Durham. The proximity to Housing Authority, City, and private investments - as well as adjacency to Long Meadow Park - is a strong positive move by the city and the police department.

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35.995204,-78.884473