DURHAM WATER COMPANY - ENO RIVER PUMPING STATION

Pumping Station, 1905.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Scanned by Digital Durham)

Increasing demand for water in the city of Durham during the 1870s and 1880s prompted the city to enter into a contract with A.H. Howland of Boston to establish a water infrastructure/pumping system sufficient to provide pressure capable of producing 10 streams of water, each 100 feet high, from 10 fire hydrants. The city signed a 30 year contract with the company, with the proviso that equipment and installation would be approved by a city engineer.

In 1886-1887, Howland and WF Ellis, along with 75 laborers and 2 blacksmiths constructed a 100 foot dam across the Eno River at the point Nancy Rhodes Creek empties into the river. The pond formed behind the dam would hold 6 million gallons of water. A pumping station would pump water from the river up to a reservoir 8300 feet away atop Huckleberry Hill. This 3 million gallon reservoir would gravity feed the city of Durham.

The Durham Water Company was formed in November 1886 to operate and maintain the water system. Eugene Morehead was president, WW Fuller was the attorney, Howland and Ellis the managers.


Plan of the waterworks, 1887. Get a full size view from Digital Durham, by clicking here.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Scanned by Digital Durham

The water system was a repeated source of problems. Howland and the city disputed the size of the water pipe to be installed, and after numerous delays, the city agreed to accept the water system in April 1888, despite the fact that it had failed to meet the benchmarks demanded by the contract.

Citizens lodged ongoing complaints about water pressure and inconsistent service. The company went into receivership over lawsuits from the McNeal Pipe and Foundry company, who had not been paid for their work. Fires that destroyed numerous in-town businesses in 1894 and 1895 demonstrated that the company's water supply was insufficient for firefighting. Howland resigned from management of the company, and John C. Michie replaced him. Michie found muddy water containing dead fish in the reservoir, and began work to replace filtration systems and cement the reservoir bottom.

The water company went into receivership again in 1898, owing various parties $194,000. The city entered a new contract with John D. Hardy of Boston to run the water service, but conditions were little improved.


Same view as above, 1905, in a colorized postcard version.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)


Sanborn Map of the Pumping Station, 1913

After the major fire of 1914, the city purchased the entirety of the system in 1916. The city decided at that point to establish the Flat River as its primary water supply and began planning the Lake Michie dam.


Pumping station on the Eno, 1917.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The construction of the reservoir and filtration system at Hillandale Road followed soon thereafter, that same year.

The Eno pumping station and Huckleberry Hill reservoir continued to be used as a backup system for some undetermined period after the Hillandale plant was established, but eventually all production was shifted to the Lake Michie/Hillandale systems, and the old water system on the Eno was seemingly abandoned.

Interestingly, the idea of an Eno reservoir resurfaced by the 1960s - I'm not sure where the proposed location of the Eno dam was. The Eno River Association was formed in 1966 to combat the idea of damming (and damning) the Eno. They managed to beat back this proposal, and the city would eventually dam the Little River at Orange Factory instead. The Eno River State Park was formed in 1973.

One of the trails in Eno State park is the Pump Station trail, which takes you by the ruins of the old pumping station. Ruins plus a nature hike is my kind of adventure.

I scaled the hill east of the pumping station to try to recreate the historic view above. Trees prevented the same view, but the below shot is a rough approximation.


08.08.09

Further west is the stone foundation of the pumping station, visible in the historic photos above.


08.08.09

The ruins of the filter room are off in the woods to the south.


08.08.09

I didn't realize until a reader emailed me a query that the old reservoir on top of Huckleberry Hill was still around. It's hard to get to, with a tall chain-link fence/barbed wire around it. The site appears to be used for telephone equipment/cell phone tower as well. But you can see the stone steps leading to the top of the reservoir in this shot. (Which I took over my head, poking my lens through the barbed wire.)


Reservoir, off of Berini Drive, 08.29.09

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36.062461,-78.962498


36.03939,-78.958976

734-736 AND 736 1/2-738 NINTH ST.

734-738 Ninth, early 1920s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

734-736 Ninth began with a series of frame residential structures that, by the mid-1920s, had begun to be supplanted with frame commercial structures - starting with the West Durham Cafe at 738 Ninth St. By the mid 1930s, Bonardi's Fruit and Produce was located at 734 Ninth St., and the Keeton Furniture Company at 736-738 Ninth. By the early 1940s, John Dailey had taken over the Keeton Furniture Company building for his grocery store. By 1950, Dailey had constructed a masnory building that spanned the 734-738 stretch of Ninth St., Dailey's Household Appliances.


Dailey's, with the infamous Ninth St. awning being affixed to its facade, 08.23.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Looking south, 08.23.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Dailey's remained in business until sometime between 1985 and 1990. Bernard's Formal Wear had taken over the former hardware and appliance store by 1990. During the 90s, they remodeled the front facade to its present appearance.


73-738 Ninth, 04.05.09

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36.009016,-78.921918

Mystery Photo - 08.27.09

A toughie today. Probably around 1910, and probably Main or Chapel Hill Sts. I've added a companion photograph that I could identify to the Southern Conservatory of Music post.

Note: I now believe that this negative was flipped. Here is the horizontally flipped version

730-732 NINTH STREET

Looking northeast, early 1920s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

730-732 Ninth St. was built in ~1922, and had the rare - perhaps unique - distinction in Durham of housing one business for over 80 years. McDonald's drugstore was founded by Angus McDonald, who managed the Edgemont Drugstore at 803 East Main St. and lived at 211 E. Parrish St. prior to moving to Broad St. in West Durham. He founded the McDonald's drugstore in a frame building on Ninth St. in 1916, and moved into 732 Ninth St. after in was completed in 1922.

The other half of the building, 730 Ninth, housed Mamie Osborne's dry goods store by 1926, renamed the West Durham cash store by 1935. By 1940, this would be replaced by the Ninth Street Billiard Parlor.

In 1949, John McDonald - Angus' son- would join his father in the drugstore in 732. John had been born in 1920, and worked in Erwin Mills prior to his decision to attend pharmacy school at UNC. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he returned to UNC to complete pharmacy school and join the family business.

By 1950, the space next door to McDonald's housed "Tex(tile) Remnants."


726-732 Ninth St., 08.29.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The two remained side-by-side until Textile Remnants was replaced by Southeastern Office Equipment and Supply in ~1970. By 1975, the Fields real estate empire began to expand with the movement of Fields Shoe Service from 742 Ninth to 730 Ninth. Fields Shoe Service vacated by 1990.

I distinctly remember my first visit to McDonald's in 1992 - my exploration of the old timey appearing place with the seemingly ever-present potty chair in the front window was inspired purely by curiosity, but I'll never forget the milkshake I discovered inside. Wow.

McDonald's remained in business until ~2005, and John McDonald died in 2006. The space remained vacant for two years, but in 2008, Bryan Nickell and Erin Walker-McMullen opened Ox and Rabbit - a new take on a sundry store, with a full-fledged soda fountain in operation. Carrying on the milkshake tradition in the McDonald's space is a wonderful thing to do. Architecturally, I was thrilled that they re-exposed the glass transom above the storefront that beautifully refracts light into the space.

730 Ninth has housed Dogstar Tattoo since ~1999.

Interestingly, the building's ownership is split down the middle, with the 730 bay owned by Bill Fields, and the 732 bay owned by Frances McDonald.


726-732 Ninth, 04.05.09


730-732 Ninth, 04.05.09

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36.008818,-78.921921

726-728 NINTH STREET

Ninth St., looking northeast from near Stack St., ~1920s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The building at 726-728 Ninth St. was built between 1920 and 1923 for the Bank of West Durham. By 1930, the northern half of the building, 728 Ninth, housed the DeLuxe Barber Shop. The bank folded during the depression, and by 1935, 726 was occupied by "The New Erwin Lunch" and 728 housed Martha's Beauty Shop. By the 1940s, Cheek's Dry Cleaners occupied 728.

By the 1950s, TNEL had been supplanted by Morgan's Restaurant, and Cheek's had built their own building at 720 Ninth St. The Clean-Rite dry cleaners took their place at 728.


A view southwest with the Morgan's Restaurant sign above a Long Meadow Dairy sign, 08.29.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Cheek's took over 728 once again by 1970. By 1975, 728 was occupied by Art Craft Framing. Between 1980 and 1985, Morgan's went out of business, and Art Craft moved to 726. Vaguely Reminiscent took their former space in 728. These two businesses have remained stalwarts on the Ninth St. business scene since that time.


726-728 Ninth St., 04.05.09

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36.008705,-78.921948

720 NINTH STREET

Sanborn map of Ninth St., 1937

720 Ninth Street was initially part of the Erwin Mills mill village, part of the housing built to the east of the mill extending east to Broad Street. A mill house (720 Ninth St.) stood on the later site of the commercial building.

By the late 1940s, the two mill houses at 714 and 720 Ninth St. had been demolished, and Cheek Dry Cleaners had been built at the corner of the alleyway across from Stack St. and Ninth St.


Sanborn Map, 1950, showing Cheek Dry Cleaners at the corner of the alley and Ninth.


Looking southeast, 1950. Cheek Dry Cleaners sits at the northern end of the former residential land. (With the smokestack at the rear.)
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


1963 view down the sidewalk on the east side of Ninth St., showing the marquee sign on the front of the building.

Cheek Dry Cleaners remained in business through the early 1970s, but closed by 1975. In 1976, the first business in the Second Era of Ninth Street opened, as new owners of the building revisioned the former dry cleaner as an eclectic bookstore - "independent" before the term, as applied to bookstores, likely existed.


Regulator Bookshop, 1980.

The Regulator is still going strong, and with the closing of the last business of the First Era of Ninth Street - McDonald's Drugstore, the bookstore is the wizened anchor of Ninth St. retail. As an unabashed bibliophile and fan of the store, I hope they survive and thrive during the challenge from the online bookstores to stick around another 33 years.


720 Ninth St., 04.05.09

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36.008571,-78.921997

716 NINTH ST

Sanborn map of Ninth St., 1937

716 Ninth Street was initially part of the Erwin Mills mill village, part of the housing built to the east of the mill extending east to Broad Street. A mill house (720 Ninth St.) stood on the later site of the commercial building.

By the late 1940s, the two mill houses at 714 and 720 Ninth St. had been demolished. Cheek's Dry Cleaners had been built at the corner of the alleyway and Ninth St., but the remainder of the land associated with the two houses remained vacant.


Sanborn Map, 1950, showing Cheek's Dry Cleaners and vacant land between it and O'Briant's restaurant.


Looking southeast, 1950. A vacant lot is visible to the south of Cheek's Dry Cleaners (With billboards facing north, just to the north of O'Briant's)
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

716 Ninth St. appears to have been built between 1965 and 1968, initially housing the "Keypunch Institute of Durham" and "Public Finance Corp No. 1." I don't know that I've ever found two business names that were both so very odd and boring-sounding at the same time.

By 1975, the building housed Carolina Copy Center and Office Supply, which remained at the location into the 1990s.

Someone else can probably recount better than me the various businesses that have been here since the mid 1990s. Blue Corn opened here sometime in the late 1990s, I think. They've since taken over the former bookstore space. I can't remember whether the northernmost bay is where High Strung, and before that, the last incarnation of Poindexter's was - ?


716 Ninth St., 04.05.09

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36.008442,-78.921955

Mystery Photo - 08.20.09

"Highway Patrol Inspecting Cars, 03.03.62"
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

714 NINTH STREET

Sanborn map of Ninth St., 1937

714 Ninth Street was initially part of the Erwin Mills mill village, part of the housing built to the east of the mill extending east to Broad Street. A mill house stood on the later site of the commercial building.

By the late 1940s, the two mill houses at 714 and 720 Ninth St. had been demolished. Cheek's Dry Cleaners had been built at the corner of the alleyway and Ninth St., but the remainder of the land associated with the two houses remained vacant.


Sanborn Map, 1950, showing Cheek's Dry Cleaners and vacant land between it and O'Briant's restaurant.


Looking southeast, 1950. A vacant lot is visible to the south of Cheek's Dry Cleaners (With billboards facing north, just to the north of O'Briant's)
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Couch Furniture built a store on the southern portion of this former residential land between 1965 and 1968. The original Couch Furniture Company had been located on West Chapel Hill St. at Five Points prior to moving to Ninth Street when their building was torn down by urban renewal for the First Federal (now Southbank) building.

When Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, several riots broke out in Durham. The Couch furniture store was one building set on fire.


Firefighters on Ninth St. attempting to extinguish the fire. The 1960s era West Durham post office is in the background.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The building was repaired/rebuilt immediately thereafter.


A small portion of the building, looking northest, 12.18.69.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The story goes that the odd building, with a sunken first floor and suites upstairs and to the rear of the building, was designed with no frontage on Ninth St. as a response to the firebombing.

In the early 2000's, Orvis moved out of the below grade first floor, and Blue Coffee moved in - a new floor was placed at ground level, and the sunken first floor became a basement underneath the coffeshop. A couple of years ago, the coffeeshop became Bean Traders.



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36.008281,-78.921977

712 NINTH STREET

Looking northeast, 12.18.69
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The only frame building remaining on Ninth St., the store at 712 Ninth St. appears to have been built around 1930 as Paul's Place restaurant. By the 1950s, the business had become O'Briant's Restaurant.


O'Briant's, looking south, 12.18.69.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

By the late 1970s, the Navajo Trading Post had supplanted O'Briant's restaurant.


Looking east, 1980

The space was vacant in 1990, but by the late 1990s had become Native Threads, a clothing store well-known for large metal anthropomorphic frogs at the entryway. In 2000-2001, plans were afoot to remove the former restaurant/clothing store for a taller replacement structure.


712 Ninth St., 01.25.01
(Courtesy The Herald Sun)


2001 photograph of the model by Ellen Cassilly Architect.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

For whatever reason, that plan seems to have been put on long-term or permanent hold, and I can't say that I'm sad about that. However small and un-dense the structure may be, it adds a quaint interruption to the masonry storefronts and a reminder of the early 20th century transition of wood frame commercial and residential structures to the more substantial masonry structures. So do you freeze development, when the proposed development is appropriate in scale and complements the streetscape? No, but I certainly hope the various surface parking lots on 9th St. begin to see infill before structures like this are replaced.


712 Ninth St., looking east 04.05.09

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36.008162,-78.922014

706 NINTH STREET

706 Ninth Street, 12.21.69
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

706 NInth Street was built in ~1936; it initially housed the Andrews Furniture Company, followed by the West Durham Furniture Company. By the early 1960s, the building appears to have been vacant, but was soon reoccupied by Custom Interiors and the Neil Upholstery Co. In 1971, Godwin Dance School became a tenant


706 Ninth St., 1980

It was followed by Sandy's School of Dance in the late 1980s.

Sometime around ?1993, Francesca's Dessert Cafe moved around the corner from Perry St. and has been here ever since, becoming one of Ninth Street's enduring institutions.


706 Ninth Street, 04.05.09

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36.008031,-78.921929

771 NINTH STREET / 2001 HILLSBOROUGH ROAD

Hillsborough Road and Ninth St., looking west, ~1958
(Courtesy Barry Norman)

The service station at 771 9th St. / 2001 Hillsborough Road was initially the Council Service Station, built during the early 1930s. The building became Moore's Texaco, and, by the late 1950s, the McAfee Service Station. It then had a stint as a drive-in shoe shop, and idea whose time has surely come again.


Corner of Hillsborough Road and Ninth St., looking southwest, 09.27.62
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

I'm not sure when the station was torn down. The land on which it sat became an island with the direct connection of Hilslborough Road to West Markham in the early 1980s. The former corner of Hillsborough and 9th became the corner of Safeway and Ninth. The site hosts the Old West Durham neighborhood sign and grass/landscaping. It seems unfortunate that it managed to lose its sidewalk along with the gas station. Perhaps as people discuss closing Safeway, the former Hillsborough Road, making the crossing of Hillsborough on the north side of Ninth St. a bit less forbidding will be a priority.


Former southwest corner of Hillsborough and Ninth, looking southwest, 08.08.09

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36.010268,-78.922358

Mystery Photo - 08.13.09

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

713-761 NINTH STREET

Looking southwest at 9th Street, 1940s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Among the earliest mill houses built by the Erwin Mill was a series of houses built along the west side of Ninth Street, extending northward from the company store. The houses were identical two-story, side-gabled frame houses typical of mill house construction in North Carolina.


Northwesterly view of 9th Street, 1950, showing 7 identical two-story mill houses.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Looking southwest from the northeast corner of the intersection of Markham and 9th, 09.27.62. Because Markham and Hillsborough did not align, the present-day roadway would run straight through the single story house in the background.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


1968 view north on 9th Street, with the row of houses visible on the left side.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

I'm not sure exactly when these houses were torn down, but it appears to have been done in a wholesale fashion, leading me to believe that either Erwin Mill/Burlington Industries or the city had something to do with it. My best guess is that it was done between 1968 and 1970.

At least since the 1980s, the southern portion of this once-residential strip has been a surface parking lot, and the northern portion a combination of surface parking and a retail development constructed on the corner of Hillsborough and 9th St., created when Markham was connected to Hillsborough.

This surface parking and retail facing the interior parking lot, turning its back on the corner, were developed in the 1980s. Given its ongoing ownership (even the city-leased lot) by Terry Sanford and Clay Hamner's SEHED real estate investment/development group, which also owns Erwin Square, I presumed that it was developed contemporaneously with the Erwin Mill redevelopment / Erwin Square construction.

By 1988, the most notable tenant in the streetphobic development was Wellspring Grocery, which expanded to the location from their previous tenancy in the former Wright/Scarboro Grocery building at 1002 Ninth Street, now occupied by Magnolia Grill. Once Wellpsring moved to the former A&P on Broad St., a few blocks away, George Bakatsias began building a new restaurant empire (after the collapse of his first one,) with the construction of George's Garage in the space ~1996.

Kerr drugstore took up much of the remainder of the structure; they shut down a few years ago and that space has remained vacant. George's Garage vacated its space just a month ago, when the restaurant's lease was not renewed. The building is now empty, and the associated parking cordoned off.


Southern portion of the parking lot, 04.05.09


Northern portion, 04.05.09.


One of the most squandered corners in Durham, looking southwest, 08.07.09

I hope this means a better architectural future for this entire strip is at hand. The long strip of surface parking, terminated with a suburban style retail structure that faces away from the energy of 9th Street is an incredibly underwhelming use for real estate that has the potential to finally make the core of 9th street a two-sided pedestrian-scale retail frontage. (A situation that is incredibly, strangely absent throughout Durham - except perhaps at 'Main Street' at Southpoint.)

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36.008639,-78.922348

1914-1918 PERRY

1916-1920 Perry were built in the late 1920s, extending the strip of older commercial buildings at the corner of 9th and Perry eastward. The 1914 Perry building initially housed the West Durham Electric Shoe shop. 1918 initially housed Hawley's barber shop.

By the 1940s, 1914 housed Cole and Crumpacker General Contractors, and 1916-18 housed Check Dry Cleaners. By the 1950s, 1916-1918 housed Stahl-Rider Durham air conditioners, with Modern Printing and Lithographic upstairs.


Aerial shot of Perry St., 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

I'm sure there are other businesses that have made a home in these buildings. My own memory is of buying my very first CD at dearly departed Poindexter's, before they made a few moves up and down 9th Street. And of eating Francesca's ice cream along their benches on Perry St.


Perry St., 1980s.

Today, 1916-18 houses CCI photographics, and upstairs, the modern-day equivalent of Poindexter's (at least in my mind,) Chaz's Bull City Records.


1916-18 Perry, 04.05.09

1914 Perry St. houses Atelier N, a jewelry store.


1914 Perry, 04.05.09

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36.007776,-78.921741

1920 PERRY STREET

1920 Perry Street may have been the earliest non-mill-related masonry commercial structure built in West Durham, constructed prior to 1907. By the 1920s, the building housed the Andrews Furniture Store., and by the 1930s, the upstairs, accessed through a stair on the left side of the building, housed the United Textile Workers (AFL Local 257), and the Int'l Assoc of Machinists Lodge No. 721. By the 1950s, the downstairs housed Bell VE and Sons Air Conditioners.


Perry St., 1980.

As of 2009, the upstairs houses Cosmic Cantina, which has been producing burritos here since the late 1990s. The downstairs initially opened as the Cosmic Lounge, an accompaniment to the food upstairs with music, bar, etc. that closed after a year or two. There seem to have been several short-lived attempts to restart something similar on the first floor, but it currently remains shuttered.


1920 Perry St., 04.05.09

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36.007812,-78.921914

700-704 NINTH ST.

700-702 Ninth Street was among the earliest commercial masonry structures built in West Durham, located at the corner of Hillsboro (later Perry) and Ninth, where the streetcar turned from Ninth Street towards Broad. It was built between 1907 and 1913. In 1926, it housed Brewers Drug Store in 700 and the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (the A&P) in 702. By 1930, the building was expanded to the north with a similar-in-appearance additional bay, 704 Ninth St. The A&P moved into this section. 702 was soon occupied by Kam's Barber Shop and Nellene Beauty Shop.

By the late 1930s:
700: Brewers Drug Store, Textile Workers' Union Am Local No. 246 (2nd Floor)
702: Nellene Beauty Shop, Hall's Barber Shop
704: Ser-V-All Food Store

By the 1940-1950s
700: Brewers Drug Store,
702: Nellene Beauty Shop, Gus' Barber Shop
704: Lesco Homes district sales office, Home Builders and Realty Co., Swain Bros Stationers


(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

By 1965

700: Ivy 's Florist
702: Nellene Beauty Shop, Bell's Barber Shop
704: Carolina Textile Products

By 1970

700: The Shoe Inn
702: Nellene Beauty Shop, Ninth St. Barber Shop
704: Textile Remnants Inc.



By 1985:

700: Campus Florist
702: A New Reflection Beauty Shop, Ninth St. Barber Shop
704: Bernard's Formal Wear.

By 1990:

700: Campus Florist
702: The Play House, King's Barber Shop,
704: Vacant


Today, after the unfortunate removal of the box cornice from 700-702, the buildings house Ninth Street Florist, The Playhouse, and Wavelengths Salon.


Looking northeast, 04.05.09


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36.00786,-78.922016

Mystery Photo - 08.03.09

"Northgate and Bypass areas flooded by Heavy Rains - 02.14.52"
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

FIDELITY BANK - WEST DURHAM / BRUEGGER'S

(Courtesy Old West Durham Neighborhood Association)

The Fidelity Bank was one of Durham's earliest banks, organized by MA Angier, George Watts, Washington Duke, and Benjamin Duke in 1887. After stints in the Wright Building and Trust Building, the Fidelity became the anchor tenant in the Fred C. Geer Building in 1915, which would house their main offices and main branch. They would eventually own that building and rename it the Fidelity Bank building.

Unlike many other banks, Fidelity did not undertake an aggressive geographic expansion; under the Fidelity name, the bank peaked with 3 branches, all in Durham.

One of those branches, established in the early 1920s , was the West Durham branch. (The others were in East Durham and North Durham.) Designed by Durham architecture firm Rose and Rose, the neoclassical revival structure established an architectural presence on the south side of Perry Street. This corner had high visibility to trolley traffic, as the trolley made its right turn from 9th St. at Perry to get to Broad Street, where it would then turn left to head north towards Watts Hospital.


Fidelity Bank, on the corner of Perry and 9th, ~1950
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun)

Fidelity Bank became a part of Wachovia Bank in 1956. The branch banks became Wachovia branches at the same time. The bank was expanded to the south in the 1950s - I'm unsure when.

This remained a Wachoiva branch bank into the 1980s.


Wachovia branch bank at 9th and Perry, 1980, showing the south side addition.

In the early 1980s, Wachovia built a new branch across the street, at the former location of the Erwin Mills company store/West Durham post office. The building was renovated, with Bruegger's Bagels establishing one of their bagel shops in the original bank building during the early renaissance of 9th Street. The first tenant I remember (from the late 1980s) in the southern addition was Steve's Ice Cream.

Bruegger's remains, 20+ years on. The south addition has turned over multiple times, and is currently Tre Bella. Zola Gallery has an upstairs space on the second floor of the original bank building and south addition, with an entry off Perry St.


Former Fidelity Bank, NE, 04.05.09


Former Fidelity Bank, SE, 04.05.09

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36.007519,-78.922009

WEST DURHAM METHODIST CHURCH / GRANITE SERVICE STATION / BP

Per the Old West Durham website, Reuben Hibberd, a local florist and lay preacher, began holding cottage prayer meetings and "Sunday Sings" in West Durham homes in 1893. Hibberd would often bring a small portable organ with him.

As interest increased in Hibberd's meetings, the Sunday School was moved to a grandstand in the nearby Erwin Ballfield. During an 1894 revival in the grandstand, the West Durham Methodist Church was chartered.

In 1896, Ben Duke donated land to the west of the Erwin Ballfield, at the corner of Main St. and 9th St., across from the Erwin company store. A small wood frame chapel was built on the site, facing 9th Street.


West Durham Methodist chapel, 1896.
(Courtesy Old West Durham)

By 1907, a larger frame church structure had been added to the south of the original chapel.


West Durham Methodist Episcopal Church, looking northwest from West Main St. near the corner of West Main and 9th St., 1907. You can see the company store and Erwin Mill in the background.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

In 1927, the church moved to West Markham Avenue, where it would change its name to Asbury Methodist in 1944.

The original Methodist church was torn down, and the Granite Service Station was built on a small corner of the original church site.


Granite Service Station, with St. Joseph's in the background, likely 1940s.
(Courtesy John Schelp)


Bird's Eye view of the Granite Service Station, looking east, ~1950 with St. Joseph's and the Erwin Ballfield in the background.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

In the mid-1950s, the original service station was torn down and replaced by a 'modern' service station, which I believe was a Gulf station. An additional commercial structure (now a Kinko's) was built to the north of the gas station, on the remainder of the former church site around 1959; it originally was a Glidden Paint Company store.


Kinko's, 04.05.09.

Several years ago, the gas station became a Family Fare BP/Amoco/whatever - part of the MM Fowler Family Fare Durham gas empire, which owns three of my favorite neglected historic structures: Catsburg, the Old Gulf Station at Geer and Foster, and the fantastic old service station at Angier and Guthrie. It's something I certainly think about when running low on gas.


Family Fare BP Station, 04.05.09

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36.006762,-78.92195

ED Turns 3

It's a bit hard to believe that Endangered Durham turns 3 years old today. I didn't really have a concept that it would last more than a few months at the outset, but ~910 posts, 4742 photos, seemingly several bajillion words, and more visitors than I ever could possibly have conceived of being interested in this stuff - and it's still here.

Thanks to everyone for visiting, and for your many kind emails about the site over the past 3 years - my favorite thing about doing this is the opportunity to hear your stories about what a place means to you, which greatly enriches the sometimes meager stories I can tell. Thanks also to the many people who have trusted me with family photos, allowed me to haunt their archives, or sent me their information. I am very, very appreciative.