911-913 EAST MAIN

East Main / Edgemont commercial strip: 911-913 is the rightmost structure.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Built in the 1920s, 911-913 East Main housed a barber shop and restaurant throughout its lifespan
In 1928, 911 housed the Edgemont Barber Shop, 911 1/2 the Edgemont Cafe, and 913 "Hessee & Honeycutt";

1934:
911 Edgemont Barber Shop
911 1/2: Fuller's Cafe
913: Vacant

1939:
911 Edgemont Barber Shop
911 1/2: R&W Lunch
913 Warrren's Billiards

1944:
911: Edgemont Barber Shop
911 1/2: Edgemont Lunch
913: Edgemont Lunch (storage)

1952-1960:
911: Joe's Barber Shop
911 1/2: Edgemont Lunch

Sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s, the stucco facade was covered with some sort of metal or plastic facade covering


February 1966 - I can't read the name of the barber shop - 913 appears to house the Meal ( ) Minute Restaurant?.


903-913 East Main, ~1980s.

911-913 East Main was torn down by the city of Durham in 1998-1999.


911-913 East Main, 11.13.10

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35.98942,-78.890713

907-909 EAST MAIN

907-909 East Main was built sometime ~1920. It first housed the Edgemont Cafe at 907 and the Petty-Roberts laundry at 909; this became the Scott & Roberts Laundry by 1923. 909 was vacant by 1933.

By 1938, 907 was vacant, but 909 housed Jimmie's Soda Shop. By 1947, 907 housed O&C Sport Shop billiards, which became the East Main Sport Shop by 1952.


A 1950s aerial shot showing East Main St., looking northwest, with the Golden Belt Hosiery Mill in the background. 907-909 is the single-story commercial structure, second from the left end of the strip.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)


Looking north across the Hosiery Mills park from the Durham Hosiery Mills at the west end of the business district with 907-909 the single story brick structure visible second from the left end of the strip.
October 1955.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

907 1/2, previously used as storage for Jimmie's Soda Shop, housed a Used Appliance Store by the 1960s.


February 1966 view, with the East Main Sport Shop, Used Appliance Store, and Jimmie's Soda Shop, left-to-right.

I'm not sure how long Jimmie's Soda Shop lasted after 1966.


View of 903-913 East Main, 1980s.

Unfortunately, it fell into the clutches of Fireball White, which means that it remained stuck in an abandoned purgatory for at least 15 years.


02.06.99

After the buildings on either side of 907-909 were torn down, it persisted, vacant for a prolonged period.


907-909 East Main, early 2000s

It almost made it to the renovation of Golden Belt, but in February 2006, NIS demolished the structure.


Site of 907-909 East Main, 11.13.10.

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35.989568,-78.890854

903-905 EAST MAIN

903-905 East Main appears to have been built sometime between 1907 and 1913, although it was preceded by a frame structure that housed a pharmacy and grocery. By 1919, the LA Warren Pharmacy, formerly known as the Edgemont Drugstore, was located in 903, and the Hub Department Store was located in 905.


A later (1950s) aerial shot showing East Main St., looking northwest, with the Golden Belt Hosiery Mill in the background. 903-905 is the two-story commercial structure at the left end of the strip.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

In 1928, 903 was Mack's Drugstore, and 905 was "Eisenberg's", which I believe was a department store. By 1934, 905 had become an A&P.

By 1939, 905 was a pool hall, run by Robert Jacobs. By 1944, 903 was Ingold's Soda Shop, and 905 was vacant.


Looking north across the Hosiery Mills park from the Durham Hosiery Mills at the west end of the business district with 903-905 visible at the left end of the strip.
October 1955.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

By 1952, 903-905 was the Loftin Music Store (with Floyd Loftin providing notarial services on site as well.)

By 1957, the building was vacant. By 1960, 903 housed a paint store run/owned by Mary Carter.

I don't have city directories beyond 1960, but the building seems to have become progressively more worn after worsening economic conditions in Edgemont / Morning Glory in the 1970s.


The corner of E. Main and Morning Glory, looking northeast, 1980.


Looking north across E. Main at a clipped portion of the building, 1981.
(Courtesy Robby Delius)


An undated, but likely late 1980s - perhaps as late as early 1990s view of the intersection of East Main and Morning Glory.
(Endangered Durham)

This building seems to have led a moribund existence through the 1970s and 1980s - it, and its two commercial neighbors to the east, were still standing as late as 1999.


02.06.99


02.06.99

903-905 appears to have been demolished by the city of Durham sometime in 1999. Short-sighted; it's easy to picture it being renovated as spillover development from Golden Belt at this point. As it is, the parcels are small enough to be undevelopable under current zoning, and unprofitable to develop new construction on even if that were changed. In sum, too big a mountain to climb unless rents skyrocket, greatly outpacing rise in development costs, versus renovating a historic building with tax credits.


11.13.10

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35.989657,-78.891061

821 RAMSEUR STREET

09.12.61
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

One of many long-perished houses that once lined Ramseur Street, the house at 821 Ramseur was built sometime prior to 1907. CD Partin lived in the house by 1919-1923.

Along with other houses I've profiled on Ramseur, 821 began to lose its luster as a single family home for the well-to-do of Durham by the 1920s and 1930s. By mid-century, many of these houses began to be converted to rooming houses, businesses, or, in this case, an "Alcoholic Halfway House" per the Herald-Sun photographer.

I'm not sure when it was torn down, but it was certainly gone by the late 1970s.


821 Ramseur, 10.22.10

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35.987657,-78.893982

FLOYD COAL COMPANY / COWAN MITCHELL LUMBER CO

Cowan-Mitchell Lumber company, visible just beyond the Durham Hosiery Mill No 1 buildings.


Floyd Coal Company, company, visible just beyond the Durham Hosiery Mill No 6 buildings.

The current right-of-way for Fayetteville St. north of Ramseur and its continuation as North Elizabeth (north of East Main to Liberty) did not exist until the 1970s. Industrial businesses located along either side of the Norfolk-Western /Durham Beltline railway, now located just east of the right-of-way.

The larger factory structures to the east of the railway have mostly survived - the more shed-like structures along the western side of the railway were either destroyed prior to the creation of the roadway of for it. The Floyd Coal Company and the Cowan-Mitchell Lumber Company, located at the Beltline and south and north of Walker St., respectively, were two of these. Cowan-Mitchell burned to the ground in 1954, but appears to have been rebuilt.


"Cowan Mitchell Lumber Co - Fire Destruction - 09.04.54"
The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


"Cowan Mitchell Lumber Co - Fire Destruction - 09.04.54"
The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


"Cowan Mitchell Lumber Co - Fire Destruction - 09.04.54"
The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


"Cowan Mitchell Lumber Co - Fire Destruction - 09.04.54"
The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Even after Fayetteville was re-routed south of the freeway, it was not extended to the north until ~the late 1980s


~1980 Bird's Eye view, looking south with East Main St. in the foreground, showing Fayetteville St. terminating at East Pettigrew, and the path of the Beltline rail north to East Main.
(Courtesy Mark and Sheila Carpenter)


Construction of Fayetteville north of the RR tracks, ~late 1980s
(Courtesy Robby Delius)


Construction of Fayetteville north of the RR tracks, ~late 1980s
(Courtesy Robby Delius)

This road remains one the more unpleasant features of the downtown Durham landscape - bloated and bleak, it's an object lesson for the 'desperate need' to widen Alston. Beyond Roxboro, this road creates a 'secondary moat' between eastern downtown/East Durham and the core of downtown.


Site of Cowan Mitchell, 10.22.10


Path of Fayetteville St / N. Elizabeth north of the NCRR tracks, looking north, 09.18.10
(Courtesy Phil Marsosudiro (photo) / Bill Watson (pilot))

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35.989935,-78.892707

DURHAM COUNTY GARAGE AND WAREHOUSE

Looking north from N. Elizabeth St., May 1965
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)


Site of Durham County Garage, 11.08.10


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ADRIAN AND RAMSEUR

Looking east, 1940s
(Courtesy Duke RBMC - Wyatt Dixon collection)

So, the location of this picture remained an obsession of mine for quite awhile - it appears in Joel Kostyu's book, without any location identification - nor is the location identified in the original Wyatt Dixon column it appeared with. Eventually, I got my hands on the original, and scanned it at high enough resolution to be able to read the street sign - "Adrian St." is what it says.
I then thought perhaps it wasn't actually Durham, but there was an Adrian St., now named Newman St.


Same viewpoint, 10.22.10 - looking west from Newman and Ramseur.

The picture gives a good sense of how residential Hood Street, Adrian,S. Elizabeth, and Ramseur were well into the early to mid 20th century, as is clear from this mid-century bird's eye view:


1950 view across Durham Hosiery Mills No. 1 and No. 6, looking southwest.

The residential uses have almost completely disappeared - the boarded up apartment building at 215 Hood and a few small residential structures (one of which recently burned) on Newman aside. A few other reminders, such as the patterned brick sidewalk on Ramseur, remain



I feel like this area is a truly missed opportunity - if only 305 South could have survived long enough to see Golden Belt open, the Bull City Connector, etc. And if the county hadn't been so bound and determined to plow under two blocks of historic structures for parking, this area could be seeing the kind of growth that Geer/Rigsbee/Foster is now seeing, which could provide some much needed activity between Roxboro and Golden Belt. But if the local government keeps shutting down and plowing under structures for people to revitalize and overbuilding parking, it cannot happen. This isn't some radical notion - I don't understand why it doesn't sink in.

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35.989162,-78.895215

502 OAKWOOD

502 Oakwood, 1980


502 Oakwood, 2006

404 OAKWOOD

404 Oakwood, 1980


2006

510 OAKWOOD

510 Oakwood, 1980

506 OAKWOOD

506 Oakwood, 1980


506 Oakwood, 2006

506 Oakwood underwent a wonderful renovation in ~2009, undoing all of the remuddling done to it in prior years.


01.15.11

504 OAKWOOD

503 OAKWOOD

503 Oakwood, 1980

The house sat abandoned over a number of years - it was purchased in 2006, which fortunately saved it from demolition by NIS. Unfortunately, the purchaser thought the best things to do in renovating the house was to rip out the original windows and put in some Home Depot specials.


2006


2006


503 Oakwood, 01.11.11

Fortunately, the house was owner-occupied in the end, so the loss of the windows is certainly outweighed by the fact that the house was saved. I still hope the/an owner will banish the fake muntins by replacing at least the front windows with some true 1 over 1s at some point.