SNOW HILL PLANTATION / FARM

1955 aerial

One of the earliest plantations in what would become northern Durham County, Snow Hill was established by William Johnston in 1763. He obtained several large tracts of land from Henry McCulloh.

David Southern notes:

McCulloh and Granville were mega-speculators with competing claims, and though they reached a sort of truce ultimately, the Snow Hill grant was from McCulloh's agents without involvement of Granville's agents. McCulloh controlled 1.2 million acres of the colony of NC in twelve tracts of 100,000 acres each. Most of these twelve great tracts were square in shape with each side having a length of 12.5 miles (or 1000 chains). The Snow Hill plantation was granted from the easternmost of McCulloh's great tracts, being tract number 12.

Johnston established the Little River Store at the junction of the New Hope Road (later University Road) and the Indian Trading Path (later called Hillsborough Road.) This store became a well-known destination for travelers. Johnston offered Richard Bennehan a 1/3 interest in the store in 1768, and Bennehan began managing the store. Bennehan would go on to purchase many more acres, and build Stagville Plantation

David Southern provided me with further insight into the location of the store, and the map which follows:

The site of the Snow Hill complex was not on Johnston's 400 acre grant from McCulloh but was on an older McCulloh grant to one James Rae (or Rea, or Ray, or Wray), issued on 25 March 1749. The original deed, and three others granting nearby tracts, are registered in Granville County deed book A between pages 166 and 171. On the map [below] you will see a drainage ditch or small creek that appears to run into the road near the buildings. This same ditch is evident today, and there are pits in the hillside there suggesting building sites and cellars. On the east side of Little River, you will see a T-intersection of Wilkerson's Path and the Trading Path. At that site was located Boggan's Ordinary. Patrick Boggan (pronounced Bogan, like Hogan or Logan) and James Rea acquired their grants---650 acres and 350 acres---in tandem, a 1000-acre square straddling Little River. The site of Boggan's Ordinary has been carefully excavated by the Archaeology Department of UNC. There are at least two ancient documents that speak of Boggan's hospitality. On the map, "ugh" signifies Road from Hillsborough, or Trading Path. The New Hope Road is as named.


Snow Hill Map, drawn 19th century.

There are eight buildings shown at the junction of the roads, and the larger building may have been the famous Snow Hill store operated by Johnston and his junior partner Bennehan. Richard Bennehan also operated a store at Fish Dam ford where Fish Dam Road crossed the Neuse River. Several years ago during an extreme drought, the Flemish bond foundations of several brick buildings were evident at that Neuse River crossing.

Walter Alves provided a paced-off description of the buildings at Snow Hill for a rough survey of Snow Hill he made with Richard Henderson in August 1812.

Field Notes Augt 1812

From the House door
to the Gate by the Barn due East 21 Chains
to lower Gate on the road continued 17
Total measure 38.75
thence following the road to
the ford of the river, in all Chs. 66.25

as measured by Rd Henderson
Wm Alves

-----

From the N. Bank of the Little River meandering down
Beginning at a small Sycamore & Elm above the ford on the
road 1 chain from the ford thence South 45° E. 12 chs. to the river
offsets in this line at 4 chains, offset 3 Chs 12 links
at 10 chs crossed Gut, 1 pole to mouth at River
Then S 62½° E, 2 Chs 50 links to the River, no offset
Then S 45° E, 4 Chs
S 60° E, 2 Chs
S 40° E, 2 Chs 75 to line, offset to Elm corner 1 chain

From Elm corner on the River
N 45° E, 44½ Chains to the Mill road
at 8½ Chs Old path
at 15 Chs foot of Rising ground
at 15½ Chs Plantation road
at 44½ Chains to a Small W. O. saplin N. side of the old Mill
Path then N 45° W 9 chains to a hic saplin W. side of the Main Road,
then along the same S 82° W 9½ chs, S 48° W 7½ chs, S 65° W 6½ chs
to corner of the fence, continued 14 chs S. 52° W. 9 chs, S 50° W. 8½ chs
to an Elm and Sycamore at the end of the Log in the Road & the Beginning

The Indian Trading Path runs through the plantation. First documented in 1670, the trading path once stretched 500 miles from a trading post near Petersburg, Virginia, to an area near Augusta, Georgia.

The Snow Hill land became part of the very large Cameron holdings northeastern Durham County. It eventually passed to Annie Collins, daughter of Paul Carrington Cameron and sister of Bennehan Cameron. This land was subdivided upon her death, per the October 1921 plat at Durham County platbook 5, pages 64 and 65:


A portion of the October 1921 plat, showing the area that contained the Snow Hill Plantation buildings



Portions of the farm remained in operation through the 1950s, managed by Durham businessman Richard Wright, II. Durham and Her People notes in 1951 that Wright was "engaged in farming on a large scale, operating the 1500 acre Snow Hill Farm at the old Cameron Plantation. In addition to tobacco, grain, hay, and other crops, he also [raised] the famous White-Face Hereford beef cattle."


Richard H. Wright, II and Wallace Wade at the Indian Trading Path Ford across the Little River, 1950s
(Photograph by Duncan S. Heron; copied from Eno, 2001.

It was purchased as part of the Treyburn development, but never redeveloped. DR Bryan donated the land to the Triangle Land Conservancy in 2007. Abandoned early-mid 20th century buildings remain on the site, and the Indian Trading Path remains a well-worn 'road' through the woods.


Buildings at Snow Hill farm, 01.22.11


Indian Trading Path near Snow Hill Farm, 01.22.11

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36.106986,-78.86217

106 NORTH BUCHANAN BOULEVARD

106 North Buchanan Boulevard, 06.16.58
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Lyla Duke Angier moved to the house at 106 North Buchanan Boulevard after the death of her husband, John Angier, around 1910. She and her husband had previously lived in the Angier-Satterfield House on West Pettigrew Street.

It's currently occupied by the Wesley House - a Methodist student center for Duke.


106 North Buchanan, 04.30.11

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36.002478,-78.912319

429 SOUTH DRIVER STREET

429 South Driver, 1980


10.02.10

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35.981086,-78.878314

423 SOUTH DRIVER STREET

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35.981251,-78.878138

428 SOUTH DRIVER STREET

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35.981307,-78.878594

424 SOUTH DRIVER STREET

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35.981411,-78.878554

420 SOUTH DRIVER STREET

420 South Driver Street, 10.02.10

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35.981547,-78.878489

408 SOUTH DRIVER STREET

408 South Driver, 1980


10.02.10

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35.981933,-78.878202

410 SOUTH DRIVER STREET

410 South Driver, 1980


410 South Driver, 10.02.10

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35.981839,-78.878304

2100 ANGIER AVENUE / CRABTREE PHARMACY

One of the earliest businesses established in the Angier-Driver business district of East Durham, Crabtree Pharmacy, was started in 1904 by R.A. Crabtree, C.A. Crabtree, H.C. Barbee, and Viola Young.


The Crabtree family, 1895
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The original building was a frame structure on the southeast corner of Angier Avenue and South Driver with a wood awning extending out over the sidewalk.


Looking northwest from the building at the streetcar making the left turn from Angier onto Driver, 1910s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

In 1910, James (Robert) King, who had grown up in Durham and worked at the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Company and Golden Belt before attending pharmacy school at "Page's School of Pharmacy" in Greensboro. He joined Crabtree in 1910. In 1921, he purchased an interest in the business, and later became the sole owner.

Sometime between 1913 and the late 1920s, (the historic inventory states 1925) the original frame building was replaced by the current structure.

In 1946, James King's son Alfred H. King purchased half the business, and in 1948 his son James King, Jr. purchased the remaining half.

In 1951, the pharmacy was described as "one of the old-line drugstores.... a modern store, rendering a complete pharmaceutical service, with fountain, drugs, and sundries, as well as other items handled by the modern drugstore." It was particularly known for its "milkshakes and orangeades."


Looking south, 05.28.63 with Crabtree Pharmacy on the right.
The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

In a 1999 Herald-Sun article, Dallas Jones reminisced about the pharmacies of East Durham:

""We had two [drugstores]. That was our entertainment," he said with a straight face. "We'd take our date to Crabtree Pharmacy or Carswell Drug Store and buy a Coke or cherry ice. They had milk shakes and banana splits. Sometimes we'd get a pack of Dubs crackers. You don't see them anymore. When we didn't have a date, we'd hang around the drugstore anyway, sometimes the Baptist church. We'd sit on the concrete wall and sing together."

At some point in the 1950s, a metal facade was placed on the exterior.



Whit Haney, a Florida native, bought Crabtree Pharmacy in 1989. He was still operating it in 1994, but I can't find any reference as to when it closed down.

After a decade+ of abandonment, Joe Bushfan, who had made the unlikely transition from security-to-the-stars to Angier-Avenue-hot-dog-vendor-that-nobody-was-gonna-mess-with executed a vision, along with Dan Hill and other supporters, to revitalize this corner. Reaping the benefit of the work that Preservation Durham did a decade ago to get East Durham on the National Register of Historic Places, Bushfan and backers took advantage of historic tax credits as well as city grant funding to help finance the project.


2100 Angier Avenue, 10.02.10

The result spans 2100-2104 Angier Avenue; the former Pharmacy is the crown jewel. As Joe's Diner, it serves a variety of diner-typical food and moderate-to-immense hot dogs. The interior reflects the finishes of the old pharmacy - tile floors, old cabinets, pressed tin ceiling, etc. It's an incredibly important renovation. That being said, I can't ignore the fact that I can't stand the metal facade elements added to the building and wish they'd been removed - I know sometimes NPS / the State Historic Preservation Office get goofy about preserving 'evolution' of a property; I get it, from a historical perspective. But insensitive/incompatible design elements are just that. To be clear, I don't know whose choice/decision it was to retain this vs. going back to the original 1920s facade.

And yes, much less important than just seeing the building revitalized.

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35.98189,-78.877827

1211 WALL STREET

1211 Wall Street, 04.27.11

I think I've written about most of the other houses on the Golden Belt Home Tour this upcoming weekend, but 1211 Wall Street is among GB Historic District houses east of Alston that I did not cover. A typical 3-room plan house, built by the Golden Belt Manufacturing Company soon after the initial development of the plant in 1901, the house is similar to 1102 Taylor Street, but retains the original dual front doors. These were not duplexes per se - I've heard explanations ranging from shift work to shared housing with separate entrances for the rationale behind these.

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35.989555,-78.885341

2102 ANGIER AVENUE

2100-2104 Angier Avenue, 05.28.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun)

In 1928, 2102 Angier is listed as "William Thomas, Billiards." By 1934, the building was vacant. By the mid-1940s, Andrews Market was located here, and remained here through the 1950s. In 1960, Linthicum Radio and TV repair moved to the building.


2102-2104 Angier, 1980

Later, this became the Alexander TV Service.

Most recently, the building was revitalized as part of Joe Bushfan's revitalization of 2100-2104 Angier Avenue; it is now a cafe that also seems to serve as spillover for Joe's Diner next door (the two are connected inside.)


2102 Angier Avenue, 10.02.10

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35.981849,-78.877683

2104 ANGIER AVENUE

2104 Angier, partly visible with "_ardware Co." on the facade.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

2104 Angier Avenue appears to have been built in the mid-1930s and was first used by Andrews Market. By 1940, the establishment was known as the East Durham Market. By the early 1950s, it was closed, and Andrews Market was open at 2102 Angier, next door.

By the early 1960s, it was the Glenn-Crabtree Hardware Company.


2104 Angier Avenue, 05.28.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

It later became a laundromat.


2102-2104 Angier Ave, 1980

And during the 1980s, a really awful facade was added.


2104 Angier, 2007

Kudos to Joe Bushfan and TROSA for seeking to return this to the original facade; I can't give high enough praise to Mr. Bushfan's efforts on 2100-2104 Angier, and TROSA working to return a decent grocery store to this community is wonderful; I don't know how well it is doing, financially, but it's an asset that few inner neighborhoods have.


10.02.10

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35.981835,-78.877706

2108 ANGIER AVENUE

2108 Angier, 1980

Andrews Grill, as it was originally called, opened around 1950. The Andrews family ran the Andrews Market, a grocery store, at 2104 and, later 2102 Angier Avenue. In the late 1940s, one of the sons built a small restaurant building mid-block at 2108 Angier and opened the Andrews Grill. For reasons unknown, the restaurant became Smith's Grill during the mid 1950s, but then Andrews Kountry Kitchen in ~1960

I'm going to reprint this article, by David Newton, from the Durham News, 09.22.07, which gives some nice historical context and sense of vibrancy as recently as 2007.


The searing summer heat has killed the lunch trade at Andrew's Kountry Kitchen. So for right now, Gary Andrews, 77, cook, waiter and owner, is waiting out the heat by serving breakfast only. But the banter is still alive and well.

"If I was to pay you, how much would I owe you?" asks Bobby Elliott, 71, a tire salesman who has countered stomach problems with a grilled cheese sandwich and iced tea.

"How much you got?" shoots back the genial Andrews.

"Not enough for putting up with you," replies Elliott, who hands over $2.30.

Home cooking has been served up from this 2108 Angier Ave. address in East Durham since the early 1950s.

Elliott has been a customer for the past four years due to the food and "the people, the crowd," he says. "It's like one old, big family. Don't make no difference who it is. Don't make any difference if it's a cop or a crook."

One of the cops is Durham County sheriff's Deputy M.O. Hill, who has dropped by about once a week since he became a deputy 11 years ago. Hill, 43, is a country boy whose family's past trips to town included a stop at this intersection of Driver Street and Angier Avenue.

"This is how East Durham used to be," Hill says, sitting beneath a wall plaque that declares Andrews an honorary Durham County sheriff.

The Kountry Kitchen is in a grated community -- an area where most storefronts are boarded up or protected with steel grating. Samuel & Sons Barbershop next door hangs discount clothing out front. Angier Avenue Baptist Church is across the street.

Forty years ago the intersection was a vibrant neighborhood business district for East Durham's working class. Two drugstores, several restaurants, a bank, a post office, several barbershops and a hardware store kept the area ginning.

"One reason I've survived is live and let live," says Andrews, the father of four grown children. At one stage, three down-and-out families used the restaurant as their living room. Thank them for the heavy Elvis selection on the jukebox.

"Everybody has a good time," Andrews says of the all-in-the-family atmosphere. "It's a mixture of different races. It's more like a family. Everybody gets along."

The six dark four-person, plastic-covered booths are taped against the cracks of age. Three two-chair tables line a wall. Yellow, flaking newspapers are behind glass: General Julian S. Carr's death in 1924; final plans for the "New Duke University," 1927; the deaths of Kennedy, Nixon, Ford and Reagan.

The Andrews name has been on the strip since the '30s, when his uncle Ralph ran Andrews Grocery. After World War II, the uncle's three sons operated the grocer until the early '50s, when they split up. One brother, Walter, built the current concrete block building and opened a restaurant.

As a kid Andrews was in and out of the grocery store and then worked at the restaurant. He kept his hand in at the restaurant during a 33-year career as a telephone repairman and installer. In 1970, he bought the building and in 1974 hired someone to run the restaurant during the day. He closed up at 9 p.m. and was back the next day at 6 a.m. to help set up before hustling off to the phone company.

In 1990, he retired from the phone company and donned an apron full-time. Several years ago he stopped the evening hours and is now open Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Thank Hilda Williams for the fast service. "I've never seen somebody like it when it comes to cooking," he says of his employee of 20 years.

Andrews, now a bit creaky, knows the tradition can't go on forever. The city hasn't done much to keep the strip alive, he says. A case of eggs -- 30 dozen -- jumped from $20 last year to $42 this year. Dumpster service has climbed from $70 to $111 a month.

"I'll absorb some of it," he says.

He recites the litany of change without self-pity.

Last year, his wife went into a rest home, and he had to close for two months to deal with his back and gall bladder problems. But he has no intention of closing.

"Not that I can see, unless I fall out," he says.

"This gives me something to do ... . This gives me good entertainment."


It appears that Andrews passed away in July of 2008. Immediately thereafter, it seems that new management began running the restaurant, but it appears to be closed now. There is a sign in the window noting "Tootie's Grill Coming Soon," but it doesn't appear to be.


2108 Angier Ave, 10.02.10

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35.981802,-78.877473

CHATHAM LUMBER COMPANY / GULF REFINING COMPANY

Established in 1905, the Chatham Lumber Company "occup[ied] immense yards and mills on Railroad Street" in East Durham. Durham Illustrated went on to describe the company as follows in 1910:


Their mill, which is 100 by 250 feet in dimensions, is completely fitted with the most modern mill machinery, and employs a staff of forty capable mill hands. Their business is strictly wholesale, and is entirely outside the city of Durham. They plane and saw lumber which is sold throughout this section of the country, and also in New England and the Northern States. The Chatham Lumber Company, which is owned and operated by Williams and McKeithan Lumber Company, of Lynchburg, has as officers, men who stand high in lumber circles of this country. Ernest Williams, of Lynchburg, is President of the company. JA Duncan, Vice-President and General Manager, is a man with twenty years of experience in the business. He is Canadian by birth, and has lived in Durham for the past three years. He is also Vice-President of the Durham and South Carolina Railway. The superintendent for the company, WP Budd, has been a resident of Durham for fifteen years. he is well known in all circles, and is particularly prominent in fraternal matters, being a member of the Elks and of the K of P. He is now holding the post of Exalted Ruler of the Elks.

By the 1920s, the Chatham Lumber Company was replaced by a Gulf Oil refining facility in the 1920s. MM Fowler began managing the facility in 1937, and purchased the complex in 1975 - running MM Fowler Inc., Gulf Oil distributor, out of the complex for many years.


Gulf Refining Co., 1950s


Gulf Refining Co. Warehouse, 1980

Although Fowler still owns the buildings, the old tanks appear abandoned, and the site appears to be rented to a scrap metal yard.



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35.979566,-78.877214

2126 ANGIER AVENUE / FORMER US POST OFFICE

East Durham Post Office Dedication, 04.17.66
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The post office moved out of 306 South Driver Street in 1966, building a freestanding building at Angier Avenue and Salem Street. Along with the newer Wachovia branch on the other corner of Salem and Angier, the post office helped anchor the business district for many years during the 1970s and 1980s. Unfortunately, the East Durham post office moved out to Miami Blvd - I believe in the 1990s, although I'm not sure when. Coupled with the closure of the Wachovia branch, the loss of the post office anchor helped to further destabilize the core of East Durham during the 1990s.


Former East Durham Post Office, 04.04.11

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35.981454,-78.876918

2110-2114 ANGIER AVENUE

2110-2114 Angier Ave., 1980

2110-2114 Angier Avenue was built between 1945 and 1950. 2110 initially housed Patsy's Beauty Shop and 2112 the Tip Top Supermarket. Patsy's would close within a few years, replaced by the Linthicum Radio and TV Service. The grocery would also go by the name "Tip Top Royal Blue Grocery"

By the 1980s, the building housed William's Jeweler at 2114 and Waters Barber Shop at 2110.

In recent years, 2114 housed Triangle Trophy, and 2110 housed Samuel and Sons Barber Shop. Sam Jenkins, the proprietor, is an affable man whose welcoming presence on Angier Avenue has been an asset to the community.


2110-2114 Angier Ave., 10.02.10

I was saddened to learn that a fire gutted this building, and the assets of the two businesses, in January 2011. Mr. Jenkins promises to be back, however.


2114 Angier Ave., 03.17.11

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35.981751,-78.877402

2116 ANGIER AVENUE / WACHOVIA

2116 Angier Ave, 1980

When Wachovia bought the Fidelity Bank in 1956, they closed the East Durham branch at the northwest corner of S. Driver and Angier and opened a new branch at 2116 Angier Avenue.

I'm not sure when the bank closed down here, but it was still operating into the 1980s; it appears that there is a 1970s era drive-thru at the rear of the parking lot.


2116 Angier Avenue, 10.02.10


Former Wachovia drive-thru, 10.02.10

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35.981604,-78.87724

O'Briant Store for sale

Speaking of my favorite buildings in Durham, kudos to Cathleen Turner and Preservation North Carolina for getting an option on the awesome former O'Briant Store at 613 Holloway St. for $45,000. It's got some serious structural issues with the rear third, but based on my numbers, I think it makes sense financially, beyond simply being a building that it's easy to fall in love with. PNC's listing is here. They also have an option on the house next door at 611 Holloway - that listing is here.

These are two wonderful properties, but beyond that, there are certain buildings that serve as linchpin structures for broader neighborhood revitalization. The buildings at the juncture of the railroad bridge/Railroad Street and Holloway are critical in this regard. There are amazing structures east of the bridge on Holloway, including the increasingly forlorn and important Calvin O'Briant House. These building will have a critical impact on saving the structures east of the bridge and north of Liberty Street.

2201 ANGIER AVENUE

2201 Angier, March 2007

The East Durham Service Station was built in the early 1930s; I've seen another station almost identical to it in Savannah, GA, so my guess is that it was not an uncommon plan.

The city directories continue to list the East Durham Service Station at least through the 1960s. I don't know how long it has been abandoned, but I can say that it has certainly been at least 5-6 years.


2201 Angier Avenue, 10.02.10

Owned by MM Fowler of the Family Fare oil/gas empire, the station does not have a bright future, although it does appear that a coat of paint was put on the wonderful dentil moulding sometime in the last 3 years. It is, hands down, one of my favorite buildings in Durham. Amazing how much character gas stations used to have, in contrast with what they've become. I can envision a multitude of cool adaptive re-uses of this building; I hope that one happens for it someday.

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35.981529,-78.875997

ANGIER AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH

Angier Avenue Baptist, along with Carr Methodist, traces its origins to the establishment of East Durham in the 1880s. In 1886, two years after the establishment of the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Company, RT Howerton of the First Baptist Church organized Sunday School classes in one of two original schoolhouses in East Durham - the Oak Grove School on East Pettigrew Street next to the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Co.

In 1889, members of the Sunday School established the East Durham Baptist Church. Jean Anderson notes that charter members were "Mrs. Jane Gray, Mrs. FD Hudson, and Mrs. AW Renn," who donated a site for a sanctuary on the northeast corner of South Driver Street and Angier Ave.; they built a frame church structure at that location.

(Interestingly, the building is noted as the East Durham M.E. Church on the 1913 Sanborn map...)


1913 Sanborn Map.

In 1924, the original frame church was demolished and replaced by the present neoclassical brick structure; the church was renamed the Angier Avenue Baptist Church.


Angier Avenue Baptist Church, 1950s
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

In 1963, the church expanded to the north, removing houses along South Driver Street to add an "Education Building" annex.


Angier Avenue Baptist Church - Educational Building addition, 05.28.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Angier Avenue Baptist, 1980


Angier Avenue Baptist Church, 06.14.93
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Unlike Carr Methodist, the Angier Avenue has been able to sustain itself within the context of changing demographics in East Durham and remains an active congregation.


Angier Avenue Baptist, 10.02.10

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35.982273,-78.877516