The ID information with this photo surmised that in was located on Lawndale Ave, based on the location of Bryants Little Laundry in a city directory, presumably from the late 1960s when this was taken. But the buildings in the background don't appear to resemble anything ever located at Lawndale and Hillsborough.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)
The West Durham Graded School No. 1 was built at the corner of Swift Avenue and Caswell Place between 1898 and 1900, resulting from the consolidation of Northside School, located north of the railroad tracks and Piney Grove School, located on Swift Avenue. 
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)
The larger, masonry West Durham Graded School No. 2 would be established on 9th Street in 1915. The school was defunct soon after the opening of West Durham Graded School #2 in 1915. It was demolished by 1937, likely in the mid 1920s, by which time Southside School , built in 1922, had opened. The former school site was redeveloped as the Alastair apartment complex in the 1950s.
Looking west, 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)
Former site of the school, looking southwest, 07.07.09
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Edgar Knox Powe built his house at Swift and West Pettigrew Streets in the late 1890s; prior to his arrival in Durham, he had been an executive with the Altamahaw Cotton Mills in Alamance County. He was brought to Durham by William Erwin as general manager of Erwin Cotton Mills. I'm unsure as to whether his marriage to William and Jessie Erwin's sister, Claudia, occurred before or after his arrival in Durham.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)
Powe was a longtime member of the Durham County Board of Education, the City-County Board of Health, and active in St. Philip's Church. When he died in 1929, the West Durham School on 9th Street was named EK Powe School in his honor.
The Powe property extended south to Hull St., and included a barn, fruit trees and vineyards. The Powe's daughter and her husband built a house in the backyard of the property at some point.
After Mrs. Powe died in 1943, the house was sold to Dr. and Mrs. BW Roberts.
1950s Bird's Eye View of West Pettigrew St., looking northwest. Arrow shows the EK Powe house.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)
1959 aerial - the EK Powe house is at the lower right.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection
They lived in the house until the early 1970s. It then became a well-worn apartment house for students, the house became affectionately known as "Monkey Top" - derived from the older name "Monkey Bottom" for the area around Case St. and Erwin Field. (The EK Powe house had never been called Monkey Top prior to this.) As is often the case with history, the derivation becomes conflated with the explanation, and occasionally folks will erroneously note that the name "Monkey Bottom" was formed from "Monkey Top."
Overgrown EK Powe House, 1980.
Sometime in the 1980s, the Jessie Harper Erwin House, Sunnyside, was moved to face the EK Powe house, and the two houses were renovated as office space, which it remains today.
Former EK Powe House, looking southeast, 04.05.09
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Jessie Harper Erwin, brother of Erwin Mills co-founder William Erwin, came to Durham in 1899 to assume the position of secretary treasurer of the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Company after the previous man to hold the post, William Branson had been killed in a boiler accident. Prior to his arrival in Durham, Erwin had been secretary-treasurer of the EM Holt Plaid Mills in Burlington. Upon his arrival in Durham, he also assumed the same position at the Pearl Mill.
By 1904, he had constructed a house on Caswell Hill in West Durham near the estate of his brother. The house, which he called "Sunnyside", was designed by noted local architect Hill C. Linthicum, and was highly unusual for the time in that the exterior was pebble-dash. The historic inventory recounts the legend that while the Ringling Bros. circus was in town, one of the original seven brothers stopped by to inquire about the house, as he wanted to build his own pebbledash exterior home.
Map of properties along West Pettigrew St., 1910.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)
Around 1914, the pebbledash exterior was removed, and replaced with cedar shakes.
Despite his West Durham roots, Erwin was involved in East Durham affairs as well, by virtue of his involvement with the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Co. He donated a lot on Hart St. for the construction of St. Andrews' Episcopal Church. In 1934, he offered to donate the park and pool associated with the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Mill to the city for an additional city park facility.
Erwin Sr.'s son, Jessie Harper Erwin, Jr. converted Sunnyside into apartments in the late 1940s. He removed the original grand staircase from the interior, and removed several of the outbuildings in the backyard. I don't know where JH Erwin Sr. lived after that time, but he died in 1962, at 98 years of age.
1959 aerial - Sunnyside has the large circular-ish drive in front.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)
1950s Bird's Eye view of West Pettigrew St., looking northwest, Sunnyside denoted by the arrow.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun)
By the 1970s, Sunnyside had become fairly decrepit, although along with the neighboring EK Powe house, a well-known hangout for students.
Sunnyside, 1980.
In the 1980s, Sunnyside was moved to the east and turned to face the former EK Powe House (south). The former location of Sunnyside was developed a commercial space, which is now West Pettigrew Dialysis.
The former Sunnyside and the former EK Powe house face an interior parking lot, and form a complex of office space at Swift and West Pettigrew Sts.
Sunnyside, looking northeast, 04.05.09
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"Hill Villa - Midway Between Durham and Chapel Hill, NC"
(Courtesy Dave Piatt)
James R. Blacknall, son of Dr. Richard Blacknall and brother of pharmacist Richard Blacknall was appointed the first Sheriff of Durham County when the county was formed in 1881. It was during this period that he established his home on Caswell Hill, at the corner of West Pettigrew and Case Sts.
Caswell Hill, 1890.
(Courtesy Duke RBMC - Scanned by Digital Durham)
Blacknall was born in 1843. His early years were likely spent in northern Orange (later Durham) County, as his father spent time in South Lowell, and James was educated at least in part at Red Mountain/Rougemont. He served in the Confederate Army, within the ranks of the Army of Northern Virginia, mustering out at a Sergeant in 1865. Per Wyatt Dixon, General Kilpatrick of the Confederate Army stayed at house of Dr. Blacknall (James' father) during the Bennett Place surrender.
James Blacknall's occupation of the Sheriff's post in Durham County lasted only until the first election, at which point he was rejected. Dixon notes that Blacknall owned farmland, although he does not say where, and evidently earned a living from tenant farmers utilizing his land.
West Pettigrew St/ Caswell Hill, 1910.
(Courtesy Duke RBMC - Scanned by Digital Durham)
He died in 1923. After Blacknall's death, the house was inhabited by the Holeman family until the mid 1950s.
Aerial of the 1500 block of West Pettigrew St., 1959.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)
Between 1960 and 1972, this house and 1511 West Pettigrew next door had been replaced by an institutional structure - that structure is, as of 2009, Pettigrew Rehabilitation and Healthcare.
Looking southeast from Case St. and West Pettigrew St., 06.27.09
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Looking east at Boy's Esso Servicecenter and the Blue Light, ~1950. Erwin Park is in the foreground.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)
The Blue Light, and later Sam's Quik-Shop, had its origins in an Esso Station opened at the corner of West Pettigrew Street and Erwin Road by Carl Boy and his sons Sam, Carl Jr., and James. The site had been associated with Erwin Auditorium and the adjacent Erwin Park as the location of showers and tennis courts. I'm not sure what led to the decision to sell off this portion of the property, but the Boy family opened Boy's Esso Servicecenter in 1946.
Soon after opening, a friend of the Boy brothers asked permission to open a hot dog stand adjacent to the Esso Station. The friend did so, but lost interest. The brothers considered operating the hot dog stand, but soon tore it down and in 1949 constructed a drive-in restaurant instead, which they called The Blue Light Restaurant.
Looking north at Boy's Esso Servicecenter and the Blue Light, ~1950
(Courtesy Durham County Library)
The Blue Light immediately became a popular destination with local teens. After movies on Friday or Saturday nights, teens would drive up to the Blue Light and order typical drive-in fare: grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers, shakes, french fries - even a "Fishwich".
The Blue Light was a typical date destination, or a destination for groups of guys. A Herald-Sun article in 1999 clarifies the social strictures of the day for young women:
"Back then, a bunch of girls couldn't just go out to the Blue Light to grab a bite.... They either went to the drive-in with a date or with a group of guys and girls because 'girls didn't go out by themselves.' And unless there was a special occasion such as a school dance, girls had to be home by 11 or 11:30 p.m."
Duke students frequented the Blue Light as well, notably because beer was not available on campus, but was at the Blue Light.
Up to 50-60 cars could park at the Blue Light, and car hops went from car to car taking orders; music could be heard from the Blue Light throughout the parking area. By the mid-1950s, the Blue Light had a miniature golf course as well, although this doesn't seem to have endured for long.
By the late 1950s, cars would evidently make a circuit from the Topps Drive-In - which I believe was on West Main St. at Iredell St. - down to the Blue Light and back. The Blue Light expanded with an indoor dining area as well. An oral history from the Old West Durham website states that the "Rathskellar" was in the basement, which was a common hangout for Duke students.
By the mid-1960s, Duke allowed drinking on campus, lessening the impetus to go elsewhere, and the popularity of drive-ins had waned. By the mid-1970s John Boy and his wife Gerry, who had run the Blue Light, decided to convert the restaurant into a convenience store, which they named Sam's Quik-Shop. By the late 1980s, their son John took over the business. At some point, the houses on the Case Street side of the store were torn down and replaced with a car wash.
My own memories of Sam's date from this era, where I remember it as an eclectic place with decent beer (nothing like they have now) and an absolute ton of magazines, as well as a video rental business. Over the intervening years, the videotapes disappeared, then the magazines, and they now focus on an incredible beer selection - made all the more unusual by finding it in a convenience store.
Sam's Quik Shop / The Blue Light, 04.04.09
If there is any happiness in the Triangle Transit train having been summarily dismissed by the Feds, it was the intent of Triangle Transit to demolish Sam's Quik Shop in its entirety for a parking lot for the 9th Street train station. Why, with the quantity of vacant land across the street, owned by NCDOT, they felt it was necessary to destroy a vibrant part of Durham is beyond me. I sympathize with Triangle Transit trying to meet Federal standards thrust upon them - but this need to provide gobs of parking places around a train station in an urban setting seems to be sort of missing the point - ? We are still trying to persuade them of this with regard to the Graybar building downtown, but it remains an uphill fight.
So I may not be able to take a train to Raleigh to ride their free "R line" bus around their downtown, but I can relax comfortably with a cold Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron in my hand and be thankful that Sam's is still around.
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