Seaton G. and Daisy Lindsay House

(Below in italics is from the National Register listing; not verified for accuracy by this author.)

Two-story frame Period House exhibits Colonial Revival influences that include gambrel roof with full-facade wall dormer. Engaged shed marked by molded box posts across main facade is enclosed on west end and open with shallow pediment for porch at east end.

.(The information below in italics is from the Historic Preservation Society of Durham Plaque Application for the Seaton G. and Daisy Lindsay House)

The house at 1021 Markham Avenue was built for Seaton and Daisy Lindsay in 1934. It is a contributing structure in the Trinity Historic District, which includes the Trinity Park and Trinity Heights neighborhoods. These neighborhoods were developed from 1890 into the 1930s by Brodie L. Duke, Julian S. Carr, Richard H. Wright, and others influential in the growth and development of Durham, peaking with the arrival of the streetcar system in the early 1900s. ("Trinity Historic District" National Register Nomination) 

Seaton Gales Lindsay was born in 1878 to Manly Lindsay and Adaline J. Kirby Lindsay. He attended the University of North Carolina and graduated with a Bachelors of Philosophy in 1901. On August 6, 1908, Seaton married Daisy Irene Turrentine Massey, born in 1881 to Reverend Pleasant Hardy Massey and Sarah J. Turrentine Massey. They were married at Massey Chapel (a Durham County Local Historic Landmark) on Fayetteville Road, by Reverend Lucius Massey, Daisy's uncle. According to newspaper accounts of the wedding, Seaton was, at that time, superintendent of the "schools at Gastonia" and lived in Orange County "where he spent the early part of his life." Interestingly, Daisy's sister, Ina B. Massey, who was in the wedding party, was married to Pender E. Upchurch in a surprise double wedding on the same day. (Maplewood Cemetery records at www.findagrave.com; Charlotte Observer August 6, 1908, and August 7, 1908; Kemp Battle's History of the University of North Carolina, page 812) 

A year after their marriage, in 1909, Seaton Gales Lindsay, Jr., known as Gale, was born. In 1913, Seaton and Daisy had a daughter, Kathleen Massey Lindsay. The family lived in Durham on Watts Avenue. Seaton worked as a bookkeeper until about 1920, then he taught at West Durham Elementary School, which was renamed in 1926 for Edward Knox Powe, manager of the Erwin Cotton Mill and ardent supporter of public education in Durham. Daisy was also a teacher at the school, having herself completed three years of college. (Durham City Directories available at www.ancestry.com; "EK Powe Elementary School" at www.museumofdurhamhistory.org; 1940 US Federal Census) 

Gale Lindsey lived at home and worked as a clerk until going to school at New York University. Tragedy struck the Lindsay household in December of 1929 when Gale was killed in a motorcycle accident on his way home to Durham for the Christmas holiday. According to neighbors who knew Kathleen later in her life, her brother's death was especially hard on her and she was "never the same." (Durham City Directories available at www.ancestry.com; Greensboro Daily News, December 24, 1929) 

Around 1930, Seaton Lindsay became the Principal of Edward K Powe Elementary School. The Lindsays still lived on Watts Avenue, along with a family of boarders, Charles and Minnie Fueler and their young daughter Mary. By 1935, the Lindsays had moved to a new home at 1021 Markham Avenue. The home was designed by George Hackney, a prominent Durham architect who helped design Duke University's West Campus in the 1930s, and built by Connie Shipp, who had constructed a number of homes in the Trinity neighborhoods. (1930 US Federal Census; Durham City Directories; NC Modernist Houses, "George Franklin Hackney, 1905-1997," www.ncmodernist.org) 

Kathleen Lindsay continued to live in the family home on Markham Avenue following her father's death in 1963 and her mother's death in 1970. Her death certificate indicates that she was divorced, but it is unclear who she was married to or for how long. She died in 2002, and the house was sold the following year to the current owners, Tara Gladwell and Mark Shapiro.