107 N. Church St.

This building was ocuupied by the Durham County Welfare office for many years. One of my sister-in-laws worked there.

107 North Church Street is the ground floor space.

107 1/2 North Church Street is the second story space, accessed by the stairwell at the right-hand door.

In 1925 my grandfather, William "Willie" Frank Webster, ran the short lived Science Seekers Club billiards at 107 1/2 North Church Street. Also in this same space in 1921 was the first year home of the Webster family ran White Elephant Club, which moved to 213 1/2 West Main Street (the Jordan Building) in 1922. It remained open there until 1932.

107 North Church Street

Except for the years 1935 to 1941 when this was Lucky Strike Billiard Parlor owned by Edward Dewey Jones, the ground floor space maintained a continuous occupancy of normal businesses.

107 1/2 North Church Street

The second story space seemed to have a constant turnover of varying businesses.

1902 No listing.

1903-1904 Durham Upholstering Company (M.L. Carlton)

1905-1906 The Church Street Boarding/Rooming House (Mrs. Barabara A. Rogers)

1907-1912 The Church Street Hotel (Mrs. Lula Rogers Holleman)

1913-1914 No Listing.

1915-1917 Idle Hour Billiard Parlor (John. L. Lasater)

1919-1920 The Citizens Club (M. Doris Harris and George T. Morgan)

1921 White Elephant Club (McCoy "Coy" Webster)

1922-1923 Duranoca Club (George T. Morgan)

1924 Vacant.

1925 Science Seekers Club billiards (William F. Webster)

1926-1932 Vacant.

1933-1941 Odell Green watchmaker

1942 Vacant.

1943 Colonial Furniture Company (Leamon F. Couch) which also occupied the ground level since 1942.

I ran my business out of this building for a lot of years. Flying Foto Factory, Inc. specializing in film and computer animation was housed here from the mid 1980's until 2000. I leased the building from the Adcock family who still owned it at that time. I had both floors with a workshop on the second floor for misc. fabrication, etc. We made props for the film "Bull Durham" there when it was in production. 

I gutted the interior, renovating it to support the peculiar needs of the business. I had an Oxberry Animation Camera which stood 13 feet tall that just fit in the back on the concrete slab. The rear of the building was an addition to the original structure that housed the kitchen when it was Adcock's restaurant. There was still a large walk in cooler we removed to build a darkroom and film processing area.

It had been vacant for a few years prior to my lease. The State Employees Credit Union was housed here for a bit as well, as I remember getting my first car loan there when I worked at Durham Tech.