Jones-Barnes House

(Below in italics is from the 2009 National Register listing; not verified for accuracy by this author.)

This one-story, triple-A-roofed house has been covered with vinyl siding and has a stuccoed brick pier and curtain foundation and asphalt-shingled roof. The house has a rear gabled ell and a hip- roofed block within the ell. It has a replacement front door and nine-over-nine vinyl windows. The hip-roofed front porch retains its original form, but has replacement posts and added rails. The earliest known residents Benjamin C. Thompson (bricklayer), Cal Thompson (mill hand), Grover C. Thompson (foreman, Durham Hosiery Mill), and Joseph N. Thompson (bricklayer) were listed together in 1907/08. Residents changed frequently and were all working-class people, indicating that the house was likely constructed as a rental property.

(The information below in italics is from the Historic Preservation Society of Durham Plaque Application for the Jones-Barnes House)

Given that 603 Carlton was constructed as investment property, its deed history is convoluted. It is possible that the land was initially developed by Martha M. Latta May (1843-1917), widow of William F. May (1833-1884), or her daughter and son-in-law: Elizabeth Orpha May Murdock (1875-1960) and Albert Allen Murdock (1875-1963). Nothing can be found in the chain of title before the 1933 sale of the property to the Christians & Stones, however it is repeatedly listed as lot 63 of the Martha May Lands, platted in 1903. 

The construction and floorplan is one used throughout the piedmont of North Carolina as rental and worker housing, from the turn of the 20th century through about 1915. The exterior ornament of imbracated shingles points towards construction in the early part of that period, and it matches many of its neighbors on the adjoining lots. 

Also notable, the longest owner, Mary Lindsay Polk, does not appear to be a Durham resident. One of the deeds with her name was notarized in Catawba Co, NC, the other in Davidson Co., TN. Searches throughout ancestry.com and other genealogy sites turn up nothing concrete with her name.