GEORGE WATTS HOUSE - HARWOOD HALL
GEORGE WATTS HOUSE - HARWOOD HALL
806
South Duke Street
, Durham
NC
Cross street:
Proctor Street
built in
1897
/ demolished in 1961
Builder:
Norton, Charles H.
Architectural style:
Neighborhood:
Type:
Recent Comments
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Several days ago, I was, by Joseph H. at Sun, 01/13/2008 - 11:52pm
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Gary, yet another impressive,, by Andrew at Mon, 01/14/2008 - 1:37am
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Harwood Hall lives on within, by dtd at Mon, 01/14/2008 - 1:51pm
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The story mentioned above, by Anonymous at Mon, 01/14/2008 - 10:19pm
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If my sources are sure, the, by Nellicious Bly at Mon, 01/14/2008 - 11:06pm
In tours
- This building does not appear in any tours yet.
Last updated
- Wed, 02/22/2012 - 12:14pm by gary
Location
35° 59' 26.3004" N, 78° 54' 35.3808" W
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Comments
Several days ago, I was driving in that area, and made a wrong turn. I turned around in the parking lot behind the BC/BS building. It looked to me at the time like they had vacated the building, but BC/BS still has their old signs up. It would be interesting to know what plans they have for the building (or perhaps I am in error).
Quite a substantial post here, with lots of history. Thank you.
Gary, yet another impressive, detailed post. Thank you for boiling down the contents of several sources into a very readable, engaging format.
Learning about the early leaders of Durham always leaves me thankful for their sense of noblese oblige. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates notwithstanding, it seems like our current crop of uber-rich (from Paris Hilton to the deceased Ken Lay) fail to grasp it. Taxes, schmaxes, where's the party?
Concerning George Watts and Brodie Duke, I love the following story about them but unfortunately cannot recall the source:
Brodie, chided by his brothers as the "Real Estate King of Durham" for his role in developing the trolley car communities to the west and north of downtown, felt that Watts was usurping his role in the family business. (Brodie's heavy drinking didn't help matters much, either.) Upset, Brodie delivered the development plans for the Old North Durham neighborhood to City Hall. On it, he had designed and named four roads to run north-south.
From east to west, Brodie laid out streets named "Washington", "Duke", "Hates", and "Watts".
Hates Street was replaced with the more pious "Gregson", the surname of the Duke's family minister.
--ASE.
Harwood Hall lives on within the walls of the Villa Teo (Whitehall at the Villa Antique Shop) in Chapel Hill. The main stairs, the music room, and other elements of the home were removed and used during the Villa's construction. It's my understanding too that elements from Four Acres were used there as well.
I'm told that the stucco wall on the rear of the BCBS property is all that remains of Harwood Hall on site.
DTD
The story mentioned above (street naming) is also referenced in Jean Anderson's book "Durham County", although it always seemed a little far-fetched to me.
If my sources are sure, the BSBCNC building will become the new location of the Duke PA school.
Also...andrew wrote that "From east to west, Brodie laid out streets named 'Washington', 'Duke', 'Hates', and 'Watts'." As anon noted, this seems far-fetched especially since we generally read, essentially, west to east (left to right), no?
So, were I consulting a map of the time, I'd read Watts Hates Duke Washington which would be odd indeed.
Perhaps, had an Interstate been invented then and the one named 85 were there, Baltimoreans traveling south might've read the exits that way...but that's quite a stretch (and, at best, looks like we would've gotten Duke Hates as exit messages).
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