Downtown Durham

119 East Main Street

Looking northeast from the south side of the 100 block of East Main St., 1890s. (Courtesy Duke Archives) The first brick structures on the north side of the 100 block of East Main St. were built during late 1880s-early 1890s, including the midblock structures of 113-119 E. Main. 119 East Main notably included the Rawls Store, which later became the...

118 W. Main St.

One of the buildings demolished along the north side of Main Street to make way for the towering new One City Center - read more about the evolution of this lot on the page for the Brodie Duke Building which stood at 118 W. Main before the catastrophic 1914 fire. Stores housed in this building included Van Straaten's clothing store in the postwar...

120 West Main Street

The two buildings at 120 and 122 West Main St., immediately to the east of the Geer Building, were constructed in the late 1910s, replacing earlier buildings that had been destroyed by the fire of 1914. Above, a picture of the north side of the 100 block of West Main St. looking northeast. It was taken a few years after the rebuilding of the block...

122 West Main Street

The two buildings at 120 and 122 West Main St., immediately to the east of the Geer Building, were constructed in the late 1910s, replacing earlier buildings that had been destroyed by the fire of 1914. Above, a picture of the north side of the 100 block of West Main St. looking northeast. It was taken a few years after the rebuilding of the block...

413 East Chapel Hill St.

(Courtesy Duke Archives) The 400 block of East Chapel Hill Street was primarily transformed from a residential into a commercial street in the 1920s. The above picture shows 401, 405, 407, and 415 had been built by 1924. Looking east down East Chapel Hill, 1927 (Courtesy Durham County Library) By the 1940s, the block was built out. Looking east...

114 West Main Street

(Courtesy Durham County Library) 114 West Main St. was the initial home of the Rawls_Knight department store. Like all of the buildings profiled thus far on the north side of West Main St., it was built in the mid-late 1910s, after the fire of 1914. The picture above was taken sometime during the late 1920s or early 1930s.

109 North Church St.

109 N. Church, January 1966 02.66 (Durham Urban Renewal documenation / Durham County Library) 01.28.2019 (G. Kueber)

Sears And Roebuck / Health Department

The previous two posts have examined the history and land use of the northeast and southeast corners of East Main St. and Dillard St. Today's post examines the southwest corner of this intersection, the site of the current health department. (Looking south) Here is the satellite view from Google of this corner, with most of the relevant past and present locations marked.

Snow Building

(1930, Photograph by Albert Barden, collection available online at State Archives of North Carolina) The Snow Building was one of a 'second wave' of more impressive commercial structures to be built at Five Points. Situated between the core of downtown (Main between Church and Corcoran) and the Duke Factory, the Five Points area initially consisted...

308 West Main Street - Friedman's/ Ringside

308 West Main was built circa 1906 by John Sprunt Hill. According to city directories, the first tenants were a physician, C. E. King and Sons druggists, and the Durham Art Shop. In the picture below, the last 3-story building moving right to left is 308 West Main - one of the last buildings surviving in this block - the Temple Building and its...