Foster and West Geer

410 W. Geer St.

Originally the Hometown Sales and Service - a dealership for Kaiser Frazer automobiles, 410 W. Geer has housed the predecessor to Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC, the North Carolina Fund, and now is the Trotter building - an event center and retail space.

Durham County Agricultural Building / Curb Market / Extension

(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper) As detailed in the post about the John O'Daniel Hosiery Mill and later Farmers' Exchange, home demonstration agents (extension agents) and the Durham Women's Advisory Board established a 'curb market' at the Farmers' Exchange building on Gilbert St. in the 1930s. This was essentially what we think of as the...

Royal Crown Cola / Seven-up Bottling Co. / Fullsteam Brewery / The Pit Barbecue

Looking southeast, 1953. (Courtesy Keith Phillips) Lloyd Brown started his bottling company on Morgan Street in March 1925, but in 1934 moved to a building on North Church St. when he outgrew this structure. This space soon proved too small as well, and he constructed a new, 'modern' bottling plant at 321 West Geer St., which opened June 1, 1939...

Weeks Motor Company / Hutchins Auto Supply

Looking northwest from West Geer St., 1953. (Courtesy Keith Phillips) One of my favorite mid-century modern buildings in Durham is the former Weeks Motor Company / Hutchins Auto Supply building. Built in 1948, Weeks was started by Albert Weeks, who ran a service station at North Durham Five Points (Little Five Points) in the 1930s and 1940s. The...

326 W Geer St.

326 West Geer, soon after construction in October 1949 326 West Geer housed Paschall Brothers Plumbing Company until the 1970s, when it housed Acme Plumbing Company. As of 2008, it houses Common Ground, a "Green Building Center". Looking northwest from West Geer, 07.12.08 (Photo by Gary Kueber) From the NR listing in italics below: The one-story...

320-324 W Geer

View looking north on Madison Street towards 316-320 West Geer, 11.25.49. (Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper) The buildings at 320-324 West Geer Street were constructed in 1949, likely intended as multi-tenant rental space from the outset. By 1955, the tenants were: 320: NC State Auto Association, CT Wilson Construction Co., Garrard Realty, and...

609 Foster Street

06.07.08 609 Foster Street was built in 1938 as a tobacco prizery and warehouse for the RJ Reynolds Company. Presumably, given the size of the Durham auction market, Reynolds wanted a presence convenient to the auction warehouses to press and store tobacco for shipping to their factories. 1937 plat. Note the reference to the "Big Bull Warehouse"...

U.S. Post Office Garage / Masengill's

In italics from the National Register listing: The large one-story brick flat-roofed building, set at right angles to the street, was constructed in 1963 as a post office garage with service bays for repairing postal trucks. The building is not listed in the 1962 city directory and is under construction in 1963. In the 1964 directory it is the “U.S...

732 Washington Street

04.19.09 From the NR listing, in italics below: Riley's Paint Warehouse, a small one-story concrete-block building at 732 Washington Street, was built about 1950 to the rear of Scott and Roberts Dry Cleaning Plant, Office and Store. It first appears in the 1950-1951 City Directory. The concrete-block building has a west façade veneer of red...

703 Rigsbee Ave. / Surf Club

06.07.08 (Photo by Gary Kueber) 03.15.2011 (Photo by Gary Kueber) Renovated in 2011 as a bar, named "Surf Club," with a large patio where the parking lot is in the above pictures. 10.1.13 - Parking lot converted into outdoor seating that is dog friendly. Many friendly free roaming dogs can be seen in this enclosed garden. Photo by Andrius...