Jackson Street

Jackson Street was most likely named for Andrew Jackson; it is not a name present among early residents of Durham, and there are a number of early/original Durham streets named for prominent 19th century figures on the state and national level.

Although Jackson Street originally followed the 'Chapel Hill Street grid' (i.e., the north-south grid,) it made a turn at its eastern extent to meet West Pettigrew Street perpendicularly rather than at an angle. This one block segment of Jackson ran NE-SW rather than E-W. Later, this segment was renamed "Ashton Place," and the former Dandy Street became a part of Jackson Street, extending it eastward to Carr Street and the Blackwell Bull Durham plant.

Jackson was a very residential street in its first ~80 years, but this began to change with commercial creep in the 1950s; in 1968, the Durham Freeway severed the residential portion in Morehead Hill / West End (west of Shepherd) from the increasingly asphalted eastern portion (east of Vickers)