West Geer Street

In 1919, it appears that the Byrd Brothers (Hubert R. h - 317 E Chapel Hill, and William E. - h 831 N. Mangum) were part of the Byrd and Bryan grocers, located at 119 West Parrish Street, along with Kenney U. Bryan (h 833 N. Mangum.) By 1940, the Byrd Brothers had gone out on their own and teamed up with a Pickett - becoming Byrd Bros. and Pickett...

Built in ~1938, the Durham Baking Company seems to have been a wholesale production facility, and possibly the Merita Bread Company production facility. 1950 Sanborn map of Rigsbee and West Geer Streets. Although sources are sketchy, it sounds as if a fire in the baking company building may have resulted in the exit of bread production. Regardless...

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection) The North Durham Graded School was among the 'second wave' of schools established in Durham around the turn of the century, following the establishment of the first graded school for white children in 1892 and the Whitted School for African-American children, located at Ramsey and Proctor...

(Courtesy Jon and Shannon Thornburg) Carl C. Woods, a general contractor later known simply as "CC Woods" built the large house at 217 West Geer St. around 1939-1940. It evidently served solely as the primary residence for him and his wife until about 1948, when they opened a 'tourist hotel' (a bed-and-breakfast of sorts) in their home. The obverse side of the above postcard reads:

Under construction, 1930 (Courtesy Jim Fortune) A fascinating bit of relative uniqueness surrounds the handsome but otherwise unremarkable church at the northeast corner of West Geer and North Streets. When constructed in 1930, the Gothic Revival church was one of only four in the country exclusively for deaf worshipers; services were conducted...

The Perry Building was another of several 1920s-era apartment buildings that accompanied the transition of the near neighborhoods to higher density development, and the shift of Mangum and Geer Streets to major transportation corridors. An earlier 2-story frame structure stood on the northwest corner of N. Mangum and W. Geer. Mangum and Geer, 1913...