Commercial

The Geer Building

The northeast corner of Main and Corcoran Street has seen its share of building drama. For much of the 20th century, it was the location of one of the buildings on my Top Five list of How-Could-They-Have-Torn-That-Down buidings in Durham: the Geer building.

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...

117-119 E. Chapel Hill St.

1939 CD: 117 - The Green Lantern Restaurant 119 - Myers-Glenn Auto Supplies Advertisement from October 9, 1950, edition of the Durham Morning Herald, announcing the opening of Addison's Baby Marketeria. This was the first location of Anjel and Iris Addison's store, originally centered on the sale of maternity clothing and every manner of accessory...

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.

Uzzle Used Car Pagoda

09.10.11 Built as the used car sales office for the Uzzle Cadillac dealership across the street, this building is certainly downtown Durham's only pagoda. Originally "on stilts," the ground level was later filled in and used by a realty company. Bobby Inscoe Realty was one former occupant. It's now owned by Acme Plumbing, located next door. This...

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.

518-520 East Pettigrew

518 East Pettigrew, ~1970 (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection) 518 1/2 East Pettigrew, ~1970 (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection) 520 - 520 1/2 East Pettigrew ~ 1970 (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection) Built in the late 1920s, 518-522 East Pettigrew housed a variety of...