Commercial

Lucky Strike Service Station

Lucky Strike Service Station, 1966 (the back of the tobacco warehouses at 207 Morehead are visible at right) First listed in city directories in 1932, this filling and service station operated for roughly 35 years where Blackwell Street ended at Morehead Avenue, across from the southeastern corner of the American Tobacco factory complex. The first...

Burroughs Wellcome Building - Elion-Hitchings Building

1970s 1974 In February 1969, the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome bought just over 66 acres of land from the Research Triangle Foundation to relocate its headquarters from Tuckahoe, New York. Planning a flagship office reflecting their place on the industry's cutting edge, they commissioned renowned modernist architect Paul Rudolph for the...

Sealtest Building - 3533 Hillsborough Rd.

Apparently built in the late 1950s on land owned by the Tilley family, these were offices at the front of a wholesale operation as the dairy industry consolidated - both in North Carolina and nationally. Sealtest was a brand of National Dairy Products Corporation - later known as Kraft Foods.

943-949 East Main St.

943-947 East Main, 05.07.07 943-949 East Main appears to have been built in the mid-1920s, replacing earlier frame stores that stood on the site. The tenants varied significantly over the course of the mid 20th century. 1928 945 Edgemont Mercantile Co. 947 Crown Cafe 949 Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company 1933 943 Edward D. Glenn, Grocer 945 Parker's Drug Store 947 William Bros. Grocers

1212-1214 Angier Avenue

View of the rear of 1212-1214 Angier, with the two long monitor roofs, looking north, 1950s (Courtesy of The Herald-Sun). Though county tax records date these buildings to 1900, it appears they were built later on the site of earlier houses on the streets north of the Commonwealth / Morven Cotton Mill. The evolution of construction at 1212-1214...

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.

902-904 West Main

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

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...

Public Service / Ice Company - West Durham

Looking west from Crabtree St. (later Trent) and Hillsborough Rd., 1920s (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

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...