Government

Parkwood Branch Library August 2007

Parkwood Branch Library

Parkwood Branch Library opened in July of 1975. It was closed down in 2009-2010 and was replaced by the South Regional Library on S. Alston (the former site of the Lowe's Grove School).

South-facing entrance of Walltown Park Recreation Center, January 2023

Walltown Park Recreation Center

A multipurpose Durham Parks and Recreation facility hosting a full slate of community programs and events, the present structure was built from 2009-2011 on the site of an older community center that dated back to 1949. More information about facilities and programming is available on the DPR website.

McDougald Terrace

McDougald Terrace was developed on vacant land east of Hayti and NCCU as part of large-scale public housing development in Durham, funded and authorized by the Housing Act of 1949. Two major, racially-segregated projects were developed in the early 1950s - Few Gardens, for white residents, McDougald Terrace, for African-American residents. Looking...

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...

Fire Station #4 - Fayetteville St.

A new Fire Station #4 was built in 1958, and the station on McMannen St. was closed. This station was built contemporaneously with Fire Station #5 on Chapel Hill Road, and originally the two stations were nearly identical. Fire Station #4 under construction, 06.21.57 (Courtesy Herald-Sun)

Durham County Courthouse (third)

The county's 1978-2012 courthouse was outdated and hated from the moment it was completed. Worse yet, the powers-that-be destroyed an entire block of attractive - some beautiful - structures in order to build this cold mess. The best of the lot was the Hotel Malbourne, on the northwest corner of N. Roxboro and East Main. Looking northwest, 1966...

Fire Station #2

The original Fire Station #2 was constructed on the north side of West Main Street, across from the W. Duke & Sons cigarette factory between 1888 and 1893. The original building was a frame structure with a reservoir at the rear of the building. The building was located on Duke Co. land through a lease arrangement with the company, wherein the...

Fire Station #2 (ninth Street)

By the 1950s, the growth of population westward, the envelopment of West Durham into the City of Durham, and the scaling of fire equipment necessitated a new fire station for Company #2, which had been located amongst the Liggett Warehouses on West Main St. since 1906 The Ninth Street property was purchased by the City from the heirs of Mrs. Ida...

302 Morris St.

03.31.2014 (G. Kueber) The building at 302 Morris Street was built in 1943-1944 to, initially, house branches of the USO - prompting by expanding service needs during World War II. A house belonging to James H. Eubanks and his wife Myrtle stood on the site prior to 1943; 1944 City Directory- USO YMCA Agency, USO Jewish Welfare Board Agency By 1950...

Fire Station #5

When Fire Station #5 opened in Lakewood in 1960, it was the first expansion of the number of fire stations in Durham since 1926, when station #4 had opened on McMannen St. Station #4 had been replaced in 1957 by a new station #4 on Fayetteville St., which appears to have been identical to Station 5. The station displaced an earlier house on the...