Old Post Office / Federal Building

Durham had a main post office, located in various buildings along main street, from the time of Angier's store as the only mercantile establishment on the northwest corner of West Main and North Mangum. The first dedicated post office building was built in 1906. Prior to this, during the 1880s and 1890s, the area west of Corcoran Street was...
Read More

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.
Read More

URBAN TOMBSTONES

While there are interesting, near-forgotten cemeteries tucked away in Durham, I am referring to the remnants of houses past. I've had a couple of questions/comments about research, and one part of that research is 'on the ground.' Looking at the urban landscape, you can often find clues demonstrating where houses were located, and the pattern of the earlier landscape.

224 Morris

Built by Percy Sloan in the 1910s, this bungalow lasted the longest of the houses in the 100 and 200 blocks of Morris Street, eventually used by DPS for storage, and torn down in the 1980s. It's now a parking lot.
Read More

Whitesell House - 420 Morris Street

The most impressive of the remaining houses on Morris Street is the house at 420 Morris St., the Whitesell House. It retains signficant elaborate exterior millwork on the porch and each gable peak. Some resemblance can be noted with the houses that were located on the the corner of Morris and Morgan St. Whitesell House, 1980. Whitesell House, 2006...
Read More

305 Morris / Pope-Slater House

Pope-Slater House, 1980 The house at 305 Morris Street was a Queen Anne Victorian built in 1905 by John W. Pope, a tobacco warehouseman and Durham County Treasurer in the late 1880s. This house replaced an earlier one-story house occupied by Mr. Pope and his family since 1883. There was also a separate two-story house in the backyard, connected to...
Read More

101 Morris Street - The Salvation Army

This citadel-like structure was home to the Salvation Army for most of the 20th century
Read More

500 Morgan St.

Morris Street was one of the early, prominent residential sections of Durham, developed with larger, two-story houses during the 1880s and 1890s. This residential development was interrupted by the development of Fallon and Martin Company, followed by the Imperial Tobacco Company in the 200 block of Morris St. Looking northwest and Morgan and Morris, 1924 (Courtesy Durham County LIbrary)
Read More

MORRIS STREET

Morris Street extends three blocks northward from Five Points to the old Durham Bulls ballpark - the building just profiled is on the corner of Morris Street. It was a primarily residential street, even inside the current Loop, until mid-20th century. It was lined with larger houses, many belonging to employees of the tobacco companies.

Subscribe to