Photograph taken by Heather Slane (National Historic Register Submission) - December 2017.
Fenton and Roxie Rowland were the original owners of 2100 Fayetteville Street. Fenton was born in Virginia on February 12, 1895, to Virginia D. and L.H. Rowland. He was the owner of Rowland & Mitchell Tailor shop at 200 1/2 Main Street, and worked in tailoring for 35 years. He was also a veteran, serving a year in the First World War from April 1918 to April 1919. Later that year, he married Roxie Anna Holloway on September 10.
A portrait of Roxie Holloway Rowland (funeral program) - February 1997.
Roxie was born to Anna V. Slade and John Holloway on November 11, 1896. She attended Kitrell College and Hampton Institute for her secondary education. Roxie became an elementary school teacher and a home economics teacher at Whitted High School. She was also an active part of the Durham community, serving as the North Carolina Federation President of the Year 'Round Garden Club, President of the Pearsontown Community Club, and holding membership in the Model Mothers Club.
Fenton and Roxie had two daughters, Beulah and Evelyn Rowland. Fenton passed away on November 22, 1954, after being run over by a train, leaving his estate to his wife. The circumstances of his death were mysterious, and in the months after, there was no conclusion as to whether or not it was a suicide. He was buried in Beachwood Cemetery. After her husband’s death, Roxie continued to participate in the Durham community until her death on February 6, 1997. She lived to be 100 years old. In 2003, members of the Year ‘Round Garden Club planted a tree in her honor for Arbor Day on the corner of Cecil Street and Highway 55.
The current owner, Virginia Hill, made significant contributions to the rehabilitation of the property since purchasing it in 2016. As of 2026, the property is in good, stable condition.
Previous Entries:
A power of attorney was signed and given to Beulah Hill, daughter of the Rowlands, in March 1993. Later, Eric Franklin, grandson of Evelyn Rowland Boone (daughter of the Rowlands), gave power of attorney to James Hill, son of Beulah Rowland Hill, in April 2007. For several years, the 2100 Fayetteville Street house was vacant and showed evidence of substantial deterioration. On January 15, 2016, Rane Boone Franklin, Eric Franklin, Clinton C. Boone III, Wanda Boone, and E. Rane Boone transferred the title to this property to Virginia Dianna Hill, daughter of Beulah Hill. Ms. Virginia Hill began the arduous task of rehabilitating the house. As of October 2020, the house remains vacant, and renovations are being completed.
From the 2018 National Register of Historic Places application for College Heights:
Located at the southwest corner of Fayetteville and Pekoe streets, this one-and-a-half-story, side-gabled Period Cottage is three bays wide and double-pile. The house has a brick veneer, six-over-six wood-sash windows, an interior brick chimney, and an exterior brick chimney near the left (south) end of the façade. There is a two-bay-wide, projecting front-gabled wing on the right (north) end of the façade with an arched six-over-six wood-sash window in the gable and a smaller projecting gabled bay on its right end with paired windows and a fixed, nine-light round wood window in the gable. On the left end of the projecting wing is an arched batten door with a round light, sheltered by a gabled roof on knee brackets and accessed by an uncovered brick terrace with decorative metal railing that extends across the left two bays of the façade. The tapered brick chimney on the façade has stone detailing and there is a front-gabled dormer to the left of the chimney with aluminum siding and a single six-over-six wood-sash window. There are paired windows in the side gables and a near-full-width, shed-roofed dormer on the rear elevation has aluminum siding. A one-story wing at the left rear (southwest) has a low-sloped gabled roof, aluminum siding, and vinyl casement windows. Near the center of the rear elevation is a shed-roofed porch that has been enclosed with aluminum windows on a sided knee wall. A stone wall extends across the front of the property adjacent to the sidewalk. The earliest known occupants are Fenton H. Rowland and his wife, Roxie, in 1945.
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