214 Formosa Avenue

35.974585395235, -78.903937440624

214
Durham
NC
Cross Street
Year built
1948
Architectural style
Construction type
National Register
Neighborhood
Use
Building Type
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Photograph taken by Heather Slane, National Historic Register Submission, January 2018

 

One of a number of stone houses in the district, this one-and-a-half-story, side-gabled Period Cottage is three bays wide and triple-pile with flush eaves. The house features mostly replacement slider windows, though original diamond-pane casement windows flank a picture window on the left (east) end of the façade. Near the center of the facade is a prominent, front-facing, stone chimney with a glass block window to its right (west). At the far right end of the façade is a projecting, front-gabled entrance bay with a three-light-over-three-panel door with classical surround with fluted pilasters and a broken pediment. The entrance is accessed by a modern, uncovered wood deck that extends across the right two bays of the façade. Two gabled dormers on the façade have aluminum siding and replacement windows. There is an interior stone chimney and the right elevation features a glass block window and an exterior brick chimney near its rear. A one-story, shed-roofed frame wing extends from the right rear (southwest) with plain weatherboards and paired windows. A loose-stacked stone wall extends across the front of the property. County tax records date the house to 1948 and the earliest known occupants are Whitley W. Bolden, a representative for NC Mutual Life Insurance Company, and his wife, Ruth Y. Bolden, in 1950.  They were the parents of three children.

Whitley Bolden and  Ruthy Bolden bought the lot from North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company On January 28, 1946.  After the house was built, the Boldens resided there in 1950.  Mr. Bolden died in 1994 and Mrs. Bolden died in 2001.

On June 15, 2001, George Whitley Bolden, administrator of the estate of Ruth Y Bolden transferred the property to Lesley Ruth Bolden, Carol Lynn Bolden and George Whitley Bolden.  On August 10, 2001, according to deed records, George transferred the title to his siblings.

Ownership of the home remains in the Bolden family.

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