Bass-Chick House

(The information below in italics is from the Preservation Durham Plaque Application for the Bass-Chick House)

The house at 917 Monmouth Avenue was built in 1922. According to neighborhood legend, the property was a gift from L. D. Rogers to his daughter, Marjorie, and her husband, W. C. Bass. The legend seems to be borne out at least in part by the public record. Rogers purchased the lot in 1917 and conveyed it to the Basses in April of 1922. Theirs is the first listing for the property to appear in Hill's Durham Directory (1923). Whether it was a gift or not cannot be determined form the deed records. 

L. Doddridge Rogers operated a Durham furniture store at 115 E. Parrish Street in the 1920s and lived in Trinity Park at 1005 Gloria Avenue. His son-in-law, William C. "Doc" or "Dock" Bass was born on December 19, 1891, in Halifax, North Carolina. He was postmaster of Roanoke Rapids from 1914 until 1920. He married Marjorie Rogers in 1918. She was born in Durham on August 26, 1899. She was educated in Durham schools and attended the Southern Conservatory of Music. The couple moved to Durham in 1920-21. Their first home in Durham was at 111 Watts Street. Bass worked at a grocery store at 401 Milton Avenue from 1921 until 1923. In 1924, he became a sales representative for the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco), a position he held for 29 years. The Basses had three children: a daughter and two sons. W. C. Bass died on July 16, 1952. Marjorie Bass died on June 25, 1962. They are buried in separate, but nearby, graves in section 6 in Maplewood Cemetery. See obituaries, Durham Sun, July 17, 1952, Durham Morning Herald, July 18, 1952, and June 26, 1962. 

The Basses resided at 917 Monmouth until 1932 when they sold the property to Commodore Council, the "C" in the B. C. Headache Powder business. During the Depression years, Council bought up many houses in town. He employed 917 Monmouth as a rental property until 1949. 

According to the city directory, 917 Monmouth was vacant in 1933. During 1934, the house was home to Charles J. and Catherine L. Miller. Miller was assistant cashier at the Depositor's National Bank. From 1935 until 1938, the house was occupied by J. Knox Hughes and his wife, Martha M. Hughes. Hughes was a tobacco buyer with the Imperial Tobacco Company, Ltd. In that year, the Hugheses moved next door to 919 Monmouth and 917 was occupied by Clyde F. Chick and his wife, Marie. 

Clyde Chick was a foreman at the Imperial Tobacco Company. Census records indicate that he was born in Virginia in 1904. Marie Chick was born in Virginia in 1903. The Chicks lived at 917 from 1939 until 1983. During that time, Clyde Chick rose to become manager of the Imperial plant. Marie held secretarial jobs at Crum and Forster and other insurance companies. They purchased the house from Commodore Council in 1949. The Chicks raised a son, Earnest (1928-2010), at the house. In 1940, they also had a lodger, W. A. Adams, who, according to the 1940 census, was a 22 year-old car salesman. 

In the 1960s, Clyde was the superintendent of North State Tobacco. By 1980, he is listed as retired in the city directory. According to death records, Clyde Chick died in Durham in 1988. He is not buried in Maplewood Cemetery. Marie moved to Ohio, presumably to be near her son. She died on April 6, 1998, in Clermont, Ohio. See Chick Family Tree, Ancestry.com. 

In 1981, the Chicks sold the 917 Monmouth to Guy Solie, a Duke professor and rental landlord. The Chicks continued to live in the house until 1983 after which the house was occupied by a succession of tenants. These include David and Lee Adams who lived in the house during the late 1980s. David Adams was (and is) Director of the Echocardiography Department at Duke Hospital. In the early 1990s, Solie rented the house to Randal Benefield, a dentist, and his wife, Ann Elizabeth Benefield, Director of Development at the University of North Carolina. 

In 1995, Michelle Robertson and Ardis Watkins purchased the house. Robertson was a law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law from 1985 until 2005. She served as the director of the law school's Criminal Law Clinic. She was active in the Advocates for Justice trade organization and the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys. Robertson is a polio survivor and made some modifications to the house during her tenure to improve her access and mobility. See "A Tribute to Professor Michelle Robertson" Richard Rosen and Deborah Weissman, 84 N.C. L. Rev. 1085 (2005-2006). Ardis Watkins, also an attorney, served as legislative counsel to the State Employees Association of North Carolina, a position she still holds. In 2002, Watkins conveyed her interest in the property to Robertson making her the sole owner. Robertson sold the property to the applicant in 2005 and relocated to Savannah, Georgia, where she lives and practices law. 

The applicant, Philip John Azar, is an attorney. He has practiced law in Washington, D.C., Dubai, U.A.E., and Memphis, Tennessee. During nine years with FedEx Corporation, Azar worked in the legal department of the company and its subsidiaries and was vice president and general counsel for FedEx Logistics from 2001 to 2005. Azar came to Durham in 2005. In Durham, he worked for Habitat of Durham for five years where he performed a number of functions from volunteer staff member to associate director for programs (2006-2012). He was briefly executive director of Clean Energy Durham (2013). Azar is interested in housing and community development issues and is a neighborhood advocate. 

The house at 917 Monmouth Avenue is an early end-gable bungalow with an el projecting to the rear. Across the front of the house is a pedimented porch supported by a shallow pointed arch resting on box columns and brick piers with molded concrete caps. The mortar joints are deeply raked. The ledger board running the length of the porch above the arch is supported by decorative modillions or keys. The arch is repeated in the porch ceiling. In the pediment there is a central window with a battered frame containing 12-light single sash flanked by 6-light single sashes. The notched barge board is supported by simple bungalow-style knee braces. The front door is off center to the right and is flanked by single double-hung windows with a 12-over-one light pattern. The house is clad with German siding. The exterior materials, doors, and windows are all in substantially original condition. 

The lot drops away from the front yard and the rear of the house is raised above the rear yard. Originally it was supported by a partial basement and brick piers. At some point the spaces between the piers was enclosed and additional living space was created in the basement. The applicant's predecessor created a bedroom in the basement and the applicant added a full bath. Of interest in the basement space is the very large exposed granite boulder there around which the house was originally built and subsequently expanded. 

The front door opens into a living room to the right of the central axis of the house. The central decorative coal-burning fireplace is made up of rubble quartz and other crystalline stones joined with raised mortar joints. According to neighborhood legend the Basses collected these stones while the house was under construction for this purpose. The tile hearth and iron fire insert are original. The ceilings in the house are ten feet high and the living room ceiling is decorated with box coffering. The door and window casings throughout the house include the tall entablature typical of better houses built in Durham between 1900 and 1925. The doors contain five panels. They and their hardware are original. The smooth plaster walls and picture moldings are original. The pine floors throughout the house are original. 

The dining room beyond the living room is lit by a west-facing triple window made up of a central 12-over-one double-hung window flanked on each side by a six- over-one double hung window. 
The breakfast nook, pantry, and kitchen areas beyond the dining room have been added to and reworked over time so that the original layout is not readily apparent. The additions appear to have been achieved by enclosing a small porch and filling in space created by the original projecting from the rear of the main body of the house. These spaces now house a modern kitchen, stair to the basement, and small office space. The applicant believes that a significant part of the kitchen area remodeling was done during the tenure of Michelle Robinson. 

The original door connecting the living room to the parlor bedroom has been blocked by the addition of a closet in that room. The original back bedroom has been altered by the addition of a bathroom. The original bathroom located in the center of the east side of the house is substantially in its original condition with original finishes and fixtures, but at some point the closet serving the room was reversed to provide a larger closet to the bedroom next door. Modern door casings and hardware in these rooms indicate the recent alterations. Again, the applicant believes that much of this work was done by Ms. Robertson. 

The chimney projecting from the east side of the house is not original and was added to serve a modern heating system. 

The house has been well-maintained over the years and the changes which have been made have little altered its original appearance either within or without.