Beavers-Huckabee House

03.22.2012 (DC tax office)

(Below in italics is from the National Register listing; not verified for accuracy by this author.)

Classic two-and-one-half-story Colonial Revival style frame house built 1920s. One-story wing consisting of a porte-cochere and sunporch flank the gable-roofed main block. A portico upheld by thin Tuscan columns shelters the paneled front door flanked by wooden sunburst transoms and sidelights with paneled aprons.

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

The house at 1015 Watts Street was built in 1928 for Mary Eva Markham Beavers, widow of Bezel E. Beavers (1861-1909). Mary was the daughter of John Wesley Markham and Lou Ann Dollar Markham. She was raised on the Markham family farm which was located on and around this very property. (The antebellum Markham homeplace stood between Watts St. and N. Buchanan Blvd. until around 1920 when it was razed to make room for the extension of W. Markham Ave. to A Street, which was then renamed W. Markham.)

 Upon her father's death in 1898, the farm property was divided into lots to be developed and sold. Mary was given a portion of this property on April 30, 1904, including the lot on which the present 1015 Watts Street is located. Upon this lot, she and Bezel built a house for themselves ca. 1905-6. The house is first listed in the 1907-8 Durham City Directory. It is not listed in the previous 1905-6 directory, which was likely printed in mid 1905. The house was first numbered 917 Watts, and it was listed this way through the 1915-16 directory. In the 1917 directory, the house was re-numbered and is listed as 1101 Watts. It remains listed this way through the 1928 directory. It is during 1928, however, that this original house of Mary Beavers was moved to 820 N. Buchanan Boulevard, and the new house and subject of this plaque application was built on the original property and numbered 1015 Watts. 

Mary was one of 5 children born to John Wesley and Lou Ann Dollar Markham. She was born on November 24, 1875, at home on the Markham farm in Durham. She married Bezel E. Beavers at her parents' home on New Year's Day 1898. Bezel had grown up in Oak Grove, N.C., and he and Mary moved there for approximately 7 years following their marriage until returning to Durham when Mary was given her share of her father's property. Bezel's occupation is listed as "farmer" in the 1907-8 Durham City Directory. 

Bezel's death was noted in The Durham Recorder, Tuesday, March 23, 1909: "Death of B. E. Beavers/Mr. B. E. Beavers, age 47, died at his home on Watts street, last Saturday evening. Organic heart trouble, from which he has been suffering for some time, was the cause of his death. He leaves a wife and two children, one son and one daughter, besides other relatives. The funeral and burial took place Sunday, the burial being at Matthews Chapel, Wake county." 

Bezel and Mary had two children, Annie L., born November 1898, and Wesley F., born 1900. They continued to live with their mother in their Watts Street home following their father's death. 

In 1932, like so many others, Mary lost her house in the Depression. The house was purchased by Hiram E. and Rosa Warren Myers. Hiram Earl Myers (1889-1979) was a clergyman, theologian, and educator. He was ordained as a minister in the N.C. Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1918) and was an active member as pastor and theologian. In 1926, Myers joined the Duke University faculty as professor of biblical literature. He served as Chairman of the Department of Religion (1934-1936) and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Religion (1937-1957). His papers are housed in the Duke University Archives. 

The Myers lived in the house for only a short time and sold it to tobacconist James Gaston Huckabee and his wife Kate Bowling Huckabee in 1936. The Huckabees had 5 children, James Gaston Huckabee, Jr., Edgar Bowen Huckabee, William Bowling Huckabee, Margaret Kathryn Huckabee, and Robert Caloway Huckabee. 
James G. Huckabee, Sr. died in 1941, and his wife Kate continued to live in the house until her death in 1970. 

In February 1971 the house was sold by the Huckabee heirs to Carl L. Frazer and his wife Wilma P. Frazer. The Frazers were from the Pennsylvania/West Virginia/ Maryland area around Antietem, and nothing is known from their time in Durham. 

The Frazers sold the house to the James B. Craven III and his wife Sara Craven in 1974, and the Cravens lived in the house from 1974-2002.