Former Travis Place Warehouse

Durhamites Ginger Travis and Carol Place founded Travis Place in 1983, a mail-order underwear catalogue with the tagline “Natural fibers for women, from women.” Travis Place was one of Durham’s first three businesses to openly identify as lesbian-owned, along with Ladyslipper Music and Francesca’s Dessert Caffé. Francesca’s was originally opened in Perry St. (off of Ninth St.) in 1985, next to Travis Place’s first warehouse.  Their second warehouse was located at 708 Rigsbee Avenue

Travis Place was started at home by friends. But by the time they had moved to this warehouse in 1990, they had just passed $1 million in gross annual sales and had 27 employees.