Leah Boddie House

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

Frame Foursquare with hipped roof interrupted by bracketed gable above east entrance bay of main facade. Full-facade hip-roofed porch on Tuscan columns also is gabled at the entrance bay. Earliest known occupant was Mrs. S.S. Boddie, a teacher.

(The information below in italics is from the Historic Preservation Society of Durham Plaque Application for the Leah Boddie House)

The Boddie House is an excellent example of a transitional architecture that spanned by the Victorian and Craftsman eras. The house is named for the Boddie family and was occupied by the siblings (all seemingly unmarried) for nearly fifty years. William Willis Boddie had the designs commissioned in 1919, Leah Boddie purchased the site in 1922, and the brother and sister occupied the house with two other brothers, James and Thomas, and their aging mother Sallie S. Boddie. 

The Boddie children, James, William, Leah, and Thomas were born to Sallie S. and James T. A. Boddie. Three additional daughters were born to the family and listed in the 1900 census, but presumably married and moved out of the family home by the 1920s. James (Sr.) was the eldest son of Leah M. S. and James B. W. Boddie, a farmer from Nash County. James (Sr.) married Sallie in the late nineteenth century and likely lived in Warren County for a period. By 1900, James had passed away leaving his wife and their seven children living with his mother in Nash County. The 1900 census lists Mary, (James) Wesley, (William) Willis, Leah, Thomas, Sallie, and Tempe along with Sallie S. (listed as a housekeeper) and Leah M. S. (farmer and head of household). 

By 1910, Sallie S. Boddie had moved her family to 410 Williard Street in Durham. Mary was no longer listed with the family; she'd presumably married and moved out of the house. James Wesley is listed as an agent inspector, William Willis as a clerk, and Thomas as a laborer. Leah had not yet left for the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, then the State Normal and Industrial College, where she received her undergraduate education. She later received a master's degree from Duke University and, according to her obituary, studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University, and Oxford University. 

According to original architectural drawings in the owners possession, the house was designed in 1919 by Rose & Rose Architects for W. W. Boddie. Rose & Rose were prominent Durham architects in the 1910s and 1920s, responsible for churches and residences throughout Trinity Park and Old North Durham. The firm seemed to specialize in colonial-revival structures, designing examples in both frame (1026 Monmouth, 1013 Monmouth, 1111 N. Mangum) and brick (310 Watts, 409 Watts, 1101 N. Mangum). They were also responsible for the design of the Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church in Trinity Park and the Calvary United Methodist Church in Old North Durham. 

Three years after the design of the house, in 1922, Leah Boddie purchased Lot 20 in Block 9 of the B. L. Duke property in the Trinity Park neighborhood of Durham. The property had been subdivided in 1919 and Lot 20 was sold first to R. J. Aiken and then to L. M. Edwards before being purchased by Leah Boddie. The house was constructed soon after and first appears in city directories in 1924 with widow Sallie S. Boddie as the primary resident of the house until her death in 1930. 

The 1930 census lists Mrs. Boddie at the house along with her grown children James Wesley (1886), William Willis (c. 1888), and Thomas A. Boddie (c. 1892). The census lists James Wesley as a clerk for the American Tobacco Company, William Willis as a clerk for the Southern Railroad, and Thomas as an assistant cashier for the Southern Railroad. James Wesley was already well traveled before settling on Monmouth Street, having applied for a passport from Shanghai, China to the United States in 1919 and returned on a ship from Shanghai to California in 1922. Leah Boddie may have also lived with the family off and on during the 1920s, though she is not listed in the city directories. Leah was active in the Durham community forming the first Girl Scout troop in Durham sometime between 1919 and 1926. 

Around 1926, Leah took a position with the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She served as the Dean of Students for the school, which was later re-named Douglas College, and the 1930 census shows her living on the school's campus. Leah's mother, Mrs. Sallie Boddie died in December of 1930; the house on Monmouth continued to be occupied by Leah's three brothers. Leah traveled rather extensively in the 1930s with boat records verifying at least two trips to England, in 1932 and 1936. The trips were likely related to her position at the college and her address is listed as New Jersey College. 

In 1951, Leah Boddie returned to Durham permanently and took up residence in the house at 1026 Monmouth. Her brothers may have remained with her in the house, though they are not listed in the city directories. Leah took a teaching position with the Durham city schools and became the first principal of the Watts Street School. 

Leah Boddie outlived her brothers, but by the time of her death in 1982, only her youngest sister, Tempe survived. Because her three brothers never married, the Boddie family name died with their generation. Leah's uncle, Dr. Needham P. Boddie was listed on Carlton Street in Durham in the early twentieth century.