Luther & Nina High House

35.9767667, -78.9371185

2409
Durham
NC
Year built
1926
Architectural style
Use
Building Type
Historic Preservation Society of Durham Plaque No.
163
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(The information below in italics is from the Historic Preservation Society of Durham Plaque Application for the Luther & Nina High House)

This house at 2409 Pickett Road is a bungalow in the English Cottage style. The obvious charm of the design made it a popular design in the 1920s. There are several like it in Durham's historic neighborhoods. There is a very similar one on West Club Boulevard. Smaller versions can be found on Alabama Avenue, West Trinity Avenue, Seeman Street, Highland Avenue and elsewhere in Durham. 


The house was constructed in 1926 for Luther C. High and his wife Nina High. At the time the house was built, Chapel Hill Road was the only road to Chapel Hill and development spread south along that street as the city grew in the early 20th century. The inexpensive Model T Ford brought all car prices down which lead to a more mobile society, better paved roads, and expansion of residential development away from the street car lines. 

This house is very nearly in its original condition. It is designed to give the impression of a cozy English cottage. This is achieved by bringing the eaves low and organizing the roof in a T-formation which lowered the roof ridge and allows the house to present a small, cottage front to the street. The exaggerated hammer brackets at the corners and flanking the door also accentuate the quaint quality of the house. The eyebrow arch over the entry gives it emphasis without grandeur and gives the roof an organic feel. Having the chimney on the front next to the door is a medieval touch. The gable peaks are all clipped. These were called German gables (think of Bruegel paintings) until the First World War made the word "German" undesirable. After that they were called "clipped" or "jerkinhead" gables. Jerkinhead refers to the hooded cowl monks wore which tended to flop down at the front. Note that on the rear of the house a little den has been added under the original roof overhang. This room was added in the late thirties or late forties (little was built during the war years) when knotty pine was so popular. 


Although the exterior of the house is meant to evoke the idea of an English Cottage, the interior is all-American. The layout is textbook bungalow form. There is no entry hall. The front door opens directly into the living room. The house is divided laterally - living room-dining room-kitchen down one side and bedroom-bathroom- bedroom down the other side. The public rooms, both living and dining, are very large. The bedrooms are smaller. This is typical of bungalows. 


The fireplace and mantel in the living room are original and decorative. The idea of the hearth was central in the philosophy of residential design at the time. There is a piano wall in the living room. The windows, doors, and casework are all original and mark the house as a higher-end mid-1920s home. The commodious central hall is a luxurious use of space. The applicants have put the original carpenter-built benches from the breakfast nook there. The original nook table is still in the nook. The breakfast nook and butler's pantry were very desirable features in top quality homes of the period. The kitchen space is large and original. The cabinets are not original but are the result of a very early kitchen make-over. The house originally had a cook stove. The back porch has been rearranged a bit. Originally, the porch was a notch in the body of the house. It was screened. Today it is enclosed. Note the exterior walls inside the porch space. The original porch floor was sloped slightly to shed water. Houses of this era had these notched screened back porches to act as a mud room rear entry and a place for the ice box. In the 1920s, it was undesirable to have the icebox in the same room with the cook stove. Having the ice box on the porch also made it accessible to the ice man who came every few days. The bathroom is in its original space and the tub is original. The tiles on the wall are not original. 


The Highs purchased their lot on Pickett Road in 1926 from a small subdivision created in 1925 from land belonging to B. W. Mangum and his wife, Sara P. Mangum. 

The Mangums lived in the large Neoclassical Revival style house on Chapel Hill Road near its intersection with Pickett Road. At the time, Pickett Road was unpaved, and the unnumbered houses were on a rural delivery route. In 1941, the High's house was listed as 8 Pickett Road, but in the ensuing years the house was on Rural Delivery Route 1. It was not until 1950s that the current house number of 2409 was assigned. 
Luther High was born in Durham on January 19, 1898. He grew up in a family of modest means. His father died in 1913 and from an early age Luther worked to help support his family. On his World War I draft registration card from September, 1918, his occupation is listed as "laborer, Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co." He is described as being of medium height and build and possessing gray eyes and light hair. His registration came too late for him to be inducted into the army. According to the 1920 U. S. Census, Luther High was still living with his mother and siblings at a rented house on Ream Street in East Durham. He drove his own car for hire. 


In 1924, Luther High married Nina M. Garrett. Although earlier records indicate that he was born in 1898, his marriage license and all subsequent records, including his grave marker, indicate that he was born in 1900. The reason for this is a mystery. Nina Garrett was born on August 8, 1903. The 1920 U. S. Census indicates that she grew up with nine brothers and sisters on her parents' farm somewhere on Hillsboro Road in western Durham County. 


City directories and the 1930 census indicate that Luther High sold finished tobacco products, mainly for the I.L. Sears and Barbour-Winston tobacco companies, through the mid-1930s. Later, he managed the Smoke Shop, a tobacco retailer in town. For a brief time, he was a partner in and vice president of Stephenson-Wilson-High, Inc., the Pontiac dealership in downtown Durham. His 1942 draft registration card indicates that he was employed by Eckerd's Drug Store. The 1944 city directory lists his occupation as "Gate City Life insurance." 


Luther High died in 1944 under unusual circumstances. Under a headline that read "No Foul Play Found By Coroner In Luther High's Death," the February 10 edition of the Durham Morning Herald reported that at 10:45 p.m. on February 8, at the intersection of Chapel Hill and Roney Streets downtown, Luther High collapsed on the sidewalk. Passersby put him in a taxi cab which took him to his home on Pickett Road. The cab driver and Nina High carried Luther's limp body into the house. Nina called the sheriff's office. In the melodramatic newspaper language of the day, Luther was dead when he was "taken from the machine." He had cuts and bruises about the head. It was unknown how they were sustained, but could have happened in the fall. Sheriff E. G. "Cat" Belvin headed the investigation. In the article, High is identified as an "insurance man." His death certificate sheds little additional light on the circumstances of his death. It records that he died "in taxi." The cause of death is listed as "bronchial pneumonia." 
Pneumonia was a common killer in the first half of the twentieth century before antibiotics were made available to the general population. 


High's obituary records that his funeral was held at Temple Baptist Church. He was survived by his wife, Nina, four sisters, and two brothers. Luther and Nina High had no children of their own. 


Nina High continued to live at 2409 Pickett Road until her own death on May 8, 1992. She never remarried. She owned her own business - a cigar stand in the lobby of the Trust Building at 212 West Main Street, downtown - which she operated from the late 1920s until the mid-1950s. According to her obituary in the May 6, 1992, edition of the Durham Herald-Sun, she was a native of Durham County and attended Durham public schools. In addition to operating the concession stand in the Trust Building, she worked as a product demonstrator for Sealtest Dairies. She was a member of the Friends of Duke Chapel. 


Nina and Luther High are buried in the High-O'Neal-Blalock plot at Maplewood Cemetery. 


Following Nina High's death, her heirs sold the Pickett Road house to the Lynam family. The Lynams lived in the area, but did not occupy the house. In 1993, the Lynams sold the house to a recent graduate of Duke University Medical School, Dr. Edward G. Lilly. Lilly occupied the house as his home while he completed a residency in orthopaedic surgery at Duke. He completed his program in 1999. In that same year he married Lillian Cornelson Montgomery, whom he had met at Davidson College. She was an analyst at the New York investment firm, Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette. See New York Times, October 24, 1999. 


In 1999, the Lillys sold the Pickett Road house to Shalini Kulasingam, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University. While she lived in the house, Professor Kulasingam married Rich Maclehose, a PhD student in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kulasingam and Maclehose sold the property to the applicants in 2002. See faculty directory, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. 


The applicants, Drew McDaniel and Sara Hiatt McDaniel, reside in the house. Drew McDaniel is Product Manager and Owner at SugarCRM, a company that produces business software including the web application SugarCRM, a customer relationship management system. Sara McDaniel is Design and Production Director, Baseball America for TEN: The Enthusiast Network, a California-based media company specializing in enthusiast brands primarily in the automotive and sports areas. 

Prepared by: Mary Slater and Tom Miller 

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