The Manchester

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

Also begun by F.M. Tilley, this four-plex is identical to the Rollins Apartments except that the front porches to the north units have been sensitively altered by enclosure with windows and French doors. Completed by former N.C. Gov. William B. Umstead, the building was converted to condominiums in 1979.

(The information below in italics is from the Preservation Durham Historic Plaque Application for The Manchester)

The Manchester and its twin, the Rollins Apartments at 803 Lancaster, were built by Fletcher M. Tilley in 1927. Tilley began to acquire and develop properties in the area north of Trinity College along A Street (later College Street and now Markham Avenue) in the late 1910s and 20s. In the 1921 City Directory he is listed as a "Developer." Tilley lived at 806 2nd Avenue (now Lancaster Street) across the street from The Manchester and built many of the houses in the 800 block of 2nd Street. Tilley's houses on 2nd Street include 822 Lancaster, the home of H.C. West, a carpenter credited with much finished carpentry in the area (Roberts, Lea & Leary, Durham Architecture and Historic Inventory, p. 189). These houses are listed in the Trinity Heights Historic District Preservation Plan (1992, p. 9; pp. 13-14). 

Mr. Tilley first acquired the land where Manchester is located in 1918. He later sold it to his brother, Garland Tilley, in 1919. In December, 1924, Garland Tilley sold the property to William B. Umstead (who later became governor of North Carolina) and N. and Mary Rosenstein (see section III). In August of 1926, Umstead and the Rosensteins sold the property back to Fletcher Tilley. This is significant only because William B. Umstead is erroneously identified as the original builder of the Manchester in an article about the conversion of the building into condominiums published in the real estate section Durham Morning Herald in 1981 (DMH, 5/19/81). The error is repeated in the 1984 Trinity Historic National Register Historic District Nomination with a citation to the offending newspaper article and it has been repeated again in home tour publications (See Trinity Park/Trinity Heights Home Tour brochure, 2007). 

Tilley had the Manchester and Rollins Apartment buildings built to identical plans at the same time. He acquired the land where the Rollins is located in early 1927. Both buildings are fitted out with the same materials and their ironwork such as coal scuttles and milk deliver boxes bear the same 1926 patent pending dates. Tenant listing for both buildings first appear in the 1928 Durham city directory. The 1928 listing indicates that the buildings were probably completed in 1927, but in no event later that the early months of 1928. Tilley named the building at 803 Lancaster Street the "Tilley Apartments." He called its twin at 813 Lancaster "The Manchester." In the 1928 directory, 803 Lancaster (2nd Street at the time) is identified as "The Tilley Apartments," but the building at 813 is identified merely as "Apartments." In the 1929 directory and all subsequent directories, 813 Lancaster is called "The Manchester." 

In late 1928, Tilley sold the Tilley Apartments to E. T. Rollins, the owner of the Durham Morning Herald newspaper. Although Rollins died in 1931, his family retained ownership of the property until 2003. Rollins renamed the building "The Rollins Apartments" after acquiring it and the building is identified as "The Rollins Apartments" the first time in the 1930 city directory. It continues to be known by that name today. 
Tilley kept The Manchester. In 1929, he pledged the building as security for a loan he obtained from the Merchants bank in Durham. By 1932, well into the Great Depression, Tilley was delinquent in his payments on the loan and management of the Merchants Bank had been taken over by the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks. The commissioner foreclosed on The Manchester and its ownership passed from Tilley's hands. Subsequent owners kept the Manchester name.