Maynard Mangum House

This is the house my grandmother was born in and lived in as a child. It was built by Wm. Maynard Mangum, a member of the first Durham Co. Commissioners and the Tobacco Trade Commission, and Julia Durham (a distant cousin of Bartlett). When my grandmother died, she left me a page from an unidentified "ghost stories of the south" book that featured an article about this house and claimed that my great-great grandmother Julia died in the back bedroom and continues to haunt the house. Farad Ali, our current city councilman, did an amazing job restoring the house when he purchased it and getting it on the historic register. The house is also notable because it was purchased by Walter Kempner and became the Rice Diet House, where numerous celebrities from Buddy Hackett to Elvis Presley stayed at times. Maynard also built the house next door to it on Lynch St., which is still standing.

The two-story home of Maynard's grandfather, Jesse Mangum, is also still standing -- albeit in very poor shape -- in northern Durham County. The Durham planning commission, which helped me locate it, once told me that it is one of the oldest standing residential structures remaining in the whole county. It is long abandoned but the surrounding area remains nearly completely undeveloped, looking just as it did when it was built back before the Civil War.

-Ian

I used to frequent this house in the 50's and 60's when my grandmother, Ophelia Bennett Bailey, operated The Rice House and may have owned it.  Amazing memories of this beautiful home.  Many celebrities came here as "patients" including Buddy Hackett, Beatrice Taylor (Aunt Bee on Andy Griffith Show), Burl Ives--just a few I remember my grandmother telling me about.  I imagine the house was usually filled to capacity with "patients" as on each of my many visits it was a very busy and popular place. 

My grandparents lived in a suite on the back corner of the home opposite the kitchen.  Between the kitchen and the suite was a sitting room with jalousy windows.  The grand hall  and dining room were massive.  I remember a bathroom off a suite to the right of the grand hall (foyer) that had tiny black and white octagonal tiles.  My grandmother had what looked like the current coconut hanging baskets from the porch filled with ferns or flowers.  There were a couple of "examining rooms" off the grand hall.  Such a beautiful house in its day--I hope it has been renovated to it's original grandeuer.