Virgie Bass-Cole House

(The information below in italics is from the Preservation Durham Plaque Application for the Virgie Bass-Cole House)

The Erwin Cotton Mills Company began operations in 1892. An enterprise controlled by the Dukes, its business was to make muslin sacking for the pouches in which smoking tobacco was then distributed. Mill No. 1 was built that year on the crest of the ridge that overlooks Ninth Street. From 1896 until 1910, the mill complex was regularly expanded westward until it covered nearly the entire property from Mill No. 1 to Rutherford Street. (Today only the original mill building is extant.) To accommodate the growing workforce, the company erected houses on large tracts of company-owned land surrounding the mill in every direction. With some exceptions, these mill houses were built in three principal phases, each phase being characterized by a type or types of houses. The houses built during the first phase, from 1898 until around 1902, were simple late Victorian structures in either a gable-and-wing or triple-A configuration with kitchen ells. During the second phase, from 1900 until around 1910, the company built houses with a t-shaped plan. See, generally, the West Durham National Register Historic District Nomination. 

In the last phase, 1910, the mill built essentially square houses with pyramidal roofs on what were then known as Tenth, Eleventh, and C Streets (since 1925, Edith, Virgie, and Knox Streets, respectively). These were built in two sizes. Originally, there were 25 of the smaller size houses. They have true pyramid roofs, rising to a single point. While the houses are identical in their exterior dimensions and massing, some were laid out as single-family, two- bedroom, one-bath houses and others were organized as one-bedroom duplexes. There is also some variation in original window configuration. According to the 1913 Sanborn map, all of the houses had a broad open front porch and all had a rear porch in under a shed roof. At each end of this porch were small enclosed spaces intended for pantry and fuel storage. Each of the houses was originally served by two interior chimneys organized front-and-rear. The larger, front chimney provided a flue for fireplaces in the front two rooms. This chimney's base rested on the ground. The smaller, rearward chimney provided a flue for stoves serving the back two rooms. This chimney did not rest on the ground, but originated on planks laid high in the wall dividing the original kitchen and back bedroom. Stove pipes carried smoke and fire gasses to nipples in the base of the chimney. This arrangement is exposed in the house at 915 Virgie Street. The top of each chimney was originally corbelled; however, few of the original tops have survived. Of the 25 houses in this smaller size originally erected by the mill, 24 are extant today. Nearly all of these houses have been modified in some way. 

The second group of third-phase houses is a small number of larger houses. These are rectangular and have elongated pyramidal roofs with a short ridge running side-to-side. The houses differ from the smaller houses in their plans, fenestration, and chimney placement. These houses were intended to serve as homes for higher status mill employees. See the West Durham National Register Historic District Nomination. 
The house at 910 Virgie Street is an example of the smaller, single-family version of the third-phase house. The main pile of the original house remains intact, but there is an addition to the rear. The drop or "German" siding is original and the wood siding on the addition was selected to match. The true pyramid roofline over the original structure has remained unchanged as has the front porch (although the original porch supports and railings have been replaced with iron). The front-facing dormer attic vent is a later addition and is unique to this house. The forward chimney stack (of the original two interior chimneys) remains, but it has lost its original corbelled top. The second, rearward half-chimney has been removed. The smaller third-phase houses have a variety of window and door arrangements. This one has a central front door flanked by single six-over-six sash windows. These windows are not placed symmetrically. The addition includes a new kitchen space and a screened porch. Below this there is a studio and a storage area which uses materials from the detached garage that once served the residence. The additions do not obscure the outline of the original shed roof of the back porch attached to all of the third-phase Erwin Mills houses. 

The interior of the house had been modified before the applicants acquired the property. In rehabilitating the house, the applicants retained the original room arrangement in the main portion of the house. Most of the original simple 1"x4"casework was retained and where the woodwork could not be saved it was replicated. The plaster wall surfaces were replaced with sheetrock. The fireplaces in the front rooms were covered over at some point. The windows and floors are original. Many of the original five-paneled doors remain, but some of these do not have original hardware. The doorway between the parlor and the dining room (originally the kitchen) has been enlarged. The pocket doors are not original. The original bathroom has been updated. The work performed by the applicants was done with historic preservation tax credits and was approved by the State Historic Preservation Office. 

The house was designed for single family occupancy, but it was often occupied by persons not related to one another by blood or marriage. Sometimes the house was tenanted by two "mill hands" as the early city directories describe them. Sometimes these tenants had wives and families. Tracing the identities of the tenants through the directories is difficult because Virgie Street is variably listed as "11th Street," "Eleventh Street," and finally "Virgie." Before 1924 the numbers assigned to the houses were different than the 900 numbers they have today. 

Although there was a regular turnover of employee tenants during the first decades of the house's existence, William Lovette was a constant tenant through the early 1930s. In 1934, Romark Bass became Lovette's roommate. While Lovette appears to have moved out in 1935, Bass remained. At some point, perhaps from the beginning, Bass was joined by his wife, Brooksie Bass. They occupied the house as tenants until 1944 when the mill determined to sell its employee houses. The Basses purchased the house from the mill, but lived in it only for one more year. In July, 1945, they sold the house to Hugh Browning, a real estate speculator. 

Browning sold the house just a few weeks later to Robert Stewart Cole and his wife, Elsie Reid Cole. According to city directories, Cole was a carpenter employed by the mill. The Coles made the house their home for 54 years - from 1946 until 2000. Robert Cole died on September 1, 1999. Elsie Cole died on May 7, 2000, just eight months later. 

The applicants have resided in the house since 2004. Michelle Nowlin is a lawyer with many years of practice in environmental law. She is currently Senior Lecturing Fellow at the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at the Duke University School of Law and Nicholas School of the Environment. Her husband, John Tallmadge, is Director of the Regional Services Development Department of the Triangle Transit Authority. There he plans regional and Durham bus services and fare and service policies. Tallmadge and Nowlin have three daughters.