William E. & Flora W. Stanley House

(The information below in italics is from the Preservation Durham Plaque Application for the William E. & Flora W. Stanley House)

One and 1/2-story brick Tudor Cottage with a steep side gable roof, a front gable wing, and a central chimney. Other original features are 6/6 sash windows, an arched entrance with a stone surround, and a front bay window with a concave metal roof. The sunporch in the front comer may have originally been an open porch. The house was designed in 1940 for Mr. & Mrs. Wm. E. Stanley by Durham architect R. R. Markley. Stanley was the superintendent of the Durham Co. Charities and Public Welfare.

W.E Stanley was a widower; Ola B. O’Brient Stanley died Feb. 21, 1933. They had six children by 1920 census, and her headstone says “mother” at Maplewood Cemetery. Only youngest daughter Dorothy was still living at home by the time the house was built on North Gregson. Stanley clearly had a significantly role within the city of Durham, starting with the Welfare Department where he worked but extending to the Community Planning
Commission, the Wright Refuge, Watts St Baptist Church, Mason, Shriner, and Kiwanis.