Market Street

301 West Main was the home of the C.D. Kenny Company, a local tea, coffee, and sugar store, soon after the turn of the century. The C.D. Kenny company subsequently moved to 327 W. Main St. 301 West Main, 1910s. (Courtesy Durham County Library) A facade change occurred sometime during the 1920s, and the building became the first location of Sears...

(Courtesy Duke Archives) The Temple building was constructed in 1909 by John Sprunt Hill out of materials left over from the construction of Watts Hospital on Club Blvd. (His uncle, George W. Watts, was the primary benefactor of the hospital.)

RF Morris Tobacco Factory at the NC railroad tracks ~300 feet west of present-day Corcoran St., 1890 (Courtesy Digital Durham. The history of Robert Morris and his endeavors in the tobacco trade are an interesting, if patchwork, story about the earliest days of Durham. Per Jean Anderson: "Morris first appeared on Orange County scene .... in...

The survivor among Durham's early newspapers, the Market Street location was the first location of the Durham Morning Herald, and then the Durham Sun. The newspaper steadily expanded its presence to the west through the 1980s until it left downtown in 1990 for the greyer pastures of the 15-501 bypass.

The Jordan Building, at 213 West Main St., is one of the oldest buildings remaining in downtown, built sometime between 1898 and 1902. In the above shot, taken around the turn of the century, one can see the small frame structures on either side that the new commercial structures such as the Jordan building replaced. Soon, this filled in with other...