Gas Station

The intersection of W. Club, Buchanan Blvd., and Guess Road used to be a bit messier (although undoubtedly quieter) than it is today. I'm not sure why it evolved in this way, since Buchanan used to be called Guess Road, but by the mid 20th century, Buchanan continued straight north of West Club, while Guess curved across W. Club to meet Watts St...

(Still frame from H. Lee Waters' 1940 film of Durham) (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection) The Pate-Williams service station was built in the late 1930s on the southwest corner of Lamond Ave. and N. Gregson St. By 1950. the station was known as Godwin Sinclair. (Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper) By 1960, it was known as...

1123 Broad, 1930s. (Courtesy Joyce Tipton) By the mid-1920s, the southwest corner of Broad and West Club had become a Standard Oil Co. Service Station. By 1941, this had become Dodson's filling station, which became an Esso station by 1948, and Dodson and Faucette Exxon by the 1960s. Looking northwest, 1950s. The Esso service station is visible...

"Before and After Series: Raleigh Durham Highway 70, 01.02.53" (Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper) Update: Here is another, later photo of the same intersection: 1962. (Courtesy Wayne Henderson)

Murdock Building, 1929, during a national tree-sitting contest, during which Arnold Taylor sat in the tree for 6-7 weeks. Note the trolley tracks in Broad Street. (Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Looking northwest from W. Markham and Ninth, ~1950 (Courtesy Barry Norman) The West Gulf Sales and Service Station was built in the late 1940s on what had previously been vacant land. Looking northwest from Hillsborough Road near Ninth, 02.20.51. (Courtesy Herald-Sun) I'm not sure when the service station shut down. It was converted to a...

Per the Old West Durham website, Reuben Hibberd, a local florist and lay preacher, began holding cottage prayer meetings and "Sunday Sings" in West Durham homes in 1893. Hibberd would often bring a small portable organ with him. As interest increased in Hibberd's meetings, the Sunday School was moved to a grandstand in the nearby Erwin Ballfield...

Shell Filling Station, 12.07.56 (Herald-Sun) Looking northeast from West Chapel Hill St. at the approximate location of Yates Ave. The line of the street would have extended towards the billboard from West Chapel Hill. 02.02.08. (G. Kueber)

Looking southwest, May 1938. (Courtesy Duke Forest Collection) Located directly across Erwin Road from Southside School, Dillehay's garage was likely built ~1930, and was demolished in 1950, during the construction of the Graduate Men's Dormitory in 1950. It is currently part of a very large swath of surface parking.

The 1927 comprehensive plan described the area north of Knox Street between Duke St. on the west and Roxboro Road on the east as comprised of "a great variety of scenery - some of the finest in Durham - rugged bluffs and deep ravines, as well as smooth meadows. It is so accessible and varied in its scenery and so well adapted to park purposes that...