| Open Durham

121 East Main Street - Paris / Uptown Theaters

Looking west-northwest from Church St. and East Main St., 1895. (Courtesy Duke Archives) The 100 block of East Main St. was part of the central core of downtown that developed during the 1880s, with early frame structures transitioning to brick by 1890. Clothing and drugstores were common tenants, and another of Durham's early newspapers, the...

128-130 East Chapel Hill St. - Southern Fire Insurance Co.

128-130 is the taller (5 story) structure to the right of Bagwell Plumbing and Heating (132 ECH.) It served as the headquarters for the Southern Fire Insurance Company until they moved to West Durham in 1951. It then was absorbed into Belk-Leggett Department Store. In the early 1960s, the facade was covered. From Roney St., looking south, mid 1960s...

2005 Preservation Durham Old Durham Tour

RECENTLY RENOVATED DOWNTOWN SPACES In the guidebook for HPSD's 2001 tour, "Living it Up Downtown," Tom Miller wrote, "It is not premature to declare that downtown Durham has been saved." That year, the Baldwin building was an empty shell - today, it is filled with a dozen loft apartments. The previous year, the HPSD tour had explored Durham's...

107-109 West Main Street / Baldwin's

Just to the left of the structure at 115 West Main was the very similar 109-111 West Main, a Queen Anne structure built in 1893. Looking east-southeast from Main St. ~ 1913 (From "Images of America: Durham" by Stephen Massengill) And a view west from Mangum St., 1905, doesn't show much of the building, but the small tower is clearly visible....

Old Durham Laundry

--- (Courtesy Duke Archives) The buildings along the west side of the 200 block of North Church St. are a very-well preserved block of early 20th century structures. The Hicks building, on the northwest corner of North Church and East Parrish, and its immediate 3 neighbors to the north were constructed around 1910. 209-211 North Church, at the...

322-324 West Main / 120 East Chapel Hill - United Department Store / Belk-Leggett

Looking southeast on East Chapel Hill St. from around the location of the Penny Furniture building, 1910s-1920. (Courtesy Durham County Library) 322-324 was the home to Belk-Leggett from 19 to 19 United Dollar Stores Company was started by Eli and Jenny Nachamson after they moved from Kinston to Durham in 1921 - the Nachamson family had evidently...

Preservation Durham Endangered Properties Program - Available for Purchase

Preservation Durham is a 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to protect Durham’s historic assets through Action, Advocacy, and Education. As a part of this mission, PD created the Endangered Properties Program which, to date, has saved over dozens of structures from demolition. Many of the houses for sale through PD's Endangered Properties...

114 South Mangum Street

Durham's often-noted rough-around-the-edges reputation is nothing new - in the mid-to-late 19th century, the town was well known for its multiple saloons - the place where students from the University of North Carolina would come for some less-than-genteel entertainment (many of them would disembark from the train in Durham and head onward to...

117 East Main Street

Looking northeast from the south side of the 100 block of East Main St., 1890s. (Courtesy Duke Archives) The first brick structures on the north side of the 100 block of East Main St. were built during late 1880s-early 1890s, including the midblock structures of 113-119 E. Main. 119 East Main notably included the Rawls Store, which later became the Rawls-Knight department store.

119 East Main Street

Looking northeast from the south side of the 100 block of East Main St., 1890s. (Courtesy Duke Archives) The first brick structures on the north side of the 100 block of East Main St. were built during late 1880s-early 1890s, including the midblock structures of 113-119 E. Main. 119 East Main notably included the Rawls Store, which later became the...