ED Turns 3

It's a bit hard to believe that Endangered Durham turns 3 years old today. I didn't really have a concept that it would last more than a few months at the outset, but ~910 posts, 4742 photos, seemingly several bajillion words, and more visitors than I ever could possibly have conceived of being interested in this stuff - and it's still here.

Thanks to everyone for visiting, and for your many kind emails about the site over the past 3 years - my favorite thing about doing this is the opportunity to hear your stories about what a place means to you, which greatly enriches the sometimes meager stories I can tell. Thanks also to the many people who have trusted me with family photos, allowed me to haunt their archives, or sent me their information. I am very, very appreciative.

BLACKNALL MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN

Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian, 1924

The Blacknall family, both Richard, Jr., who, with his father, Dr. Richard Blacknall, had organized Blacknall's Drugstore and his brother James, who was the first sheriff of Durham County, started the Presbyterian congregation in West Durham in 1892 as a mission, based from First Presbyterian downtown. The elder Blacknall had been instrumental in the formation of First Presbyterian after he moved to Durham in 1860; after his family settled in West Durham, they pursued the establishment of a congregation there as well.

West Durham Presbyterian Church was constructed on 13th Street, then called Presbyterian Street, in 1905. In 1916, the church renamed itself Blacknall Memorial Church in honor of Richard Sr., who had died in 1881, and Richard (Dick) Jr., who died in 1900.

A new sanctuary was built at the corner of Perry and 8th Streets in 1923. During the period of streetcars serving West Durham, the streetcar would travel from 9th to Broad Streets via Perry (Hillsboro, at that time) before making a left onto Broad to serve Watts Hospital/Club Blvd.


Aerial view of the intersection of Perry and 8th (Iredell Sts.), ~1950.

An educational building was added to the structure in 1964. The church planned to demolish its original sanctuary in 1970 to build a new church; however, per the historic inventory: "plans were halted when a study demonstrated that a new building would not be as sturdy [or] accommodate as many people." Someone actually did a cost-benefit study before proceeding with demolition in Durham?? My kudos.

Funds were instead allocated towards renovation of the existing sanctuary.

The church has been added onto several times since - in 1990, and in 2008. It remains an active congregation.


Blacknall Memorial, 04.04.09.

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36.00785,-78.921233

Mystery Photo - 07.30.09

Shell Filling Station, 12.07.56

ST. JOSEPH'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

St. Joseph's, 1920s.
(From "From Paternalism to Protest" by Tiffany Franke.)

St. Joseph's Episcopal Church was established as the outgrowth of an Episcopal mission in West Durham established in 1894 -which would become the second Episcopal parish in Durham, the first being associated with St. Philip's downtown.

William Erwin taught Sunday School for the Episcopal mission for many years on the second floor of the company store after the establishment of the parish, eventually adding Friday night services to the repertoire. Along with his brothers and sisters, he donated funds for the construction of St. Joseph's Episcopal Church at 8th and West Main St. in 1908. The Gothic Revival building was constructed of cut granite, and Erwin and his brothers and sisters dedicated the church to their parents, Joseph and Elvira Erwin.


(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The congregation remains active today. Per the church website:

"After 50 years as a parish (or self-supporting congregation), St. Joseph’s became a mission again in 2006, when the church split over issues of human sexuality. With the support of Bishop Michael Curry, St. Joseph’s called a new vicar, Rhonda Lee, in Advent of that year. Since 2006, the church has been resurrected as a small congregation that is growing in Spirit and in numbers, where laypersons play a vital role in the life of the church. [...] In May 2008, the church celebrated its centennial and launched its second hundred years..."


St. Joseph's Episcopal, 06.27.09

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36.006704,-78.921334

WEST DURHAM MILL VILLAGE (EAST) / SOUTHERN FIRE INSURANCE CO.

Aerial showing the mill village houses north of Perry St., between Broad and 8th (Iredell), 1940s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Mill houses associated with the Erwin Cotton Mills were constructed in a centrifugal pattern around the mill from the 1890s-1910s. I've profiled those extending west from the mill on 13th, 14th, and 15th streets here. Several rows of houses extended east from the mill as well; as the commercial district developed along 9th and Perry Streets, a section of these houses was separated from the mill by the business district. These extended from 8th St. (Iredell) to Broad St. at the Trinity College campus.

As Erwin Mills began to divest themselves of houses in the 1940s, these likely presented a greater value to the private market, due to their location near Broad and Main, than many of the other mill houses. It appears that the Southern Fire Insurance Company thought so, at least, as they purchased 5 or more of these houses by 1951 to construct their new office building. They had previously been located in the Geer Building downtown.


Rendering of the new office building as seen from Broad and Perry, ~1950.


Looking southwest from Broad St. at the building under construction, 02.22.51
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Completed office building, looking west-northwest from Broad St., 1951.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Completed office building, looking northwest from Broad and Perry Sts., 1951.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

I'm not sure when the Southern Fire Insurance Co. went out of business here. By the early 1990s, the building belonged to Duke, and housed their human resources, which it still houses today.


Looking northwest from Broad and Perry, 4.12.09

This building and those to the north are the subject of the longstanding rumor/plan that Whole Foods will demolish the lot of them and build a new SuperSustainableWholeFoods on the site. We'll see - I don't know if the macroeconomic climate has made Ye Olde A&P seem any more appropriately sized.

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36.007865,-78.920291

ERWIN BALLFIELD / A&P / PHILLIPS 66 / WHOLE FOODS / MAD HATTER / ETC.

Bird's Eye view looking west the Erwin Field at Broad and West Main Streets, ~1940.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

One of the early community assets created by the Erwin Cotton Mills and its principal, William Erwin, was the Erwin field, which hosted the Erwin Auditorium baseball team.


Looking east from 8th (Iredell) and West Main Sts., May 1938, showing a partial view of the batting cage.
(Courtesy Duke Forest Collection)


Looking northeast from 8th (Iredell) and West Main Sts., May 1938, showing a view of the batting cage.
(Courtesy Duke Forest Collection)

Below, images of the baseball team from the mid 20th century at the field.


(Courtesy Old West Durham Neighborhood Assoc.)


(Courtesy Old West Durham Neighborhood Assoc.)

In 1953, Erwin Mills converted the former Monkey Bottom lowlands to the south into a new Erwin Field; the field at West Main and Broad Streets was soon converted into a commercial development - a new A&P supermarket set back from Broad Street with what was, at the time, a massive surface parking lot in front, and a Phillips 66 gas station at the corner of Broad and West Main Sts.

Tops Drive-In was added to the south end of the A&P sometime in the 1950s. Per information sent to me by Bob Chapman:

"Tops was [one branch of] an 18 restaurant chain with all other branches in northern Va and the DC area including one on Wisconsin Av. in Bethesda. Their signature sandwiches were the Sir Loiner, the Jim Dandy, the Maverick and a tasty 'Hawaiian' ham sandwich with pineapple and secret sauce. Great onion rings and hot fudge sundaes. Juke box. In the early 70s the chain merged into Gino's (named after Gino Marchetti of the Baltimore Colts) They sold inedible hamburgers and KFC until they went under, then the location morphed again into a KFC store."


Tops Menu.
(Courtesy Sherry Handfinger)

He notes that there was an establishment in the basement below Tops, named the "Student Prince Hofbrau Haus."


Looking southwest from Perry and Broad Sts., 08.27.58
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Looking south on Broad Street from near Perry St., 08.27.58. The gas station is visible in the background.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

In the 1950s and 1960s, high school and college students would make a drive-in circuit that, in this little area, included Top's and the Blue Light.

The character of this corner changed considerably with the connection of Broad Street and Swift Avenue in 1964; neither crossed the tracks prior to that point, and Swift Avenue met the tracks at a point farther east than where Broad St. did


Looking south on Broad Street near its intersection with West Main St., 02.12.64.


Looking northwest from where Swift Avenue met West Pettigrew St., 02.12.64.

Below, the Phillips 66 station and "Ginos" looking west, after the connection of Broad and Swift, 03.10.70



By the time I got to Durham in 1988, I remember the gas station, which I believe was closed, the KFC, and the Hofbrau - although I never went in the latter. The A&P had one of those 1970s-era A&P signs on the facade, and it was definitely on the decline. By 1993, it had become a Sav-A-Center.

Sometime in the mid-90s, when I left Durham, before I came back in 1997, Wellspring grocery moved from their location at 9th and Hillsborough (which was later, until recently, George's Garage) to the Sav-A-Center, which involved a significant renovation of the entire building. It appears that the strip was expanded at that time as well.


Former A&P/Sav-A-Center under renovation, mid-1990s.

The former Phillips 66 gas station was also renovated to become a restaurant - Owen's Broad Street Diner, run by the 501 Diner folks in Chapel Hill. Ben and Jerry's took over the southeast corner, around where Top's was, and a pizza place moved in to the west of them - can't remember the name, but they had some insane list of toppings that included rattlesnake, jellybeans - you name it.

Since then, Wellspring has become Whole Foods, the pizza place became Cinelli's, the bike store that is now The Bicycle Chain moved in at the north end of the complex, and a local video store, Avid Video, moved in next to Ben and Jerry's. The Broad Street Diner closed (which depressed me - I always enjoyed it) and was replaced by the Mad Hatter, which moved from its prior location in Erwin Square. (They renovated the station extensively - enclosing the south 'triangle' awning.)

Primarily because of Whole Foods, this 1950s-era shopping center remains very busy, and a hub for commercial activity for a wide geographic area of Durham.


Looking southwest, 04.12.09

The former batting cage and Phillips 66 station, now the Mad Hatter Bake Shop:


Looking north, 07.19.09

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36.006885,-78.920524

Mystery Photo - 07.22.09

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

ANGIER-SATTERFIELD-KREPS HOUSE / CENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES

Rear of the Angier-Satterfield House, 1920s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The house at West Pettigrew Street was built by John Angier, president of the Cary Lumber Company, located ~ 2 blocks east of his house in the early 1880s, making it among the earliest of the large houses constructed along this stretch of West Pettigrew St. Angier married Lyla Duke, a niece of Washington Duke, in 1880, and built the house soon thereafter.

(The Center for Documentary Studies gives an alternative version of the house's origin, stating that Ben Duke purchased a pre-existing farmhouse that had been the property of the Watkins family, renovating and giving the house to his cousin Lyla Duke and her husband John Angier in 1898.)

Lyla Duke Angier was the first president of the Women's Auxiliary of the Salvation Army, organizer of the Mother's Army and Navy Club during World War II, secretary of the Durham Red Cross, and first woman elected to the board an board of trustees of Duke Memorial Methodist.

After John Angier's death, Lyla Angier lived in the house until she moved to North Buchanan Blvd. in 1910, giving the house to her daughter Carlotta Angier. Carlotta married Henry Satterfield, who became president of the Cary Lumber Company after the death of John Angier.


Angier-Satterfield house in the foreground, looking northwest, 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Carlotta Angier Satterfield was still living in the house by the mid-1950s. During the 1960s, Duke University purchased the house and renovated it for occupancy by the dean of the Women's College (now East Campus) Margaret Ball.

By the 1970s, the home was occupied by Juanita and Clifton Kreps. Juanita Kreps taught at myriad institutions, including Duke, before becoming US Secretary of Commerce from January 23, 1977 until October 31, 1979 under President Jimmy Carter - the first woman to hold the position. While at Duke, she became the first female vice president of the university, and later became the first female board member of the New York Stock Exchange.


Angier-Satterfield House, 1980.

On March 8, 1990. Duke moved the house east, across Powe St. for use by Duke Center for Documentary Studies. Hillcrest expanded to the east, onto the land occupied by the Angier-Satterfield house.

The was then renovated extensively for the Center for Documentary Studies. They refer to the house as the Lyndhurst House, after the Lyndhurst Foundation of Chattanooga, which gave the original endowment to found the CDS in 1989.

Additions to the southeast in 1997 greatly expanded the footprint of the Center. The Center is a great asset for Duke and Durham; it's wonderful to see an adaptive reuse of a structure such as this, particularly one which puts Duke Students in a venue located on an actual city street.


Angier-Satterfield House, 04.24.09

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36.004186,-78.91811

Duke to demolish "Duke Mill Village" ??

As seems to be standard operating procedure for Duke, a confusing item in the list of site plan submittals to the planning department is the only public communication that they may have restarted their central campus plans - but without the previously agreement to allow the public to move mill structures that they plan to demolish.

I wrote about Duke's plans to demolish multiple mill structures on Central Campus as part of their ever-ambitious expansion plans ~ 2 1/2 years ago. At the time, a compromise was hammered out with Duke which would allow the public to move mill houses with a $5000 per house defrayment of moving costs coming from Duke.

Duke's shift away from Central Campus as the focus of their Big Plan, combined with the recent economic unpleasantness, seemed to shift Duke's attention away from the mill house demolitions for awhile.

But things appear to have restarted - a news item out of Duke recently noted that they planned to close their "Uncle Harry's" store and reopen it in a nearby older grocery structure, which many have presumed would be the former Garden Street Grocery - exciting adaptive reuse, should it happen.

The random find in the DRB pile, though, seems to indicate that Duke plans to do quite a bit more:

"Application # D0900172 (DRB)

Application Type Simplified Site Plan Small
Application Date 07/13/2009
Project Name Duke Mill Village

Physical Address

1919 YEARBY Avenue
1913 YEARBY Avenue
1921 YEARBY Avenue
1907 ERWIN Road

Project Description: 
Removal of 13 structures (11,350 square feet) on 3.24 acres and adding 8200 SF of gross floor area and reducing impervious area.
 
Susan Hatchell Susan Hatchell Landscape Architecture, PLLC Applicant
DUKE UNIVERSITY  Registered Owner"

So what is it that Duke actually plans to do, and whither their promise to provide assistance for movement of mill houses they intend to demolish? What do these addresses correspond to, since they seem mismatched with actual structures? Officials are mum in response to inquires. The only clue is a new chain-link fence surrounding the structures at Yearby and Anderson.

It's baffling to me why Duke consistently chooses the as-clandestine-as-possible road for its plans, when they always eventually come to light - but with a much more annoyed community, who feels that Duke has once again tried to sneak around. The incentive to try to do exactly what they want in the way that they want must be much greater than the incentive to create a good relationship with the community. I recognize that there is an inherent tension between universities and their surrounding communities that requires compromise by both parties. Duke just seems consistently resistant to that compromise - allowing the public to move historic structures, and paying them the money you would have spent on demolition to defray moving costs isn't exactly a hard line by the community. Further, Duke seems resistant to communication in general, which generates further distrust.

Update:
Duke officials now state that they are trying to demonstrate to the city that the Garden Street Grocery is structurally unstable, so that they can demolish the building and build a new "Uncle Harry's" Grocery that in some way resembles the original store.

HILLCREST

Hillcrest, 1926.

William A. Erwin came to Durham in 1892 from Burke County where he had grown up on the family plantation of Bellevue near Morganton as part of the Holt textile family. He was recruited from the EM Holt Plaid Mills in Burlington, where he had been secretary-treasurer for 10 years by BN Duke and George Watts to run their new cotton mill venture. The story goes that Watts and Duke allowed the mill to be named after Erwin such that his name would be associated with its success or failure. Thus the Erwin Cotton Mills was born.

Erwin's residence upon his arrival in Durham is unclear. By 1902, he was living on Blacknall St., i.e. Alexander Avenue, but is often the case with early city directories, the address is not noted. But yes, William Erwin lived on Central Campus.

Erwin set out from the start to build a self-contained/sufficient community in West Durham, a community over which he kept a very watchful eye as landlord, employer, and neighbor. Oral histories recount stories of Erwin riding his bicycle around the neighborhood, keeping an eye on people and places. Others tell stories of playing at Erwin's house with his daughter, enjoying the masssive scuppernong vine in the backyard. Erwin was, per multiple histories, a charming, congenial personality in the neighborhood - seemingly possessed of a comprehensive memory of people's names, and referred to affectionately as 'Pa' Erwin. (Although some may have underlain this with an edge, given Erwin's need to control affairs in West Durham.)

Erwin was the last of the elite group (including his brother Jessie Harper Erwin and brother-in-law EK Powe) to move to West Pettigrew St., constructing his neoclassical house in 1907, which he named Hillcrest.

Erwin was a "devout Episcopalian" per Robert Durden, and taught Sunday School for many years on the second floor of the company store after helping establish the Episcopal parish in West Durham in 1894. In 1908 , he donated the funds for the construction of St. Joseph's Episcopal Church at 8th and West Main St.

Erwin died of cancer in 1932.


Looking northwest at the side and rear of Hillcrest, ~1950
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

In 1951, the house was transformed into a nursing home, which also went by the name Hillcrest. Modern annex buildings were constructed to the west and south of the former Erwin mansion.


Hillcrest Nursing Home, 1960s
(Courtesy John Schelp)

In 1975, the nursing home tore down the former Erwin home to expand its facility with a single-story complex. Now named Hillcrest Convalescent Center, it remains in business at the same location.


Hillcrest Facility, 04.24.09

It's unfortunate that this sprawling complex couldn't manage to retain the original Hillcrest home. I can understand that it wouldn't support all of the necessary facilities for modern nursing facility, but it would certainly imbue the place with more character if the entry to the modern wings was been through the original Erwin homeplace.

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36.00474,-78.919424

MONKEY BOTTOM / SECOND ERWIN FIELD

(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

A recurring theme on this website, and in any study of the geography of place, is the view of how the topography of the land - ridgelines, lowlands, plateaus, streams, etc. - shaped early patterns of settlement, transportation corridors, and economic/class segregation. Although our ability to massively reshape the landscape - by scorched-earth urban renewal, or actual earth moving - has removed much evidence of these early patterns, others remain.

Longtime readers will not be surprised to hear me reiterate the pattern of economic stratification that characterized the landscape of early Durham - segregation by elevation. Ridgelines - with their easier building sites, proximity to transportation corridors (roads, then trolleys, then roads,) relative safety from flooding, and - in the miasmatic era - distance from 'bad air' - were the neighborhoods of choice. Those without choice lived in the lowlands - the rutted, difficult building sites, the floodplains, etc.

One of those areas existed along the Sand(y) Creek branch that originated quite near West Pettigrew St./NC Railroad Corridor - Durham's 'ultimate ridgeline'. This spring had served as a watering hole for travelers along the Raleigh to Hillsborough Road, and around it the permissive stopover of Pinhook.

After the clearance of Pinhook in the development of Erwin Mills, the creek originated in Erwin Park, to the east of the Erwin Auditorium, before dropping steeply to the southeast into a low-lying area south of Erwin Road - traveling more generally southwest until it eventually joined New Hope Creek.

As the 1910 map above makes clear, this was not an area of immediate development by the mill as part of its mill village, although it appears that building lots had been laid out by that time.

Like many such 'bottoms', modest houses, shacks and shanties were built by impoverished people on the undesired land. You can get a sense of these from a post I did awhile ago about one of several areas of Durham called, simply, the Bottoms - this one along a branch of Third Fork Creek between Willard and Carrington Sts.

How "Monkey Bottom" got the name that has caused it to persist in the collective memory of Durham as the others have not is a mystery. The most often repeated origin story relates the name to the zoo that existed at Erwin Park early in the 20th century, which included monkeys. Some versions of this story involve the escape of monkeys into the wooded bottomlands, where they were either captured or continued to live for some period of time....

Most of this is probably apocryphal, although the slope of the park down into the bottomlands and the existence of the zoo may have tied the two together. Other theories abound.

Clearly, though, the people living in Monkey Bottom were looked down upon by at least some members of the West Durham community. I'll quote from Jean Anderson's description:

"[A] stigma did attach ... to those who lived in the hollow called Monkey Bottom. Although the mill houses on Case and Oregon Streets adjoined Monkey Bottom, they were not in it. It was a kind of no-man's-land with scattered shacks of human outcasts or hangers-on of the mill society. Erwin and his subordinates saw to it that morality prevailed in the villages - transgression meant expulsion - and the unfortunates who could not abide by the rules had to fend for themselves and live as they could. It was these people who lived in Monkey Bottom. A villager summed up the attitude of the workers when she said, 'A person don't ever know what they'll be brought to in this life, but I sure hope I'll never have to move to Monkey Bottom.'"

A strong description, to be sure, sourced primarily from oral histories and correspondence; while I have no doubt that many of the people in West Durham looked down on the denizens of Monkey Bottom in this fashion, I rather doubt that all folks living there could be described as "human outcasts or hangers-on." More likely, they were a mixture of folks who primarily had in common that they were abjectly poor enough not to be able to live somewhere else. Given that many or most of the people working at Erwin Mill and living in the mill village had been quite poor, and had housing, electricity, and the like through the provision of same by the mill, I am sure there was a desperate fear of becoming similarly impoverished.

Monkey Bottom appears to have disappeared in its original form by the 1950s.


1950s aerial showing trees, open land and stream between Case and Oregon Streets.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

In 1953, Erwin Mill transferred ownership of the land to the City of Durham to develop a park and field, which would serve as a replacement for the original Erwin Field at Broad and West Main Street. The original was soon to be developed as a supermarket and gas station. Erwin Field was thus relocated to Monkey Bottom. I suppose that the stream was culverted under the field.


An aerial showing part of the new Erwin Field, 1959 - you can see houses along Case and Oregon Streets on either side, and Erwin Road near the top of the photo.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The insertion of the Durham Freeway through this landscape in the 1970s - and its extension in the 1990s, further separated Monkey Bottom and Erwin Field from West Durham, as the portion of the mill village from Oregon St. west was also destroyed by Duke. Only the few houses along Case and Hull Streets remain(ed) as context.

Erwin Field remained one of Durham most isolated and unknown in-town parks after the arrival of the freeway, although it was well-used by various club teams. Duke began to covet the land at least by 1995 - that was the year that they got Burlington Industries, the successor to Erwin Mills, to transfer their reversionary right to the land (put in place in 1953 to say that, should the city ever stop using the field as a recreational facility, it would revert to Erwin Mill ownership) to Duke.

Several attempts to acquire the field from the city failed, including one in 2003 that brought out strong opposition from the community. I hadn't even realized that this had been resuscitated of late until researching this post, at which point I realized that, not only had it been resuscitated, but consummated. The city sold Erwin Field to Duke (see parcel record) on 01/30/09 for $700,000. Did I somehow just completely miss this?

Although some 'play nice' language in the agreement means that Duke probably won't kick anyone out immediately, I doubt their long term plans call for a park for the Durham community. It's rather hard for me to fathom Duke's ongoing appetite for land given their immense holdings, and low-rise, low-density development, but I guess that's just a university for you. Someday soon our cities may consist of nothing but university land and urban church parking lots.

There are a smattering of houses left on Hull Street, and a single house left on Case St. With the Duke School for Children, located on the north side of Case St. since the 1980s, having decamped for the Forest, it's clear that this spot is set for transition. I suppose the macroeconomic climate might stymie Duke's building plans temporarily, although not their ability to pay $700,000 for a once-public park, evidently.


The former Erwin Field at Case and Hull Sts., looking northwest, 07.07.09.


The single house remaining on Case St., looking southwest from Case and Hull, 07.07.09


Looking south down the former southern end of Case St., further into the bottom, 07.07.09.


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36.003241,-78.923909

Mystery Photo - 07.16.09

The ID information with this photo surmised that in was located on Lawndale Ave, based on the location of Bryants Little Laundry in a city directory, presumably from the late 1960s when this was taken. But the buildings in the background don't appear to resemble anything ever located at Lawndale and Hillsborough.

WEST DURHAM GRADED SCHOOL NO. 1

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The West Durham Graded School No. 1 was built at the corner of Swift Avenue and Caswell Place between 1898 and 1900, resulting from the consolidation of Northside School, located north of the railroad tracks and Piney Grove School, located on Swift Avenue.


(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

The larger, masonry West Durham Graded School No. 2 would be established on 9th Street in 1915. The school was defunct soon after the opening of West Durham Graded School #2 in 1915. It was demolished by 1937, likely in the mid 1920s, by which time Southside School , built in 1922, had opened. The former school site was redeveloped as the Alastair apartment complex in the 1950s.


Looking west, 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Former site of the school, looking southwest, 07.07.09

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36.002997,-78.921616

EK POWE HOUSE - 1503 WEST PETTIGREW

Edgar Knox Powe built his house at Swift and West Pettigrew Streets in the late 1890s; prior to his arrival in Durham, he had been an executive with the Altamahaw Cotton Mills in Alamance County. He was brought to Durham by William Erwin as general manager of Erwin Cotton Mills. I'm unsure as to whether his marriage to William and Jessie Erwin's sister, Claudia, occurred before or after his arrival in Durham.


(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

Powe was a longtime member of the Durham County Board of Education, the City-County Board of Health, and active in St. Philip's Church. When he died in 1929, the West Durham School on 9th Street was named EK Powe School in his honor.

The Powe property extended south to Caswell Place, and included a barn, fruit trees and vineyards. The Powe's daughter and her husband built a house in the backyard of the property at some point.

After Mrs. Powe died in 1943, the house was sold to Dr. and Mrs. BW Roberts.


1950s Bird's Eye View of West Pettigrew St., looking northwest. Arrow shows the EK Powe house.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


1959 aerial - the EK Powe house is at the lower right.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection

They lived in the house until the early 1970s. It then became a well-worn apartment house for students, the house became affectionately known as "Monkey Top" - derived from the older name "Monkey Bottom" for the area around Case St. and Erwin Field. (The EK Powe house had never been called Monkey Top prior to this.) As is often the case with history, the derivation becomes conflated with the explanation, and occasionally folks will erroneously note that the name "Monkey Bottom" was formed from "Monkey Top."


Overgrown EK Powe House, 1980.

In the 1980s, a developer from Charlotte named Brian South bought the Jessie Harper Erwin House, Sunnyside, next door and the EK Powe house; he moved Sunnyside to the east and turned it to face the EK Powe House (south). He renovated both houses as commercial spaces. South also renovated the former Public Library on East Main Street in ~1984 and (unconfirmed) the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant on West Main before disappearing from the scene.

The two houses remain commercial office space today.


Former EK Powe House, looking southeast, 04.05.09

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36.004717,-78.920461