DURHAM WATER COMPANY - ENO RIVER PUMPING STATION

Pumping Station, 1905.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Scanned by Digital Durham)

Increasing demand for water in the city of Durham during the 1870s and 1880s prompted the city to enter into a contract with A.H. Howland of Boston to establish a water infrastructure/pumping system sufficient to provide pressure capable of producing 10 streams of water, each 100 feet high, from 10 fire hydrants. The city signed a 30 year contract with the company, with the proviso that equipment and installation would be approved by a city engineer.

In 1886-1887, Howland and WF Ellis, along with 75 laborers and 2 blacksmiths constructed a 100 foot dam across the Eno River at the point Nancy Rhodes Creek empties into the river. The pond formed behind the dam would hold 6 million gallons of water. A pumping station would pump water from the river up to a reservoir 8300 feet away atop Huckleberry Hill. This 3 million gallon reservoir would gravity feed the city of Durham.

The Durham Water Company was formed in November 1886 to operate and maintain the water system. Eugene Morehead was president, WW Fuller was the attorney, Howland and Ellis the managers.


Plan of the waterworks, 1887. Get a full size view from Digital Durham, by clicking here.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Scanned by Digital Durham

The water system was a repeated source of problems. Howland and the city disputed the size of the water pipe to be installed, and after numerous delays, the city agreed to accept the water system in April 1888, despite the fact that it had failed to meet the benchmarks demanded by the contract.

Citizens lodged ongoing complaints about water pressure and inconsistent service. The company went into receivership over lawsuits from the McNeal Pipe and Foundry company, who had not been paid for their work. Fires that destroyed numerous in-town businesses in 1894 and 1895 demonstrated that the company's water supply was insufficient for firefighting. Howland resigned from management of the company, and John C. Michie replaced him. Michie found muddy water containing dead fish in the reservoir, and began work to replace filtration systems and cement the reservoir bottom.

The water company went into receivership again in 1898, owing various parties $194,000. The city entered a new contract with John D. Hardy of Boston to run the water service, but conditions were little improved.


Same view as above, 1905, in a colorized postcard version.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)


Sanborn Map of the Pumping Station, 1913

After the major fire of 1914, the city purchased the entirety of the system in 1916. The city decided at that point to establish the Flat River as its primary water supply and began planning the Lake Michie dam.


Pumping station on the Eno, 1917.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The construction of the reservoir and filtration system at Hillandale Road followed soon thereafter, that same year.

The Eno pumping station and Huckleberry Hill reservoir continued to be used as a backup system for some undetermined period after the Hillandale plant was established, but eventually all production was shifted to the Lake Michie/Hillandale systems, and the old water system on the Eno was seemingly abandoned.

Interestingly, the idea of an Eno reservoir resurfaced by the 1960s - I'm not sure where the proposed location of the Eno dam was. The Eno River Association was formed in 1966 to combat the idea of damming (and damning) the Eno. They managed to beat back this proposal, and the city would eventually dam the Little River at Orange Factory instead. The Eno River State Park was formed in 1973.

One of the trails in Eno State park is the Pump Station trail, which takes you by the ruins of the old pumping station. Ruins plus a nature hike is my kind of adventure.

I scaled the hill east of the pumping station to try to recreate the historic view above. Trees prevented the same view, but the below shot is a rough approximation.


08.08.09

Further west is the stone foundation of the pumping station, visible in the historic photos above.


08.08.09

The ruins of the filter room are off in the woods to the south.


08.08.09

I didn't realize until a reader emailed me a query that the old reservoir on top of Huckleberry Hill was still around. It's hard to get to, with a tall chain-link fence/barbed wire around it. The site appears to be used for telephone equipment/cell phone tower as well. But you can see the stone steps leading to the top of the reservoir in this shot. (Which I took over my head, poking my lens through the barbed wire.)


Reservoir, off of Berini Drive, 08.29.09

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36.062461,-78.962498


36.03939,-78.958976

734-736 AND 736 1/2-738 NINTH ST.

734-738 Ninth, early 1920s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

734-736 Ninth began with a series of frame residential structures that, by the mid-1920s, had begun to be supplanted with frame commercial structures - starting with the West Durham Cafe at 738 Ninth St. By the mid 1930s, Bonardi's Fruit and Produce was located at 734 Ninth St., and the Keeton Furniture Company at 736-738 Ninth. By the early 1940s, John Dailey had taken over the Keeton Furniture Company building for his grocery store. By 1950, Dailey had constructed a masnory building that spanned the 734-738 stretch of Ninth St., Dailey's Household Appliances.


Dailey's, with the infamous Ninth St. awning being affixed to its facade, 08.23.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


Looking south, 08.23.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Dailey's remained in business until sometime between 1985 and 1990. Bernard's Formal Wear had taken over the former hardware and appliance store by 1990. During the 90s, they remodeled the front facade to its present appearance.


73-738 Ninth, 04.05.09

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36.009016,-78.921918

Mystery Photo - 08.27.09

A toughie today. Probably around 1910, and probably Main or Chapel Hill Sts. I've added a companion photograph that I could identify to the Southern Conservatory of Music post.

Note: I now believe that this negative was flipped. Here is the horizontally flipped version

730-732 NINTH STREET

Looking northeast, early 1920s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

730-732 Ninth St. was built in ~1922, and had the rare - perhaps unique - distinction in Durham of housing one business for over 80 years. McDonald's drugstore was founded by Angus McDonald, who managed the Edgemont Drugstore at 803 East Main St. and lived at 211 E. Parrish St. prior to moving to Broad St. in West Durham. He founded the McDonald's drugstore in a frame building on Ninth St. in 1916, and moved into 732 Ninth St. after in was completed in 1922.

The other half of the building, 730 Ninth, housed Mamie Osborne's dry goods store by 1926, renamed the West Durham cash store by 1935. By 1940, this would be replaced by the Ninth Street Billiard Parlor.

In 1949, John McDonald - Angus' son- would join his father in the drugstore in 732. John had been born in 1920, and worked in Erwin Mills prior to his decision to attend pharmacy school at UNC. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he returned to UNC to complete pharmacy school and join the family business.

By 1950, the space next door to McDonald's housed "Tex(tile) Remnants."


726-732 Ninth St., 08.29.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The two remained side-by-side until Textile Remnants was replaced by Southeastern Office Equipment and Supply in ~1970. By 1975, the Fields real estate empire began to expand with the movement of Fields Shoe Service from 742 Ninth to 730 Ninth. Fields Shoe Service vacated by 1990.

I distinctly remember my first visit to McDonald's in 1992 - my exploration of the old timey appearing place with the seemingly ever-present potty chair in the front window was inspired purely by curiosity, but I'll never forget the milkshake I discovered inside. Wow.

McDonald's remained in business until ~2005, and John McDonald died in 2006. The space remained vacant for two years, but in 2008, Bryan Nickell and Erin Walker-McMullen opened Ox and Rabbit - a new take on a sundry store, with a full-fledged soda fountain in operation. Carrying on the milkshake tradition in the McDonald's space is a wonderful thing to do. Architecturally, I was thrilled that they re-exposed the glass transom above the storefront that beautifully refracts light into the space.

730 Ninth has housed Dogstar Tattoo since ~1999.

Interestingly, the building's ownership is split down the middle, with the 730 bay owned by Bill Fields, and the 732 bay owned by Frances McDonald.


726-732 Ninth, 04.05.09


730-732 Ninth, 04.05.09

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36.008818,-78.921921

726-728 NINTH STREET

Ninth St., looking northeast from near Stack St., ~1920s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The building at 726-728 Ninth St. was built between 1920 and 1923 for the Bank of West Durham. By 1930, the northern half of the building, 728 Ninth, housed the DeLuxe Barber Shop. The bank folded during the depression, and by 1935, 726 was occupied by "The New Erwin Lunch" and 728 housed Martha's Beauty Shop. By the 1940s, Cheek's Dry Cleaners occupied 728.

By the 1950s, TNEL had been supplanted by Morgan's Restaurant, and Cheek's had built their own building at 720 Ninth St. The Clean-Rite dry cleaners took their place at 728.


A view southwest with the Morgan's Restaurant sign above a Long Meadow Dairy sign, 08.29.63
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Cheek's took over 728 once again by 1970. By 1975, 728 was occupied by Art Craft Framing. Between 1980 and 1985, Morgan's went out of business, and Art Craft moved to 726. Vaguely Reminiscent took their former space in 728. These two businesses have remained stalwarts on the Ninth St. business scene since that time.


726-728 Ninth St., 04.05.09

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36.008705,-78.921948

720 NINTH STREET

Sanborn map of Ninth St., 1937

720 Ninth Street was initially part of the Erwin Mills mill village, part of the housing built to the east of the mill extending east to Broad Street. A mill house (720 Ninth St.) stood on the later site of the commercial building.

By the late 1940s, the two mill houses at 714 and 720 Ninth St. had been demolished, and Cheek Dry Cleaners had been built at the corner of the alleyway across from Stack St. and Ninth St.


Sanborn Map, 1950, showing Cheek Dry Cleaners at the corner of the alley and Ninth.


Looking southeast, 1950. Cheek Dry Cleaners sits at the northern end of the former residential land. (With the smokestack at the rear.)
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


1963 view down the sidewalk on the east side of Ninth St., showing the marquee sign on the front of the building.

Cheek Dry Cleaners remained in business through the early 1970s, but closed by 1975. In 1976, the first business in the Second Era of Ninth Street opened, as new owners of the building revisioned the former dry cleaner as an eclectic bookstore - "independent" before the term, as applied to bookstores, likely existed.


Regulator Bookshop, 1980.

The Regulator is still going strong, and with the closing of the last business of the First Era of Ninth Street - McDonald's Drugstore, the bookstore is the wizened anchor of Ninth St. retail. As an unabashed bibliophile and fan of the store, I hope they survive and thrive during the challenge from the online bookstores to stick around another 33 years.


720 Ninth St., 04.05.09

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36.008571,-78.921997

716 NINTH ST

Sanborn map of Ninth St., 1937

716 Ninth Street was initially part of the Erwin Mills mill village, part of the housing built to the east of the mill extending east to Broad Street. A mill house (720 Ninth St.) stood on the later site of the commercial building.

By the late 1940s, the two mill houses at 714 and 720 Ninth St. had been demolished. Cheek's Dry Cleaners had been built at the corner of the alleyway and Ninth St., but the remainder of the land associated with the two houses remained vacant.


Sanborn Map, 1950, showing Cheek's Dry Cleaners and vacant land between it and O'Briant's restaurant.


Looking southeast, 1950. A vacant lot is visible to the south of Cheek's Dry Cleaners (With billboards facing north, just to the north of O'Briant's)
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

716 Ninth St. appears to have been built between 1965 and 1968, initially housing the "Keypunch Institute of Durham" and "Public Finance Corp No. 1." I don't know that I've ever found two business names that were both so very odd and boring-sounding at the same time.

By 1975, the building housed Carolina Copy Center and Office Supply, which remained at the location into the 1990s.

Someone else can probably recount better than me the various businesses that have been here since the mid 1990s. Blue Corn opened here sometime in the late 1990s, I think. They've since taken over the former bookstore space. I can't remember whether the northernmost bay is where High Strung, and before that, the last incarnation of Poindexter's was - ?


716 Ninth St., 04.05.09

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36.008442,-78.921955

Mystery Photo - 08.20.09

"Highway Patrol Inspecting Cars, 03.03.62"
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

714 NINTH STREET

Sanborn map of Ninth St., 1937

714 Ninth Street was initially part of the Erwin Mills mill village, part of the housing built to the east of the mill extending east to Broad Street. A mill house stood on the later site of the commercial building.

By the late 1940s, the two mill houses at 714 and 720 Ninth St. had been demolished. Cheek's Dry Cleaners had been built at the corner of the alleyway and Ninth St., but the remainder of the land associated with the two houses remained vacant.


Sanborn Map, 1950, showing Cheek's Dry Cleaners and vacant land between it and O'Briant's restaurant.


Looking southeast, 1950. A vacant lot is visible to the south of Cheek's Dry Cleaners (With billboards facing north, just to the north of O'Briant's)
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Couch Furniture built a store on the southern portion of this former residential land between 1965 and 1968. The original Couch Furniture Company had been located on West Chapel Hill St. at Five Points prior to moving to Ninth Street when their building was torn down by urban renewal for the First Federal (now Southbank) building.

When Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, several riots broke out in Durham. The Couch furniture store was one building set on fire.


Firefighters on Ninth St. attempting to extinguish the fire. The 1960s era West Durham post office is in the background.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The building was repaired/rebuilt immediately thereafter.


A small portion of the building, looking northest, 12.18.69.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The story goes that the odd building, with a sunken first floor and suites upstairs and to the rear of the building, was designed with no frontage on Ninth St. as a response to the firebombing.

In the early 2000's, Orvis moved out of the below grade first floor, and Blue Coffee moved in - a new floor was placed at ground level, and the sunken first floor became a basement underneath the coffeshop. A couple of years ago, the coffeeshop became Bean Traders.



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36.008281,-78.921977

712 NINTH STREET

Looking northeast, 12.18.69
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The only frame building remaining on Ninth St., the store at 712 Ninth St. appears to have been built around 1930 as Paul's Place restaurant. By the 1950s, the business had become O'Briant's Restaurant.


O'Briant's, looking south, 12.18.69.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

By the late 1970s, the Navajo Trading Post had supplanted O'Briant's restaurant.


Looking east, 1980

The space was vacant in 1990, but by the late 1990s had become Native Threads, a clothing store well-known for large metal anthropomorphic frogs at the entryway. In 2000-2001, plans were afoot to remove the former restaurant/clothing store for a taller replacement structure.


712 Ninth St., 01.25.01
(Courtesy The Herald Sun)


2001 photograph of the model by Ellen Cassilly Architect.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

For whatever reason, that plan seems to have been put on long-term or permanent hold, and I can't say that I'm sad about that. However small and un-dense the structure may be, it adds a quaint interruption to the masonry storefronts and a reminder of the early 20th century transition of wood frame commercial and residential structures to the more substantial masonry structures. So do you freeze development, when the proposed development is appropriate in scale and complements the streetscape? No, but I certainly hope the various surface parking lots on 9th St. begin to see infill before structures like this are replaced.


712 Ninth St., looking east 04.05.09

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36.008162,-78.922014

706 NINTH STREET

706 Ninth Street, 12.21.69
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

706 NInth Street was built in ~1936; it initially housed the Andrews Furniture Company, followed by the West Durham Furniture Company. By the early 1960s, the building appears to have been vacant, but was soon reoccupied by Custom Interiors and the Neil Upholstery Co. In 1971, Godwin Dance School became a tenant


706 Ninth St., 1980

It was followed by Sandy's School of Dance in the late 1980s.

Sometime around ?1993, Francesca's Dessert Cafe moved around the corner from Perry St. and has been here ever since, becoming one of Ninth Street's enduring institutions.


706 Ninth Street, 04.05.09

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36.008031,-78.921929

771 NINTH STREET / 2001 HILLSBOROUGH ROAD

Hillsborough Road and Ninth St., looking west, ~1958
(Courtesy Barry Norman)

The service station at 771 9th St. / 2001 Hillsborough Road was initially the Council Service Station, built during the early 1930s. The building became Moore's Texaco, and, by the late 1950s, the McAfee Service Station. It then had a stint as a drive-in shoe shop, and idea whose time has surely come again.


Corner of Hillsborough Road and Ninth St., looking southwest, 09.27.62
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

I'm not sure when the station was torn down. The land on which it sat became an island with the direct connection of Hilslborough Road to West Markham in the early 1980s. The former corner of Hillsborough and 9th became the corner of Safeway and Ninth. The site hosts the Old West Durham neighborhood sign and grass/landscaping. It seems unfortunate that it managed to lose its sidewalk along with the gas station. Perhaps as people discuss closing Safeway, the former Hillsborough Road, making the crossing of Hillsborough on the north side of Ninth St. a bit less forbidding will be a priority.


Former southwest corner of Hillsborough and Ninth, looking southwest, 08.08.09

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36.010268,-78.922358