Mystery Photo - 02.25.10

Probably from the late 1920s...

410 WATTS STREET / TRINITY PARK

410 Watts St. ~1950.
(Courtesy Adrienne Baroff)

The house at 410 Watts St. appears to have been built in ~1906-7 by James B Warren, who is listed variably as a "manager" at 107 1/2 East Main St. later as vice president of Merchants Bank with an office at the same address. There are various JB Warrens in the city directories prior to that date who are listed only as living in West Durham or Caswell Hill/Heights with some association with the Banner Warehouse or the Globe Warehouse. Warren later served as both a county commissioner and city councilman.

Warren appears to have lived in the house until his death in 1913, after which it was occupied by William Patrick Farthing, who worked as a "timekeeper" early in the 20th century, and later served as manager of Lakewood Amusement Park. Farthing had previously lived at 311 Watts St., and prior to that, at 401 McMannen St.

By the 1930s, the house appears to have been converted into apartments. I'm not sure of the ownership during this period, but the house may have passed to Farthing's children, who married into the Teer family.

In 1952, the house was demolished, and the lot sat vacant for many years. Given that it was owned by a builder, and the fact that many apartment buildings were constructed in Trinity Park after the 1920s, I would guess that the intent was, from the time of demolition, to replace the structure with an apartment building. But that's only a supposition.


1959 aerial showing the vacant lot.

Per the Trinity Park neighborhood website, in July 1980, residents purchased the site, which was "slated for a multifamily dwelling" from Teer Industries and created a playground. "Today, our park features a wonderful gazebo, a gated play area with new equipment, as well as spacious grassy areas with benches and shade trees. It is the hub of annual activities, concerts, and festivals."

While the loss of the Warren-Farthing house is lamentable, the park serves as the focal point of the neighborhood, and integrates with the neighborhood as a small urban park far better than many other green spaces in Durham. The scale of the park and surrounding neighborhood provide the park with a perimeter definition that is missing from most of Durham's parks, many of which, in my opinion, exist in a awkward 'tweener' zone of tiny natural/woodland spaces - which, to me, feel too ill-defined to be enjoyable green space in the urban realm and too small to hike and explore and feel like you've gotten away from it all.

Perhaps it's just my preference, but, as an adult, small parks work better as more formal City Beautiful-type spaces than the tiny hilly grove of pine trees and some play equipment that seem to typify many of the neighborhood/smaller parks in Durham.


Trinity Park / 410 Watts, 10.03.09

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36.005224,-78.910705

CARD HOUSE

Card house 1910s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Per the Historic Inventory:

"WW Card, the first athletic director of Trinity College, had this substantial two-story frame house constructed around 1910. As one of the earliest houses constructed in Trinity Park, this house for many years was isolated on a very large lot. According to one of the Card daughters, Mrs. Card drew the plans for the house and then her husband hired the contractors to build it. The exterior of the house [....] features plain frieze and cornerboards, Tuscan porch columns, and a trabeated entrance."


(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)


Card house, 1920s

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)


From the front porch of the card house, looking southwest towards Trinity College, 1920s

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)


Card house, 1930s.

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)


Side of the Card house, looking north on Buchanan Blvd., with the Pegram house in the background, late 1920s.

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)


Card House, 10.03.09

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36.004716,-78.912187

ERWIN APARTMENTS

Erwin Apartments from W. Trinity Ave. - 01.03.56
Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Although Trinity Park has some wonderful early-mid 20th century detached houses, I remain most intrigued by its relative abundance of early 20th century apartment buildings. Of those still standing, the Erwin Apartments are my favorite. The relative elegance of early 20th century apartment buildings when compared to the junky sameness that characterizes most apartment 'complexes' built from the 1950s to present is a relief. (I always think of the development process for most contemporary apartment complexes as such: developer buys raw land; developer hires engineer to lay out parking lots; developer hires architect to lay out the most number of units that can fit in the interstitial spaces around the parking lots.) It's refreshing when people figure out how to build at this scale again - like Scott Harmon's Mangum 506 (condos, not apartments, but that's irrelevant to the point.)

Designed by Durham architect RR Markley, and built in 1930 on the vacant southeast corner of West Trinity and N. Guess (Buchanan Blvd.) the four-story building is described by the historic inventory as "Modernistic":

"The sharply incised windows and the flat walls, occasionally broken by a projecting or receding plane, contribute to the austerity of the design. Decoration is reserved for the cornices, water table, and entrances, which feature a bronze fanlight grille and a cartouche at each side of the door. Large casement windows, a stone flower box, and a cartouche in the cornice mark the slightly projecting entrance bay."


Erwin Apartments, ~1980
(Courtesy Steve Gaddis)

I find austere a bit too harsh of a word to use to describe the design - perhaps only with respect to the contrast between the modernistic style and the Art Nouveau style that preceded it (although never in great abundance in the US.)

Perhaps it betrays my urban leanings, but the Erwin Apartments seem like they would fit in well in some northeastern metropolis, where similar apartment buildings would line the street (if not replaced or atomized for a parking lot.)

I haven't been in the building since 1993, when I remember being enamored of its ancient elevator (even in helping friend bring a washing machine to the fourth floor.) I make no commentary on whether the property management is great, terrible, or somewhere in-between. (My pre-emptive disclaimer for the long comment from someone with a beef about their security deposit or similar.) But I love its appearance from the exterior, and the still-active (I believe) commercial space at the northeast corner of the building completes my affection for this structure.


Erwin Apartments, 10.21.09


Erwin Apartments, 10.21.09

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36.00533,-78.912064

Mystery Photo - 02.18.10

Probably 1890s, based on dress. James R. Day was a tobacco mfg affiliated with Blackwell's Bull Durham, and I've found a GT Meadows as a tobacco dealer in Durham in the 1890s, but I've found no record of a business called Day and Meadows.
(Courtesy Durham County Library - North Carolina Collection)

1000 GLORIA AVE (SOUTH)

Gloria Ave., looking east-southeast from Watts St., 1926


Gloria Ave., looking east-southeast from Watts St., 10.03.09

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36.003324,-78.910671

PEGRAM HOUSE

Part of an excellent map of Trinity College in 1902 from Digital Durham's collection. (I have to wonder if it was student-drawn - or perhaps professor drawn, given that "Favorite Loafing Place" is noted. Update - it was drawn by William Budd, Trinity College Student and later founder of the Budd-Piper Roofing Company. His house still stands at 903 S. Duke St.)
The map is oriented with west at the top.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

The Pegram house may be the only extant historic structure in Durham to have been moved not once, but twice.

Built in 1891, the Pegram house was one of five houses built during the original construction of the Durham campus of Trinity College as housing for faculty. These houses: the Pegram, Cranford, Bassett, Merritt, and Mims houses (for the professors that originally lived in the houses) were located along "Faculty Row", at the southeast corner of the campus. Although the configuration of now-Duke University East Campus has changed significantly, structures visible in the above map still in their original location include Epworth Hall, the Pavillion, and the Roney Fountain. N. Guess Road was later renamed Buchanan Blvd., and the original location of Watts Hospital is visible at the lower left corner.


1913 Sanborn map overlaid on Google imagery, showing the location of Faculty Row relative to present day. I've placed a red arrow to show the Pegram house.


View from the tower of the original Washington Duke building, 1897, looking southeast towards downtown. The Pegram house is in the left foreground. In the immediate background is the original Watts Hospital

Contractor TS Christian built the house for William H. Pegram, first a student, and later a professor at Trinity College when it was located in Randolph County, after it moved to Durham County, and after it became Duke University.

Pegram was born August 18, 1846, at Chalk Level in Harnett County and fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. He began teaching school immediately after the war, and in 1869, he enrolled at Trinity College. After graduation in 1873, he began working as a tutor of Natural Science at the college and became a full professor the following year. Primarily a teacher of chemistry, he would also teach astronomy, physics, geology, and even English during his career. He also coached the debate team.

Per the Pegram Family website:

"According to an unsigned history of the physics departments, c. 1905,

'In 1873 a bright young man, just out of college and full of the fine enthusiasm of youth was appointed to teach the sciences. It did not take him long to doff his coat, roll up his sleeves and resolve to make something happened. This youth was William H. Pegram. The records do not show whether this fine enthusiasm was fundamentally excited by a love of pure science or by a love of the President's daughter. The fact is well-established, however, that through it he won the unqualified approval of the President and also of the President's daughter, and thereby won for himself a career in science.'"

His wife was Emma Craven, daughter of the one-time president of Trinity College, Braxton Craven, for whom Craven Memorial Hall (now demolished) would be named on the Durham campus. Pegram and his wife moved to Durham with the college in 1892. After 1900, Pegram was able to narrow his focus to the teaching of chemistry. He and his wife would have 5 children, all eventual graduates of Trinity College.

Per the Pegram Family Website:

"In his obituary in the Alumni Register a conversation between Washington Duke, wealthy founder of American Tobacco Company and the modestly salaried Professor is reported. Washington Duke outlined his career's progress to Pegram who countered with: 'After my Civil War experience, I spent four years on my father's farm and then four years in Trinity College, graduated 1873, was called the same year to the chair of Natural Science in said College, and have been with it ever since. From this last statement you know my financial rating.' Duke saw the point and countered with 'Yes, but you have made something better than money; you have helped to make men.'"

Probably some solace to Pegram, but money was on his mind when, in 1916, the College told the professors on Faculty Row that their houses needed to go - if the correspondence between father and son Pegram is accurate, at the professors' expense.

Per the Pegram website:

"As the campus expanded, the faculty houses were moved across the street and scattered within Trinity Park. The Pegram house was moved to a lot apparently owned by Pegram at 308 Buchanan Blvd (then Guess Mill [sic] Road). In a letter to his father March 18, 1916, George Braxton Pegram wrote:

'Since hearing that you have to move your house I have been wondering how much it is going to cost and how much I may be able to help out on the expense. I should think the college ought to do the moving or at least best a good part of the expense, since putting professors out of their houses is really cutting their salaries down. If I remember rightly you have two lots on Guess Street, one of them unencumbered and I suppose you will move the house to that one, but I have only a very vague idea of what it might cost to move. We are perhaps in less strident financial circumstances with our house than last year, which moves me to hope to be of at least a little assistance to you.'

The cost of the move is not recorded, but it is known that the move was accomplished by placing the house on logs and pulling it with a team of horses.

George Pegram wrote again to his father concerning the move on Sept. 7, 1918:

'I wonder how your house moving progressed. Charles Edward, I believe it was, told me that the dining room and kitchen had already gone, but that you did not expect to move the house proper until some weeks later. You have probably taken a pleasure in seeing that the new foundations are at least as good as the old ones, so as to obviate somewhat the cracking tendency the house always had.'

I'm not sure why the College picked this point in time to boot the houses from campus, but it was about the same time the stone wall was erected around perimeter of the campus.

Pegram retired in 1919, although he remained a professor emeritus at the university, and particularly involved with the Chemistry Department after the school became Duke University. Pegram died in 1928, and is buried at the former Trinity College campus in Randolph County.

The Pegram house remained in his family until 1966, when the last of his unmarried children, Annie Pegram, died.

"On February 20, 1962 she had transferred, via trust, the house to NCNB. Following a suit filed by Greensboro College against NCNB, executor for Annie Pegram, it was sold at public auction on Nov. 22, 1966 for $11,500 to Frances G. Crabtree. She, in turn, sold it to Herndon Building Company, April 3, 1969. Threatened with demolition to make way for a parking lot [for the Erwin Apartments, built next door to the house in the 1930s that] Mr. Fred Herndon owned next door, he offered to move the house at his own expense and make it available to a citizens' group. The Durham Historic Preservation Society bought it and the 3120 square foot house was moved again in September, 1977 to [1019] Minerva Ave."


Pegram House on Buchanan Blvd., 03.15.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Don't know the story here, but this does not look good:


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


House move, 09.18.77
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Fortunately, I know that the story had a happy ending.

Pegram House at 1019 Minerva, 1980.

The house remains standing and occupied at its third location.


Pegram House at 1019 Minerva, 10.03.09

The second location remains a parking lot for the Erwin Apartments. The walkway from the road is the only remaining evidence of the house at this location.


308 N Buchanan, 10.21.09

Original Location

Second Location

Present Location


36.004237,-78.910179

211 WEST MAIN

211 West Main ~1914.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

211 West Main has led a very varied life - it appears to have been constructed ~1910, supplanting an earlier frame structure. The Grand theater opened for business at the location in 1914.


200 block of West Main St., 1910s.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

By the early 1920s, the Grand had become the Savoy theater, but by the mid-1920s, it was no longer in business.


Looking southwest with 211 West Main in the foreground.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

In the 1950s, the facade was dramatically remodeled for the Lipscomb-Gattis department store, which had started as the Gattis-Newton company next door in the Jordan building.


211 W Main, 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The demolition of the three buildings to the east of 211 for a new Thalhimer's department store in the early 1960s left Lipscomb-Gattis intact. However, after the Thalhimers was renovated in the early 1970s for a new Wachovia building, the front facade of 211 West Main was completely obliterated - becoming a flat, black panel.


Looking southwest, early 1970s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

When Self-Help remodeled the former Wachovia bank building, they added a bit of character back to the front of 211 West Main St. in the form of a brightly colored facade with a few windows. Although it could use a front door again, it's certainly far more cheerful and interesting than the Kubrickian, full-of-stars architectural style.


211 West Main, 02.04.07

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35.995756,-78.902381

Having.. trouble....

So, I'm having a bit of trouble getting restarted here. With a few months to do some other things in life, it's given perhaps a bit too much perspective on the immense amount of time I've been putting into ED over the past 3.5 years. I had certainly hoped that the energy would have returned by now, but it hasn't. I have to say that the demolition of the Graybar building was one of the most depressing preservation failures that I've been involved with, and it's taken a toll.

In short, I'm going to take it as it comes, and publish as the mood strikes. I'd encourage you to subscribe to an RSS feed or the twitter feed if you are interested so that you receive the irregular updates without having to check back here.

thanks

GK