JESSIE HARPER ERWIN HOUSE - SUNNYSIDE

Jessie Harper Erwin, brother of Erwin Mills co-founder William Erwin, came to Durham in 1899 to assume the position of secretary treasurer of the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Company after the previous man to hold the post, William Branson had been killed in a boiler accident. Prior to his arrival in Durham, Erwin had been secretary-treasurer of the EM Holt Plaid Mills in Burlington. Upon his arrival in Durham, he also assumed the same position at the Pearl Mill.

By 1904, he had constructed a house on Caswell Hill in West Durham near the estate of his brother. The house, which he called "Sunnyside", was designed by noted local architect Hill C. Linthicum, and was highly unusual for the time in that the exterior was pebble-dash. The historic inventory recounts the legend that while the Ringling Bros. circus was in town, one of the original seven brothers stopped by to inquire about the house, as he wanted to build his own pebbledash exterior home.


Map of properties along West Pettigrew St., 1910.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

Around 1914, the pebbledash exterior was removed, and replaced with cedar shakes.

Despite his West Durham roots, Erwin was involved in East Durham affairs as well, by virtue of his involvement with the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Co. He donated a lot on Hart St. for the construction of St. Andrews' Episcopal Church. In 1934, he offered to donate the park and pool associated with the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Mill to the city for an additional city park facility.

Erwin Sr.'s son, Jessie Harper Erwin, Jr. converted Sunnyside into apartments in the late 1940s. He removed the original grand staircase from the interior, and removed several of the outbuildings in the backyard. I don't know where JH Erwin Sr. lived after that time, but he died in 1962, at 98 years of age.


1959 aerial - Sunnyside has the large circular-ish drive in front.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)


1950s Bird's Eye view of West Pettigrew St., looking northwest, Sunnyside denoted by the arrow.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun)

By the 1970s, Sunnyside had become fairly decrepit, although along with the neighboring EK Powe house, a well-known hangout for students.


Sunnyside, 1980.

In the 1980s, a developer from Charlotte named Brian South bought Sunnyside and the EK Powe house next door; he moved Sunnyside to the east and turned it to face the former 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.


Former site of Sunnyside, 06.27.09

The former Sunnyside and the former EK Powe house face an interior parking lot, and form a complex of office space at Swift and West Pettigrew Sts.


Sunnyside, looking northeast, 04.05.09

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36.005156,-78.920729