1920 PERRY STREET

1920 Perry Street may have been the earliest non-mill-related masonry commercial structure built in West Durham, constructed prior to 1907. By the 1920s, the building housed the Andrews Furniture Store., and by the 1930s, the upstairs, accessed through a stair on the left side of the building, housed the United Textile Workers (AFL Local 257), and the Int'l Assoc of Machinists Lodge No. 721. By the 1950s, the downstairs housed Bell VE and Sons Air Conditioners.


Perry St., 1980.

As of 2009, the upstairs houses Cosmic Cantina, which has been producing burritos here since the late 1990s. The downstairs initially opened as the Cosmic Lounge, an accompaniment to the food upstairs with music, bar, etc. that closed after a year or two. There seem to have been several short-lived attempts to restart something similar on the first floor, but it currently remains shuttered.


1920 Perry St., 04.05.09

Find this spot on a Google Map.


36.007812,-78.921914