13TH, 14TH, AND 15TH STREETS - WEST DURHAM

Part of Mill No. 4, and the mill village stretching westward, 1910s. The somewhat larger red-colored structure in the center of the mill houses was the West Durham Presbyterian Church, the precursor to Blacknall Presbyterian.
(Courtesy John Schelp)

It's hard to know what 'units' to use in describing the portions of the Erwin Mills / West Durham mill village. Mill houses were built contemporaneously with the mill in 1893. 440 houses had been built by 1900; mill housing extended to the west, north, south and, to a small degree, to the east.


1913 Sanborn map, showing the neat arrangement of similar, evenly-spaced small houses that is/was typical of mill communities.
(Copyright Sanborn)

After the establishment of Blacknall Presbyterian, the West Durham Presbyterian Church was torn down and replaced with a house.

During the 1940s, Erwin Mills began to sell the houses to workers; the houses thus gradually came under private ownership.


The western portion of the mill village, bird's eye view looking east from ~ above 15th street, ~1950.
(Courtesy the Herald-Sun)


1959 aerial shot of the houses, with streets labelled.

The attrition of houses in this area has continued steadily since the 1970s. The connection of 15th Street with Anderson St. (15th did not previously cross the railroad tracks) and widening of the that street, as well as the typically rapacious appetite of churches for land (Greystone) has left little evidence of housing along 15th Street. 15th and 14th (now Rutherford) have also seen ongoing demolitions - much of which has been driven by parking for Duke and Erwin Square. 13th St., now Bolton, had been emptied out fairly well by Erwin Square, and now one side of the street is entirely taken up by the Station 9 residential development.


2007 aerial - the attrition of houses is evident.


15th Street, looking southwest, 06.13.09 - one house remains amidst the Greystone lands.


Empty parking lots dominate the east side of 15th street - one house remains on this side as well, 06.13.09


Rutherford (14th) - several houses remain on the east side of the street, but only one remains on the west side.
06.13.09


Bolton (13th) - Station 9 dominates the street, but there are several houses left standing on the west side. To the left is the approximate location of the West Durham Presbyterian Church - 06.13.09

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36.009234,-78.92783

2600-2604 1/2 HILLSBOROUGH RD.

1959 Aerial of 15th Street and Hillsborough Road.

The four-bay commercial structure at the intersection of 15th St. and Hillsborough Rd. appears to have been built in 1958-59, replacing an earlier frame structure - a converted dwelling that had housed several businesses.

John Schelp was able to provide me pictures of one of the interior tenants - the Vogue Beauty Shoppe, which occupied the easternmost bay.


Vogue Beauty Shoppe Interior
(Courtesy John Schelp)


Vogue Beauty Shoppe Interior
(Courtesy John Schelp)


Vogue Beauty Shoppe Interior
(Courtesy John Schelp)

While that space is now probably better known as purveyor-of-fine-popsicles Locopops, other longstanding tenants, such as Don Hill's Lock and Safe have helped to provide the longevity of character that a establishes a building as an integral part of a neighborhood, and of Durham.


2600-2604 1/2 Hillsborough, 04.05.09

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36.010959,-78.928797

WEST DURHAM BAPTIST / GREY STONE BAPTIST CHURCH

West Durham Baptist / Grey Stone Baptist, 1935.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The West Durham Baptist Church located after 1897 on Alexander Avenue had seen its congregation grow to more than 800 by 1927. Rather than expand at the Alexander site, the church purchased a site at the corner of Hillsborough Rd. and 15th Street in 1933. The plan for a new gothic church, built of the same stone used to construct Duke's West Campus, was executed by Durham architectural firm Atwood and Weeks. Although construction began soon after purchase of the site, it was halted for lack of funds for a period, but resumed to complete the church by 1936.

In 1949, the church changed its name to Grey Stone Baptist Church to distinguish the church from the African-American West Baptist Church. Several expansions of the church were performed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including additions to the rear of the 1936 church building as well as parking lots.

The church remains active today.


Grey Stone Baptist, 04.12.09

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36.010512,-78.929217