EK POWE HOUSE - 1503 WEST PETTIGREW

Edgar Knox Powe built his house at Swift and West Pettigrew Streets in the late 1890s; prior to his arrival in Durham, he had been an executive with the Altamahaw Cotton Mills in Alamance County. He was brought to Durham by William Erwin as general manager of Erwin Cotton Mills. I'm unsure as to whether his marriage to William and Jessie Erwin's sister, Claudia, occurred before or after his arrival in Durham.


(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

Powe was a longtime member of the Durham County Board of Education, the City-County Board of Health, and active in St. Philip's Church. When he died in 1929, the West Durham School on 9th Street was named EK Powe School in his honor.

The Powe property extended south to Caswell Place, and included a barn, fruit trees and vineyards. The Powe's daughter and her husband built a house in the backyard of the property at some point.

After Mrs. Powe died in 1943, the house was sold to Dr. and Mrs. BW Roberts.


1950s Bird's Eye View of West Pettigrew St., looking northwest. Arrow shows the EK Powe house.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


1959 aerial - the EK Powe house is at the lower right.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection

They lived in the house until the early 1970s. It then became a well-worn apartment house for students, the house became affectionately known as "Monkey Top" - derived from the older name "Monkey Bottom" for the area around Case St. and Erwin Field. (The EK Powe house had never been called Monkey Top prior to this.) As is often the case with history, the derivation becomes conflated with the explanation, and occasionally folks will erroneously note that the name "Monkey Bottom" was formed from "Monkey Top."


Overgrown EK Powe House, 1980.

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

The two houses remain commercial office space today.


Former EK Powe House, looking southeast, 04.05.09

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36.004717,-78.920461

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

JAMES BLACKNALL HOUSE

James R. Blacknall, son of Dr. Richard Blacknall and brother of pharmacist Richard Blacknall was appointed the first Sheriff of Durham County when the county was formed in 1881. It was during this period that he established his home on Caswell Hill, at the corner of West Pettigrew and Case Sts.


Caswell Hill, 1890.
(Courtesy Duke RBMC - Scanned by Digital Durham)

Blacknall was born in 1843. His early years were likely spent in northern Orange (later Durham) County, as his father spent time in South Lowell, and James was educated at least in part at Red Mountain/Rougemont. He served in the Confederate Army, within the ranks of the Army of Northern Virginia, mustering out at a Sergeant in 1865. Per Wyatt Dixon, General Kilpatrick of the Confederate Army stayed at house of Dr. Blacknall (James' father) during the Bennett Place surrender.

James Blacknall's occupation of the Sheriff's post in Durham County lasted only until the first election, at which point he was rejected. Dixon notes that Blacknall owned farmland, although he does not say where, and evidently earned a living from tenant farmers utilizing his land.


West Pettigrew St/ Caswell Hill, 1910.
(Courtesy Duke RBMC - Scanned by Digital Durham)

He died in 1923. After Blacknall's death, the house was inhabited by the Holeman family until the mid 1950s.


Aerial of the 1500 block of West Pettigrew St., 1959.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Between 1960 and 1972, this house and 1511 West Pettigrew next door had been replaced by an institutional structure - that structure is, as of 2009, Pettigrew Rehabilitation and Healthcare.


Looking southeast from Case St. and West Pettigrew St., 06.27.09

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36.005218,-78.921538