MERRITT HOUSE

View of Faculty Row, looking north. The Merritt House is to the right - only a piece of the Pegram House is visible. Epworth Hall is visible at the end of the road.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)


Part of an excellent map of Trinity College in 1902 from Digital Durham's collection
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

I'd have to consider this post a placeholder of sorts, as I have very little information regarding the fifth and last Faculty Row house, labelled above as the "Merritt House." I've been unable to determine anything about Merritt, and I'm not sure who the other occupants of the house might be. I welcome the input of some intrepid ED readers...


Merritt House, 1913.


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

The Merritt House is the only one of the five Faculty Row houses to not be moved intact off of the campus. Evidently, it was disassembled and the materials used to construct a house in Trinity Heights, which was later demolished. I don't know where this house was located.

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36.003601,-78.912746

BASSETT HOUSE

1902 Trinity College map.
(Courtesy Duke Archives / Digitized by Digital Durham)

One of the four (out of an original five) surviving houses from Trinity College's 'Faculty Row', the house currently located at 1017 West Trinity Avenue is most well known as the house of John Spencer Bassett, a Trinity College History professor. Bassett, in turn, is most well known for what became known as the 'Bassett Affair' of 1903.


1913 overlay on present day satellite photo.

Bassett was born in 1867 and graduated from Trinity College (in Randolph County) in 1886; he taught "public school in Durham" (presumably at the City Graded School in the old Wright Factory on West Main) before leaving to complete a PhD in History from Johns Hopkins.

Bassett joined the faculty at Trinity College . Among local history geeks, he is known for his efforts (and that of his students so tasked) to gather local oral histories - many of the stories and information we have about places like Pinhook are as a result of their efforts. Bassett became a driving force behind the Trinity Historical Society (founded by Stephen B. Weeks, another early NC historian and 'grandson-in-law' Senator Willie P. Mangum who is buried in the cemetery at the Walnut Hall site) and mobilized the entire community to collect and archive items important to Southern history.

I'll quote from Bassett's history page on the Duke Archives website:

Students, administrators, and alumni combed their attics donating Confederate money, Indian relics, travel souvenirs, and political memorabilia as well as volumes of books, pamphlets, religious and secular newspapers, maps, and manuscripts. After a few years Bassett proudly reported to Adams [Bassett's mentor and professor at Hopkins] that over 2,000 documents had been collected for use in primary research. Soon "manager of the library" was added to his varied duties.

In 1906 an analysis of society meetings revealed that historical presentations had been made by 53 students, 38 faculty and 6 visiting scholars. Following the Hopkins example of a series of published research, Bassett began an annual publication of historical papers of the Trinity society in 1897. At first a cheaply reproduced set of reprints of student articles from the campus magazine, The Archive, the series became more sophisticated and widely distributed when the administration enthusiastically endorsed it. Some noteworthy early articles were on the Ku Klux Klan, the North Carolina Manumission Society, and the North Carolina Governor during Reconstruction, William W. Holden. Bassett proudly wrote Adams, "So far as I know, this is but one of three [academic] historical publications in the South. It is the only one in North Carolina."

The society also sponsored an annual patriotic town-gown civic rally intentionally set on February 22, the birth of George Washington, and not on a date commemorating a Confederate hero. Of the historical society a respected historian later wrote, "There is reason to believe no local historical association ever succeeded better than the Society at Trinity College in effecting its program." In yet another corollary to his passion for learning, Bassett launched a secret student honor society based on academic distinction and service. Named 9019, presumably because nineteen qualifying members had averages of above ninety, the society was a precursor to Phi Beta Kappa which was chartered in 1919.

Surprisingly these extracurricular endeavors were carried on despite a teaching load of fifteen and sometimes eighteen hours a semester. Growing slowly in its early years in Durham, Trinity did not have the means to support more than a single faculty member per discipline. Having to teach history courses far afield of his primary interests, Bassett once privately lamented over the continuance of a "troublesome" French class. Intermittently he introduced new courses such as a senior seminar in Contemporary History which emphasized class reports with special attention to Southern development. Another course, the History of North Carolina, offered students a chance "to learn methods of original research and to gain an impetus to historical writing and the collection of historical materials."

Extremely popular on campus and confident in his ability which was earning accolades in the region and nation, Bassett, nevertheless, had periodic misgivings about life at Trinity and in his native South. He believed his salary to be inadequate for growing family responsibilities and the teaching load constantly interfered with time for research and writing. He also became exasperated at the slow pace of change in the region. Seeking a wider audience than a single college campus, he successfully launched a journal of thought and action, The South Atlantic Quarterly, in 1902.

Bassett also made significant contributions to methods of study, archiving, and thought within the field of history - as further detailed on this Duke archives page.

The South Atlantic Quarterly would soon become a well-known and reputable academic journal, which is still published today. Interestingly, William Wannamaker, whose house sat and sits next door to Bassett's would become later become editor of the SAQ.

His efforts within Trinity and Durham, and in founding the SAQ would give Bassett a memorable place in the history of the college and town, but he is remembered by a broader audience for what would become known as the "Bassett Affair."

Bassett had begun writing on the topic of race and the South from the earliest issues of the SAQ. He published an article entitled "Two Negro Leaders" in which he gave an insightful analysis of the philosophies of WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington, comparing and contrasting the two schools of thought. It's important to place this in context - North Carolina in 1902 was 4 years removed from the 1898 Wilmington riot and massacre of African-Americans, and fully in the throes of the re-entrenchment of Southern white power following reconstruction. For a white male to write an article in the south treating WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington as not only worthwhile of consideration, but philsophers in their own right was, to say the least, against the grain. While this article did not gain significant recognition, Bassett showed that his desire was to directly challenge the Southern orthodoxy, and that he would not be ignored in that effort. In October 1903, Bassett published an article in the SAQ called "Stirring Up the Fires of Race Antipathy," which would ignite significant controversy and become a seminal moment in the development of the concept of academic freedom. Again, from the Duke Archives:

To gain attention, Bassett later admitted to doing a very unprofessional thing. With galley proofs of an editorial in hand, he inserted a sentence praising the life of Booker T. Washington and ranking him second in comparison to Robert E. Lee of Southerners born in a hundred years. [ "...Booker T. Washington [is] the greatest man, save General Lee, born in the South in a hundred years..."] Such a sentiment invited controversy at a time when race baiting was commonplace due to the revival of bitter partisan politics with the division of the Democratic Party and the rise of the Populist third party and revival of the Republican Party. State Democratic leaders in nearby Raleigh who were also represented on the Trinity College Board of Trustees demanded that Professor Bassett be fired. When the attack spread to the college and parents were urged to withdraw their children from school and churchmen were encouraged not to recommend the college to prospective students, Bassett offered his resignation. Lines clearly were drawn between a partisan Democratic press that blatantly referred to the historian as "Professor bASSett" who threatened the accepted "southern way of life" and between proponents of the then developing concept of academic freedom. On December 2, 1903, at about 3:00 a. m., the Trinity Board of Trustees voted 18 to 7 not to accept the resignation of Bassett. Jubilant students who had been listening to the debate through sky lights and heating registers built bonfires and celebrated until dawn. It was later revealed that President Kilgo and the college faculty were prepared to resign if the trustees had voted to dismiss Bassett. A year later President Theodore Roosevelt spoke in Durham extolling Trinity's courageous stand for academic freedom.


Roosevelt speaking from his open train platform - looking northwest from West Pettigrew St. (north of the later Smith Warehouse) across the railroad tracks towards the main entrance to Trinity College on West Main St. The main building (the Washington Duke Building) is in the background. Note also the stopped streetcars on West Main St. with people sitting on the roofs.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

Despite predictions of the demise of Trinity College following the support for Bassett, enrollment grew, and the 'Affair' became known as a brave stand that gave strength to the ethic of academic freedom nationally.

Bassett began construction of a new house on Guess Road, now 410 N. Buchanan Blvd. in 1905. I'm unsure as to whether he ever lived in the house, as he accepted an offer to teach at Smith College and moved to Northampton, MA in 1906. Per the Duke Archives:

Bassett never commented publicly on his move but he alluded to several reasons in private correspondence. There was no question that he welcomed a reduced teaching load with increased time for research and writing. He also looked forward to living in New England. He confided to his Trinity colleague, William K. Boyd, that the South was too used to antiquarianism and arousement instead of history and scholarly thinking , a state, he believed, any cultured community ought to have long passed. He also tired of the tension he felt between his role as a scholar and the pull to be a reformer in a region he cared very much about. He concluded that he could not write history and direct public sentiment at the same time. His decided first choice was to write history. Bassett corresponded with numerous friends in the South throughout his life and he worked diligently to get southern topics included in meetings of professional associations. Living until 1928, he never lost his love for his native region, although he never regretted his move north either.

Bassett's Faculty Row house was moved with the other Faculty Row houses in 1916, when Guess Road was widened and the wall around Trinity College was built. It was relocated to 1017 West Trinity Avenue, where it still stands.


Bassett House, 02.21.10

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36.005289,-78.909677

CRANFORD-WANNAMAKER HOUSE

Cranford-Wannamaker house from Faculty Row, 1890s
(Courtesy Duke Archives.

Another of the four remaining of the five original five Faculty Row houses on the campus of Trinity College now sits at 1019 West Trinity Avenue. Built contemporaneously with the original college in 1891, the house was built according to plans of an unknown New York architect, and was perhaps the most elaborate of the five. The present crenelated tower originally supported an onion-shaped dome at its peak, which was removed around 1900.


1902 Map of Trinity College.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)


1913 Sanborn overlay on present-day satellite imagery.

As with all of the Faculty Row houses, this one provided housing for several professors during its tenure on the college campus. The first was William Cranford, a professor of Greek and later a Dean of the College. The most renowned occupant was William H. Wannamaker, who held multiple administrative posts at the college, helped build the athletics program at the college, and became editor of the South Atlantic Quarterly

The house was moved to 1019 West Trinity Avenue in 1916 when Guess Road (Buchanan Blvd.) was widened and the stone wall was built around the Trinity College campus. It still stands at this location.


1019 W. Trinity, 02.21.10

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36.005347,-78.909954

CROWELL HOUSE

Faculty Row houses, 1902 - the house is labelled as the "Mims" house
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

Another of the 'Faculty Row' houses built by Trinity College in 1891 during the original Durham campus construction is known as the Crowell House, for its first occupant, John Franklin Crowell. All five Faculty Row houses were built from plans ordered from a New York architect. FPer the historic inventory:

"Crowell was President of Trinity College from 1887 to 1895 and the director of the move of the college from Randolph County to Durham in 1892. He was a strong believer in the academic advantages provided by an urban environment; beyond promoting the move to Durham, Crowell worked very hard to improve the educational facilities of the college and to upgrade its faculty. In addition to teaching, administering the college, and cataloging the combined book collections of the Literary Society, Crowell introduced intercollegiate football to Trinity College. In the early years of the 20th century, he pursued a second distinguished career as an economist and statistician in New York."


1913 Sanborn map overlay showing the location of the Crowell House.

Four of the Faculty Row houses were moved intact from the campus in 1916, and the fifth was dismantled. The widening of Guess Road and the construction of the stone wall around the campus prompted the college to insist upon the removal of the houses. They gave them to the professors living in the houses at the time, although it seems that it was up to the professors to move them.

The Crowell House was moved to 504 Watts St., where it remains, intact.


Crowell House, 02.21.10

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36.00589,-78.910926

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