DURHAM STATION / FREIGHT & CAR TRAIN DEPOT

Original 1854 NC railroad survey, showing the future location of Durham's Station
(Courtesy David Southern/Steve Rankin)

As most folks are aware, Durham's raison d'etre came with the North Carolina railroad in 1854, and the desire to establish a train depot between Hillsborough and Raleigh. I've written previously about Mr. Pratt's high price / fear for his horses (arguably making him the first in a very long line of recalcitrant Durham-area landowners with an overly optimistic view of the value of their land/suspect improvements theron) that led the NCRR to seek out Dr. Bartlett Durham for land upon which to locate their depot.


Blount's map of Durham in 1865 - #10 is the railroad depot
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham)

Durham's early passenger service has always been a bit of a mystery to me. The Southern Depot, located north of the railroad tracks and just west of Corcoran St., clearly provided passenger service by the 1890s, and it appears that the Seaboard Station, located at Dillard St., did the same. (Both prior to the establishment of Union Station in 1905.) But I can only assume that passenger and freight were handled out of the same Durham Station Depot in the early decades; Hiram Paul describes only one passenger service station in his 1884 history, and he describes it thusly, reproduced with its original cringe-worthy elements of antiquity intact:

"Railroad facilities are hardly adequate, only one train a day each way being allowed by the liberal policy of the Richmond and Danville system. The depot is a reproach, there being no reception room for either ladies or gentlemen, and the apartment used as such, and adjoining the ticket office, being so filthy an[d] offensive that ladies never apply for tickets, except in cases of absolute necessity. It is about 12x14 feet, and is used almost continuously by negro section hands as a kitchen and sleeping quarters. The walls are black with soot and grease, and the floor is caked with grease and dirt. It is just to add, that the managers are perhaps not aware of the real condition of things. It is to be hoped, however, that the importance of the city will arouse this mammoth monopoly from its complacent lethargy, and that decent facilities at least will soon been afforded."

By 1905, passenger service was provided out of Union Station. Several other freight depots would be constructed along the main line and the belt line; the original depot site became the site of the Southern and D&S Freight Depot by the 1890s, and would remain such through the 1920s.


Bird's Eye view showing the freight depot on the original Durham Station site, 1920s.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)


Bird's Eye view showing the freight depot on the original Durham Station site, 1924.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

Note how this depot sits to the north of the front facade of the Bull Building at American Tobacco - abutting the railroad tracks and sitting on top of present-day West Pettigrew St.

Between 1924 and 1937, the depot buildings between Vivian and the railroad tracks were demolished. Pettigrew Street was opened between Blackwell and McMannen (Mangum) Sts, and a new series of freight depots were constructed fronting Pettigrew St. A new, block long freight depot was built between McMannen and Pine St. (its eastern terminus a handsome neoclassical office building that was unnecessarily demolished for vacant land when our Ivory Tower of Incarceration was built in 1993.) Between McMannen and Blackwell, an auto unloading platform was built. Both were constructed by the Southern Railway Company.

The auto platform became a bit of a curious anachronism - built in recognition of the new exploding popularity of the automobile, and the number of cars that would need to be freighted into Durham to meet that need - but without the foresight that truck transport would quickly supplant train transport to bring these vehicles to Durham. This building is rarely referenced, but a 1953 newspaper article notes that the auto unloading platform was "[then] seldom used" and that the enclosed portion of the building had been rented out for storage for some time. (However, if anyone was curious why this platform was designed the way it was - long and skinny, with a sloping grade down to street level, you can picture the idea of cars being driven off of it.)

Likely from the 1930s or 40s onward, this building was used as a warehouse structure.

It's not really specific to the building, but the corner in front of the platform (at McMannen and Pettigrew) was sometimes referred to as "buzzard's roost" by the African-American community - a spot for day laborers to get work. Billy Barnes termed it as such in his 1966 photo, below. Interestingly, this term was also sometimes used by the community for the segregated balcony at the Carolina Theater.


Looking south from McMannen and the railroad tracks. The Austin-Heaton flour mill is in the background.
(Billy Barnes Collection, North Carolina Collection, UNC)

After the demolition of Union Station in 1968, the Southern freight depot in 1993, what I believe to have been the remnants of the Seaboard Airline station in 2007, the auto platform remained the last early 20th century vestige of the train industry in downtown Durham - interestingly, at the train industry's first location in Durham.


Auto platform, 02.10.08


Auto platform, 03.23.08

I don't know much about the details worked out between Capitol Broadcasting, the city, and the NCRR that allowed the auto platform to be demolished - the railroad, as is clear from the trackage visible in the historic pictures owns/owned the land southward to and including Vivian St. Regardless, the depot was demolished in September 2008.


09.11.08

I admit that I felt rather ambivalent about the demolition; it was always a fairly ugly building, in my opinion, and I appreciated the desire to open up the vista to the DPAC. I felt less ambivalent when they started to remove the roof and I saw the steel truss structure underneath - I thought the naked steel truss structure and platform - devoid of roof and concrete block, actually would have made for a very cool public space, with enough transparency to show the buildings beyond, but enough architectural character and structure to make for a neat gathering spot and tie-in to our railroad history.

Not to be. So the land is green space, which I can say is at least more attractive than the concrete block, piles of storage and padlocked chainlink that fronted West Pettigrew St. for so long, and asphalt space, our thirst for which remains ever unquenched.


Durham Station / Freight Station / Auto Platform site, 04.11.10

Long term, the plan from Capitol at one point involved new construction on this site; my guess would be that that would be on the far back burner at this point, but I'm not privy to their plans - since Diamond View III, the planned next step for Capitol, seems to be moving forward, the question as to what comes after DVIII is in the air.

A personal hope would be that some organization gathers adequate funds to make a Durham Museum a part of the site with Capitol - or perhaps something more train-specific. It remains a shame that the core of Durham - Dr. Durham's house and the first train depot, split by the NC RR, are vacant parking lot/grassy space, with no sense or acknowledgement of the importance that land played in the genesis of the city.

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35.994254,-78.902097

ANGIER-SATTERFIELD-KREPS HOUSE / CENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES

Rear of the Angier-Satterfield House, 1920s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The house at West Pettigrew Street was built by John Angier, president of the Cary Lumber Company, located ~ 2 blocks east of his house in the early 1880s, making it among the earliest of the large houses constructed along this stretch of West Pettigrew St. Angier married Lyla Duke, a niece of Washington Duke, in 1880, and built the house soon thereafter.

(The Center for Documentary Studies gives an alternative version of the house's origin, stating that Ben Duke purchased a pre-existing farmhouse that had been the property of the Watkins family, renovating and giving the house to his cousin Lyla Duke and her husband John Angier in 1898.)

Lyla Duke Angier was the first president of the Women's Auxiliary of the Salvation Army, organizer of the Mother's Army and Navy Club during World War II, secretary of the Durham Red Cross, and first woman elected to the board an board of trustees of Duke Memorial Methodist.

After John Angier's death, Lyla Angier lived in the house until she moved to North Buchanan Blvd. in 1910, giving the house to her daughter Carlotta Angier. Carlotta married Henry Satterfield, who became president of the Cary Lumber Company after the death of John Angier.


Angier-Satterfield house in the foreground, looking northwest, 1950s.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Carlotta Angier Satterfield was still living in the house by the mid-1950s. During the 1960s, Duke University purchased the house and renovated it for occupancy by the dean of the Women's College (now East Campus) Margaret Ball.

By the 1970s, the home was occupied by Juanita and Clifton Kreps. Juanita Kreps taught at myriad institutions, including Duke, before becoming US Secretary of Commerce from January 23, 1977 until October 31, 1979 under President Jimmy Carter - the first woman to hold the position. While at Duke, she became the first female vice president of the university, and later became the first female board member of the New York Stock Exchange.


Angier-Satterfield House, 1980.

On March 8, 1990. Duke moved the house east, across Powe St. for use by Duke Center for Documentary Studies. Hillcrest expanded to the east, onto the land occupied by the Angier-Satterfield house.

The was then renovated extensively for the Center for Documentary Studies. They refer to the house as the Lyndhurst House, after the Lyndhurst Foundation of Chattanooga, which gave the original endowment to found the CDS in 1989.

Additions to the southeast in 1997 greatly expanded the footprint of the Center. The Center is a great asset for Duke and Durham; it's wonderful to see an adaptive reuse of a structure such as this, particularly one which puts Duke Students in a venue located on an actual city street.


Angier-Satterfield House, 04.24.09

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36.004186,-78.91811

HILLCREST

Hillcrest, 1926.

William A. Erwin came to Durham in 1892 from Burke County where he had grown up on the family plantation of Bellevue near Morganton as part of the Holt textile family. He was recruited from the EM Holt Plaid Mills in Burlington, where he had been secretary-treasurer for 10 years by BN Duke and George Watts to run their new cotton mill venture. The story goes that Watts and Duke allowed the mill to be named after Erwin such that his name would be associated with its success or failure. Thus the Erwin Cotton Mills was born.

Erwin's residence upon his arrival in Durham is unclear. By 1902, he was living on Blacknall St., i.e. Alexander Avenue, but is often the case with early city directories, the address is not noted. But yes, William Erwin lived on Central Campus.

Erwin set out from the start to build a self-contained/sufficient community in West Durham, a community over which he kept a very watchful eye as landlord, employer, and neighbor. Oral histories recount stories of Erwin riding his bicycle around the neighborhood, keeping an eye on people and places. Others tell stories of playing at Erwin's house with his daughter, enjoying the masssive scuppernong vine in the backyard. Erwin was, per multiple histories, a charming, congenial personality in the neighborhood - seemingly possessed of a comprehensive memory of people's names, and referred to affectionately as 'Pa' Erwin. (Although some may have underlain this with an edge, given Erwin's need to control affairs in West Durham.)

Erwin was the last of the elite group (including his brother Jessie Harper Erwin and brother-in-law EK Powe) to move to West Pettigrew St., constructing his neoclassical house in 1907, which he named Hillcrest.

Erwin was a "devout Episcopalian" per Robert Durden, and taught Sunday School for many years on the second floor of the company store after helping establish the Episcopal parish in West Durham in 1894. In 1908 , he donated the funds for the construction of St. Joseph's Episcopal Church at 8th and West Main St.

Erwin died of cancer in 1932.


Looking northwest at the side and rear of Hillcrest, ~1950
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

In 1951, the house was transformed into a nursing home, which also went by the name Hillcrest. Modern annex buildings were constructed to the west and south of the former Erwin mansion.


Hillcrest Nursing Home, 1960s
(Courtesy John Schelp)

In 1975, the nursing home tore down the former Erwin home to expand its facility with a single-story complex. Now named Hillcrest Convalescent Center, it remains in business at the same location.


Hillcrest Facility, 04.24.09

It's unfortunate that this sprawling complex couldn't manage to retain the original Hillcrest home. I can understand that it wouldn't support all of the necessary facilities for modern nursing facility, but it would certainly imbue the place with more character if the entry to the modern wings was been through the original Erwin homeplace.

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36.00474,-78.919424

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

THE BLUE LIGHT / SAM'S QUIK SHOP

Looking east at Boy's Esso Servicecenter and the Blue Light, ~1950. Erwin Park is in the foreground.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The Blue Light, and later Sam's Quik-Shop, had its origins in an Esso Station opened at the corner of West Pettigrew Street and Erwin Road by Carl Boy and his sons Sam, Carl Jr., and James. The site had been associated with Erwin Auditorium and the adjacent Erwin Park as the location of showers and tennis courts. I'm not sure what led to the decision to sell off this portion of the property, but the Boy family opened Boy's Esso Servicecenter in 1946.

Soon after opening, a friend of the Boy brothers asked permission to open a hot dog stand adjacent to the Esso Station. The friend did so, but lost interest. The brothers considered operating the hot dog stand, but soon tore it down and in 1949 constructed a drive-in restaurant instead, which they called The Blue Light Restaurant.


Looking north at Boy's Esso Servicecenter and the Blue Light, ~1950
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The Blue Light immediately became a popular destination with local teens. After movies on Friday or Saturday nights, teens would drive up to the Blue Light and order typical drive-in fare: grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers, shakes, french fries - even a "Fishwich".

The Blue Light was a typical date destination, or a destination for groups of guys. A Herald-Sun article in 1999 clarifies the social strictures of the day for young women:

"Back then, a bunch of girls couldn't just go out to the Blue Light to grab a bite.... They either went to the drive-in with a date or with a group of guys and girls because 'girls didn't go out by themselves.' And unless there was a special occasion such as a school dance, girls had to be home by 11 or 11:30 p.m."

Duke students frequented the Blue Light as well, notably because beer was not available on campus, but was at the Blue Light.

Up to 50-60 cars could park at the Blue Light, and car hops went from car to car taking orders; music could be heard from the Blue Light throughout the parking area. By the mid-1950s, the Blue Light had a miniature golf course as well, although this doesn't seem to have endured for long.

By the late 1950s, cars would evidently make a circuit from the Topps Drive-In - which I believe was on West Main St. at Iredell St. - down to the Blue Light and back. The Blue Light expanded with an indoor dining area as well. An oral history from the Old West Durham website states that the "Rathskellar" was in the basement, which was a common hangout for Duke students.

By the mid-1960s, Duke allowed drinking on campus, lessening the impetus to go elsewhere, and the popularity of drive-ins had waned. By the mid-1970s John Boy and his wife Gerry, who had run the Blue Light, decided to convert the restaurant into a convenience store, which they named Sam's Quik-Shop. By the late 1980s, their son John took over the business. At some point, the houses on the Case Street side of the store were torn down and replaced with a car wash.

My own memories of Sam's date from this era, where I remember it as an eclectic place with decent beer (nothing like they have now) and an absolute ton of magazines, as well as a video rental business. Over the intervening years, the videotapes disappeared, then the magazines, and they now focus on an incredible beer selection - made all the more unusual by finding it in a convenience store.


Sam's Quik Shop / The Blue Light, 04.04.09

If there is any happiness in the Triangle Transit train having been summarily dismissed by the Feds, it was the intent of Triangle Transit to demolish Sam's Quik Shop in its entirety for a parking lot for the 9th Street train station. Why, with the quantity of vacant land across the street, owned by NCDOT, they felt it was necessary to destroy a vibrant part of Durham is beyond me. I sympathize with Triangle Transit trying to meet Federal standards thrust upon them - but this need to provide gobs of parking places around a train station in an urban setting seems to be sort of missing the point - ? We are still trying to persuade them of this with regard to the Graybar building downtown, but it remains an uphill fight.

So I may not be able to take a train to Raleigh to ride their free "R line" bus around their downtown, but I can relax comfortably with a cold Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron in my hand and be thankful that Sam's is still around.

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36.005691,-78.922482

PINHOOK / CASWELL HILL / CASWELL HEIGHTS

The genesis of Durham as a town is most inextricably linked to the existence of the NW-SE ridgeline that runs through the Piedmont, separating the Cape Fear and Neuse River basins. As I've written about previously, this ridgeline is a natural transportation corridor, and settlement along the corridor was therefore no accident.

Within later-Durham's immediate sphere, Hillsborough and Raleigh were, by the 18th century, the established towns along the roadway that followed the ridgeline. This roadway was, not suprisingly, called the Hillsborough Road, the Raleigh Road, or the Raleigh-Hillsborough Road (or vice-versa) in this area. Journeys were not quick along these roadways, riding, walking, or being pulled by horses. There were, of course, scattered settlement and farms along the roadway, and such farmers could enjoy easier access to markets than those more distant from the main road. Other establishments for the itinerant traveller popped up along the roadway as well; I like to call these 18th/19th century 'truck stops'.

If that term has a somewhat pejorative ring to it, that's intentional. Perhaps long journeys just don't sit well with most folks, particularly if they are alone (or at least on 'business trips') but the seamier side of such places on the side of the highway today - that how-soon-can-I-wash-my-hands feel - is nothing new.

These settlements predated Durham (not the existence of a few stores and homes at the later site of Durham station, but Durham as city.) One well known 'truck stop' was Prattsburg, which I've previously written about. Located on the east side of later-Durham station, Prattsburg was well known for the main forms of vice available - drinking, fighting, gambling, and prostitution - not necessarily in that order. It also had more practical (depending on your point of view, I suppose) services, such as a blacksmith shop, store, cotton gin, etc. William Pratt, the owner, had the place in fine form by the 1830s.

Pratt also owned land west of later-Durham Station. Another, similar settlement was established here by the early 1800s, and named Pinhook. As a Trinity College historian so eloquently put it in a 1906 history that mentions Pinhook: "some questionable characters kept a resort there, and nearby there was a grog shop." The area contained a campground, a well, and grove of trees to rest horses in the shade as well as the gambling, fighting, and prostitution that seemed to be prerequisite. After Pratt, this land passed into the hands of William Turner, who held a license to dispense spirits at Pinhook in 1850, and eventually (by the time of the railroad survey) Andrew Copley. Jean Anderson surmises that Pratt was the likely originator of Pinhook, though, given his other associations with tawdriness.

Helpful to the business of Pinhook was also the establishment of the state university ~15 miles to the southwest. College students have changed less over the course of the past ~150 years than one might imagine.

A story related in history collected by Duke professor John Spencer Bassett is a small news item that ran in the Hillsborough Recorder in 1871, without additional explanation:


Scan from the original Hillsborough Recorder, 1871.
(Courtesy of David Southern)

Exactly locating Pinhook is a fun endeavor, and the kind of thing that Durham history geeks like me like to debate. The best representation of the location of Pinhook is given by the North Carolina railroad survey map, drawn in 1850. A beautiful set of large maps, located in the state archives, they document the charted course of the planned railroad, including land owners and settlement on or proximate to the right-of-way. While descriptions state that Pinhook was located "100 yards southwest from the corner of the Erwin Mill" the survey maps likely show it with the most accuracy.


Overlay of the RR survey map on present-day satellite photography, matching the centerline of the right-of-way to the curve of the railroad track.
(Picture of the survey provided by Steve Rankin)

Pinhook's days had probably begun to wane by the 1880s, as the railroad running through the middle of the settlement likely reduced traffic on the roadway considerably, and seemingly split it in two. Mercantile needs, as well as a need for spirits, would increasingly be met near the stations, as the early growth of saloons near Durham Station would attest. Also, increasing settlement from the growth of Durham brought increased attention that made it more difficult to carry on in isolation.

It seems that Pinhook had already begun to be supplanted by houses of some 'significance' by that time, as an 1887 map shows settlement along the south side of the railroad tracks.


Residents along what would be known as Railroad Street, eventually West Pettigrew, 1887
(Courtesy University of North Carolina)

Many of these people were associated with industry in Durham, such as JW Swift, a "tobacco buyer" who worked on Roney St., JA Long a foreman at the Duke Tobacco Factory, Dr. JL Watkins, a "leaf dealer" who worked on Morris St. JW Brooks is listed as a real estate agent in 1889, which makes me wonder if he was somehow involved in the 'gentrification' of Pinhook. Brookstown would be named after him, although I don't know his relationship to that African-American settlement to the southeast.

By 1892, Brooks is listed as a "plug dealer for Alliance Plug Factory" (plug was a type of tobacco) and as a resident of Caswell Hill. I do not know the origin of the name, but given that it is sometimes referred to as "Casewell Hill" (or Heights) and there is a Case Street, I assume that the name was somehow derived from a Mr/Ms Case, who I have not tracked down. However, all of the residents of this area are referred to as living in Caswell Hill by that year.

If there were any remnants of Pinhook by that time, the finality came when Ben Duke, George Watts, and William Erwin practiced the 1890s version of urban renewal (although they actually built something) acquiring large tracts of land for the construction of Erwin Cotton Mill and the surrounding village. By the time the original mill was constructed in 1893, and expanded in 1898, there was clearly no further evidence of Pinhook. Interestingly, Julian Carr would repeat this same pattern as he flattened Smoky Hollow to create Edgemont/Morning Glory (and Durham Hosiery Mill No.1 & Golden Belt) in 1901.


Site of Pinhook, looking north across the railroad tracks. The housing noted above was behind and to the right of the photographer.
(Courtesy Old West Durham)

With the construction of the Erwin Mill, Caswell Hill became part of the mill village, housing supervisors, owners and the like. Brooks and Swift seem to have disappeared by the late 1890s, although the 1910 map below still shows Brooks' name. It also shows that these houses were increasingly acquired by Erwin Mills to provide housing for employees. The area associated with Pinhook on the north side of the road/railroad was eventually redeveloped as part of Mill No. 4, built in 1909.


Caswell Hill, 1910. Houses owned by Erwin Mill are white, others are shaded.
(Courtesy Duke RBMC - digitized by Digital Durham)

Occupants of the specific houses on the south side of the tracks are difficult to track down prior to 1925, but a rather scattershot accounting of occupants from the late 1920s, late 1930s, and mid 1950s, living between the Erwin Auditorium and 14th (Rutherford) Street:

1709 West Pettigrew: Parks, PB; Byers, Walton V; Cooke, Robert
1715 West Pettigrew: Blacknall, JC Mrs.; Parks, Paul B; Byers, Walton V..
1801 West Pettigrew: Ward, WP; Blacknall, Josephine; Benson, Dwight M
1805 West Pettigrew: Poe, CT; Same; Same
1807 West Pettigrew: Cable, LB; Bunting Carl L; Woodruff, Percy and Hitt, Marlin
1811 West Pettigrew: Cooke, NA Mrs.; Gery, Delma; Jones, Thos.
1815 West Pettigrew: Hawes, AD; Heldman, Jas; Smart, Oscar
1819 West Pettigrew: Agner, AL; Agner, Adam; Nash, Chas E
1823 West Pettigrew: Byrd, WT; Same; Wiley William T
1825 West Pettigrew:Reese, AM; Faris, Aubry; Sam


A partial view of the houses along West Pettigrew Street, terminating in Erwin Auditorium (to be profiled next week), 1950s
(Courtesy Herald Sun)

It isn't clear when these houses were torn down, but they were certainly down by 1984, when demolition along West Pettigrew Street occurred in advance of the construction of the Erwin->15-501 leg of the Durham Freeway.

The below 1989 shot of the construction of Erwin Square shows the cleared land on the south side of the railroad tracks.


Looking north at the construction of Erwin Square, 02.01.89
(Courtesy Herald Sun)

Today, the location of Pinhook would sit around the roundabout entrance to Erwin Square, and in the no-man's-land between the railroad and the Durham Freeway - a desolate evolution for a place that once hosted such boisterous behavior.


Site of Pinhook, 06.13.09

I'm happy to report that the name has been rejuvenated in the form of a great little bar that opened last fall - not at Pinhook proper (as if it ever was) but at 119 West Main Street.

Find this spot on a Google Map.


36.006728,-78.925253