KING'S DAUGHTERS HOME / INN

"Old Ladies' Home", ~1910, looking northeast from Gloria Ave.
(From "Images of America: Durham" by Stephen Massengill

The International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons, per the organization's website, was founded January 13, 1886, as "an organization of Christian men and women dedicated to service in Christ's name [and] the development of spiritual life and the stimulation of Christian activities." A chapter was first organized in Durham in 1890; early efforts (beginning in 1892) included advocacy for the establishment of a hospital for Durham, which would be realized with the construction of Watts Hospital in 1895.

Smoky Hollow - the neighborhood heir of Prattsburg, located in the low ground east of present-day Elizabeth/Holloway St. - had been a source of public hand-wringing for the Durham establishment, particularly from the women of Durham's prominent churches . Much of the concern seemed to focus on delivering the "soiled doves" (i.e. women engaging in prostitution) of Smoky Hollow from their unfortunate fall from grace.

A new chapter (called a "circle") of the King's Daughters was established on January 3, 1903 in the "home of Mrs. MB Wyatt" of Cleveland St.; it would be known as the Sheltering Home Circle. It was comprised of 16 women (two from each of eight churches.) Their immediate concern was to establish a home for the "unprotected girls" of Smoky Hollow. (Which I find interesting and curious, as Smoky Hollow-as-place was obliterated by Julian Carr in 1900-1902 with the construction of Golden Belt and the Durham Hosiery Mill No. 1.) They also established a campaign on July 4, 1903 to provide "ice for the suffering poor" by placing collection boxes in local retail establishments - the first time this later-ubiquitous collection method had been done in Durham. They also established an "Exchange" - wherein the Circle established a shop/store where handicrafts and baked goods could be sold to raise money for the organization.

Not long after the campaign to save the women of Smoky Hollow began, the Sheltering Home Circle changed their plan. Whether they were unable to raise sufficient money for the chosen cause, the problem of Smoky Hollow seemed 'solved', or, as Jean Anderson states - "wiser heads persuaded them that they were not suited for this endeavor" - is unclear. Having changed their choice of charitable aim to the provision of a home for elderly women of meager resources, they found a new patron: Brodie Duke.

The catch-all destination for the impoverished, mentally or physically disabled, or criminal at the turn of the century was the Durham County Poor house. While the aim of the King's Daughters was to provide charity to all of the "unfortunates" of Durham, one can imagine that their sympathies would be particularly triggered by the notion of an elderly "worthy" (to use their term) widow who, due to certain circumstances would find her lot cast with the other residents of the Poor House, who perhaps, in the view of the King's Daughters, did not possess an equivalent moral rectitude.

Brodie Duke, who owned most of the land that would become Trinity Park, found his sympathies so triggered. He donated a 178 x 150 foot piece of land on Guess Road (later Buchanan Blvd.,) facing the Trinity College campus, as well as $500. The frame structure, sketched on a piece of paper by Lucy Lathrop Morehead, transformed into architectural drawings by Durham architect Hill C. Linthicum, and built by contractor John T. Salmon, was completed in 1911 at a cost of $8500; it could accommodate 16 residents. Immediately after opening, it housed 5 residents, a cook, and a "matron." It was, in the bluntly descriptive style of the time, referred to as "The Old Ladies' Home."

The cost to residents was $15 for a single room or $10 for a double room. Board, personal care, and laundry service were included. The matron was paid $10 a month; the cook was paid $2 a week. The home cost $26 to run in its first month in operation. Although the home was certainly a charitable endeavor, with the King's Daughters ongoing fund-raising efforts supporting much of the operational cost of the home, it was not charity without expectation; women were (variably) evicted for their inability to pay rent due. However, the King's Daughters lavished what funds they could raise upon the home; in 1913, they purchased a $100 piano for the home - the same amount they spent on all other charitable endeavors that year.

Duke purportedly called the intersecting street at the corner "Gloria" because of the "glory at aiding such a worthy cause." The cause that had been deemed not-as-glorious, shelter for women engaged in prostitution, was taken up by the Salvation Army, who provided such shelter at their building on Morris Street near Five Points.

The home was soon at capacity, and demand for additional rooms was such that the King's Daughters commenced fund-raising activities to build a larger home in 1922. They held an annual bazaar to raise funds; Brodie Duke had died in 1919, but his brothers Ben and Buck gave $35,000 to the building committee. Another $20,000 was raised from other sources.

In 1925, the organization commissioned a masonry Colonial Revival structure, designed by prominent architectural firm Milburn and Heister, which replaced the older structure. (The younger Milburn, Yancey, likely had a stronger hand in the design and execution than his father Frank, as he had taken residence in Durham during M&H's most prolific years of Durham design.) The old structure was "sold at auction." (I don't know if it was dismantled or moved.) During construction, the home used a "large house at the corner of Duke and Markham" as a temporary home. The new structure, designed to house 36 women and staff, built by CH Shipp's Consolidated Construction Company, opened on January 1, 1926, and had 35 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, and an infirmary.


Second King's Daughters Home, soon after construction (mid-1920s)
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection, Chamber of Commerce Collection)

The King's Daughters in Durham remained an active organization throughout the early 20th century, partnering with other organizations such as the Salvation Army, Associated Charities, the Elks, and particularly with the Children's Home Society of Greensboro to provide charity. They adopted a practice of so-called "friendly visiting among the poor" to determine if families with particular needs were "worthy" of assistance. (Worthiness seems to have been judged by whether 'moral transgressions' had contributed to the family's situation.) These visits were often made to the mill communities: West Durham, Edgemont, Commonwealth, and Pearl Mill. The King's Daughters would sometimes, with the help of the Children's Home Society, attempt to remove children from what they felt were unfit and unsafe circumstances for the children, to place them with “good Christian homes.” They also worked with unmarried pregnant women, often very young women, to find homes for them to stay in when they had been rejected from their own. They also took on the difficult task of trying to punish, or at least hold responsible, the men involved; they had worked in the 1890s, successfully, to raise a girl's age of consent from 10 years of age to 14; in 1910, they worked to raise the age of consent to 16, unsuccessfully, and sought to have the county enforce so-called "bastardy laws."

(As a bit of an aside, a second King's Daughter's circle was formed in Durham in 1948, known as the Sara Barker Circle.)

Broadly, the state of social welfare began to change (for the better) over the course of the mid-20th century, with a very gradual destigmatization of many of the circumstances that would have left a woman or a child deemed "unworthy" decades before, and the growth of a more robust county, state, and Federal-provided social service system. The King's Daughters' attention focused more squarely on the operation of the home on Buchanan Blvd.


King's Daughter's Home, 05.01.46
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


King's Daughter's Home, 05.01.46
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


King's Daughter's Home, 05.01.46
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


King's Daughter's Home, 05.01.46
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Use of the home continued to grow over the early to mid 20th century, prompting interest in expanding the facility by the 1950s.


King's Daughter's Home, 1950s
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


King's Daughter's Home, 1950s
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

In 1955, the Circle built an annex on the north side of the building, designed by architect George Hackney, which provided 12 additional bedrooms, an elevator, and an auditorium. At its peak, the home accommodated 34 women and 9 live-in staff.


King's Daughters Home, 1980

Over the latter half of the 20th century, patterns of care for the elderly changed, though, and, by 2006, only 3 women (and nine staff) remained. The Board made the decision to close the home and decided to sell the property.

It was purchased by Colin and Deanna Crossman in 2007. They began a full renovation of the property, transforming it into "a boutique Bed and Breakfast intended to serve Duke University and the surrounding communities," including, per the Herald-Sun:

[t]he restoration of wood details and windows, plumbing electrical updates, removing layers of Astroturf and other nonhistoric materials. The most dramatic transformation occurred in the front-entry, where a decades-old, two-story firewall was removed and the stairwell restored to its original configuration, based on an early photo and physical evidence. Public spaces were painstakingly preserved, while generally, pairs of rooms were combined to make a single suite with a private bath. To preserve the rhythm of the hallway openings, extra doors were sealed rather than removed. Transoms were fixed to meet code, but hardware was left in place for aesthetic and historic reasons.

In the large unfinished attic, Deanna Colin envisioned a loftlike living space for themselves that celebrated the riveted steel structure of the building. Bedrooms and bathrooms were constructed at each end of the space and an interior stair was extended to provide access to their new living quarters.

As a celebration of the building's history, each suite is named for a former resident or major supporter. Further, a mural was painted along the walls in the 1955 addition as a tribute to the King's Daughters. Thankfully, some furnishings from the original parlor, that had been sold when the residents moved out, were returned after the renovation was complete.

The renovation evidently also added a 10,000 gallon cistern and a rain garden to collect roof storm water run-off.

The newly-christened King's Daughters Inn opened on April 18, 2009, and by all accounts I've heard, it has been a great success.


King's Daughter's Inn, 10.03.09

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36.003742,-78.91215

ERNIE BARNES HOUSE

Intersection of Willard St. and Johnson St., 1959 - 1013 Willard is marked with the red dot. Note the two round houses on South Duke St. for orientation.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Ernest Barnes was born July 15, 1938, in 'The Bottoms' section of Durham - an area that sat at the southeastern base of Morehead Hill, along the lowlands of Third Fork Creek. This area, dramatically altered by urban renewal, centered around Willard, Carrington, South, Johnson, and Lakewood - with small alleys and the like extending between the streets. I wrote a bit about this area in a post about Willard St., here.

Barnes' father, Ernest Barnes Sr., worked as a shipping clerk at Liggett Myers Tobacco Company and his mother, Fannie Mae Geer, was employed as a domestic for Frank Fuller Jr. Fuller was a prominent local attorney who lived at 313 East Main St..

Per Mr. Barnes, Fuller took a liking to young Ernest and introduced him to classical art and music - Fuller would talk to him

"about art and life. He would call me into his study and allow me to look through his art books. I enjoyed this room of polished, mahogany walls with leather chairs, shelves of leather-bound books and the sound of classical music. He would tell me about the various schools of art, his favorite painters, the museums he visited and other things my mind couldn't quite comprehend at the age of seven."

Barnes thus had an unusual familiarity with the traditions of European art for a child growing up in the segregated South, in one of the most impoverished parts of Durham. Barnes' mother, though, was determined that her son would have exposure to an array of artistic opportunity. He thrived in the visual arts.

"She tried to get me to do all the things that would make me a culturally enriched person. She pushed me in the direction of art and music. I took lessons in tap dancing, saxophone, trombone, violin and piano. I was never in class. I was always off somewhere decorating stuff."

Per Barnes, he was overweight and extremely introverted making him a target for ridicule from the time he started the first grade through his junior year in high school at Hillside. He kept to himself, and to his sketchbooks.

"They hated me. My mother escorted me to school ten times before I could accept the fact that I had to stay there. I couldn't conform easily to the athletic ideal and was made to feel inadequate. I wasn't able to fight, to run fast, nor was I picked for rough games. I was introverted and shy. If there was a day that I did not come home in tears because of a fight, it could be attributed to sickness, the weekend, or it was rained out. I was beaten so severely, my mother requested that I be allowed to leave school fifteen minutes before the other kids, and permission was granted. When I was at home and drawing, I was happy. My senses addressed themselves naturally to the discovery of what I could make happen on paper. It was so easy. From the shrouded mists of my sensitivity, I made friends with lines, allowing them to flow into things belonging to my immediate environment; the trees, clouds, birds and people. In school, nobody laughed and made fun of me when I was drawing. They just watched in silent awe."



Barnes began to show athletic ability during his senior year at Hillside, and attended North Carolina Central University on a football scholarship, where he excelled at both football and art, his major. He was drafted into the American Football League, and spent the next five years playing for the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos. In 1965, New York Jets owner David (Sonny) Werblin recognized Barnes' artistic potential and replaced his football salary for a year so he could devote himself to painting.

Per Barnes' website:


"Barnes made his professional debut in a solo exhibition at New York's Grand Central Art Galleries. Soon after, Barnes settled in Los Angeles and approached Benjamin Horowitz of the Heritage Gallery but was turned down "because I was doing sports imagery. A major turning point in Barnes' career came in 1971. Following a solo showing at the Agra Gallery in Washington, D.C. -- hosted by Congressmen Jack Kemp and John Conyers -- he moved to an all-Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles known as the Fairfax District. Suddenly steeped in a culture that was rich in its own traditions, along with the humor and wit that had allowed its residents to survive poverty and the horrors of the concentration camps, Barnes learned to appreciate the milieu of his own roots - notably, the Segregated South of his childhood that embraced many of the same beliefs and had developed its own culture of coping with the hopelessness of racial discrimination, lack of education, and economic distress.

"Fairfax enlivened me to everyday life themes," he says, "and forced me to look at my life - the way I had grown up, the customs within my community versus the customs in the Jewish community. Theirs were documented, ours were not. Because we were so clueless that our own culture had value and because of the phrase 'Black is Beautiful' had just come into fashion, Black people were just starting to appreciate themselves as a people. But when it was said, 'I'm Black and I'm Proud,' I said, 'Proud of what?' And that question of 'proud of what' led to a series of paintings that became 'The Beauty of the Ghetto.'"

Barnes' landmark exhibition, "The Beauty of the Ghetto," marked the beginning of his Genre period. In 1972, it debuted at the distinguished Heritage Gallery, before beginning a nationwide tour to museums around the country -- hosted by such dignitaries as Ethel Kennedy, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, and Durham (North Carolina) Mayor James Hawkins.

In 1974, television producer and writer Danny Arnold, who collected Barnes' work, introduced Barnes to renowned television producer Norman Lear, the creator of the hit series, "All in the Family." Lear subsequently commissioned Barnes to paint a series of original pieces for his new television CBS sitcom, "Good Times," loosely modeled the Jimmie Walker character on the artist's life and work, and featured what would become Barnes' most famous work, "Sugar Shack," in the show's opening credits for four years.


The Sugar Shack
(Copyright Ernie Barnes)

Many of Barnes' early paintings are scenes of Durham, although they are not expressly labeled as such - but the houses, the Palace Barber Shop, the Roxboro St. underpass - are all familiar scenes of Durham in the 1960s. With the popularity of Barnes' work, bolstered further by the use of "Sugar Shack" as the cover of Marvin Gaye's 1976 "I Want You" album, there was a surge of interest in commemorating Barnes' work in Durham.


(Copyright Ernie Barnes)


The Roxboro St. underpass at Roxboro and Pettigrew - with the Hillside Band marching past.
(Copyright Ernie Barnes)


The Palace Barber Shop, in the 100 Block of South Mangum St.
(Copyright Ernie Barnes)


(Copyright Ernie Barnes)

The house where Barnes grew up had been taken by Durham as part of the urban renewal program. An article published in the Morning Herald in 1976 proposed saving the house - potentially by moving it to Fayetteville St. to become part of an arts complex with St. Joseph's.

The article, which I've transcribed here, was the unsigned editorial for August 10, 1976 in the Durham Morning Herald.


To Ernie Barnes, whose paintings of life on Durham's Willard Street hang in the homes of many prominent people across the country, his home at 1013 Willard ·Street is a symbol. It is the symbol of the life he knew as a youngster, a life that he has described eloquently: "When I was a child, we never knew the area in which we lived was a ghetto. It was home and there was fun to be had. It was an area which incorporated all of the values basic in humanity, dreams, wit, faith, love and a special chemistry which romanced our athletic prowess, earthy humanisms, rhythmic and colorful life style. All of the hardships and struggles were minimized and shared because people believed in God and therefore cared for each other."

But besides being a personal symbol, Mr. Barnes, the former professional football player whose artistic talents' have brought him fame, thinks his Willard Street home can be "a symbol for young people who need some sparks to ignite a self-awakening." It would be difficult to preserve the Barnes home on its present location. It stands in the middle of an urban renewal area that has been largely cleared and that is eventually to be the site of a new housing development. But why can't the home be moved to another location and preserved as the kind of symbol Mr. Barnes wants it to be and as a showcase for some of his paintings and other works of black art, culture and history? And what better location could there be than a plot adjacent to St. Joseph's A.M.E. Church, a structure that is also located in an urban renewal area but one that is going to be preserved. The church and the Barnes home could even become keystones of a complex devoted to articulating the rich heritage of Durham's black community.

Reached by telephone in Los Angeles last, week, Mr. Barnes expressed keen interest in the idea of moving his Willard Street home to a site near St. Joseph's. He said that if an effort to finance the, moving project were begun in Durham he might be able to obtain additional support from friends in Los Angeles. The project would be handled by the St. Joseph's Foundation or by any formal or informal group in Durham that was interested in contributing to the preservation of Durham's past. The talented Mr. Barnes has preserved his Durham past in paintings that have brought pleasure to many people around the country. The preservation of his Willard Street home would make some of those paintings accessible to the citizens of Durham, and it would serve to keep part of Durham's history alive.

Barnes' house was not saved, unfortunately. The land would be re-graded, and part of the Bottoms would become an apartment complex on the former west side of the former Willard St. Land on the east side would remain vacant or utilized for a parking lot.


Site of 1013 Willard St., 2008.

Barnes' popularity in mainstream America would wane after the 1970s - he continued to paint, however. It seemed as if Durham also forgot about Barnes. Personally, I had never heard of Barnes until I ran across the above Herald article ~ 3 years ago. I discussed an effort with several people to bring Barnes' work - particularly his scenes of Durham - back to Durham, to reconnect us, but it never went anywhere.

Barnes died earlier this year, on April 27, 2009. I had planned to write this post for awhile - whenever I got back over to this area of Durham - whenever I finally found a decent photo of his house, etc. His death garnered articles in the N&O and Herald, but I still think few local folks know Barnes and his work. I just read, however, that Barnes donated his work to the North Carolina Central Museum, and that it is on display - at least through the remainder of this week. I haven't been over to see it myself, but I hope that includes his earliest work of Durham. I have always been convinced that the Sugar Shack was somewhere in Durham (with its banners for WSRC and Elivra's.) I would love to know where it was.

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35.988121,-78.9076836

HESTER HOUSE - CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Simeon J. Hester purchased 576.5 acres of land in West Durham from William Willard in the 1870s; whether Hester built the house he would inhabit after his purchase is unknown, but architecturally, the house appears to be an early to mid 19th century structure with late 19th century embellishments/additions.


Durham County Map, 1890, showing Hester's home.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Scanned by Digital Durham)

Hester sold off portions of his land over the subsequent ~30 years to various entities. Much of the land to the south of his property was subdivided and termed "Hester Heights". Mitch Fraas wrote a nice three part series on the development of Hester Heights. The land to the west and north was purchased by John Sprunt Hill and developed as his Hillandale Golf Course.

It's unclear how the house was used after Hester's death in 1915, but by the mid 20th century, the house was somewhat of an 'island' at the end of Georgia Avenue.

In 1946, the Nature Center, which had been located in Northgate Park, moved to the Hester House. At some point around this same time, the center would be renamed the Children's Museum.


Hester House, 11.13.46
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)


1959 aerial showing the Hester House at the north end of Georgia Avenue, surrounded by the golf course.

In 1961, the Children's Museum moved north to a new facility on Murray Avenue, where it would be rechristened the Museum of Life and Science. The Hester house, along with the Hillandale Club House to the southwest, was demolished and the land redeveloped as a residential cul-de-sac.


Site of the Hester House, Georgia Ave., 10.12.09

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36.019923,-78.933027