[Durham INC] House on Old West Durham Home Tour featured in Sunday's Herald-Sun

[John Schelp]

Save the date: you will get a chance to see this and other houses on the Old West Durham Home Tour on Sunday, October 18 (details to come)...

Your Community: Hobgood-Tate House
Herald-Sun, 20 Sept 2009

When you turn onto the 1000 block of Edith Street and see the quaint little turn-of-the-century home at the end of the dead-end road, it's difficult to imagine that it was once the center of fierce controversy in Durham. 

Originally sited at 1704 West Markham Ave, the Hobgood-Tate House appears to have been built around 1910-1911 by RM Hobgood, a postal clerk. The house changed hands several times after 1911 before being bought by WG Tate, an agent for Imperial Life Insurance Co. in May of 1920. By 1933, Erwin Mills bought the house and it became a genuine "mill house," remaining rental property under several different owners until 2008. In 2006, the then-owner decided to demolish the little house and redevelop the site. It's location in the Trinity Heights Local Historic District, however, necessitated approval by the Historic Preservation Commission, who instead delayed demolition for the maximum 365 days.

During the delay, the owner was persuaded to donated the house to someone who would move it. John Martin was up for the challenge. However small, it was still too large to move through the streets of Durham intact.

The front and rear porches were removed and the L-shaped four-room house cut into two pieces and loaded onto trucks. In May 2008, the house made its move from Markham Avenue to its new location on Edith Street.

After settling on its new foundation, restoration work began in earnest. The front porch was reconstructed using original posts, brackets and railings. Original siding, doors, and windows were retained and repaired. Chimneys were reconstructed and the house was enlarged by adding two bedrooms, a bath, and closets at the rear of the house. The back rooms are connected to front of the house by a hallway where side porch once was and dining area, laundry and bath were constructed off that hallway, resulting in a U-shaped house.

Inside, original doors, windows, and moldings were repaired. Bead board ceilings and original quarter-sawn, heart-pine floors were restored. A wall on the left side of the entrance hall was re-installed and original wainscot was revealed and repaired and a chair rail added.  

The house seems perfectly at home in its new location, a far cry from the partially deconstructed building that was loaded onto a truck not long ago Though a small house, this project was, by all accounts, a big renovation and for his efforts we would like to present John Martin with the Neighborhood Conservation Award.

--> Broadcast: see the Hobgood-Tate house before & after... http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6580329