[Durham INC] West Durham talk: Sunday at main library (Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

Please come...

Schelp to speak at Main Library
Herald-Sun, 4 Nov 2009

John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, will discuss the history of West Durham as a mill village at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Main Library, 300 N. Roxboro St.

Schelp will describe how the Erwin Cotton Mills, from their construction in the 1890s to their closure in the 1980s, were the driving force that made Old West Durham what it is today. 

The presentation is free and open to the public. For more information, call (919) 560-0268 or visit www.durhamcountylibrary.org.

Schelp’s presentation is in conjunction with "Piece Work," a performance about life and work in cotton mills, at Durham Technical Community College’s Educational Resources Center auditorium, 1637 Lawson St., on November 10 at 2 p.m.

Piece Work is the Touring Theatre of North Carolina’s original adaptation of North Carolina writer Barbara Presnell’s work of the same name.


More background...

Old West Durham
By Ashley Pieraccini, The Durham Flyer, Feb 2008

One of the first thoughts that come to mind when many people think of Durham is Duke University, and then, Ninth Street. These are the images we have of Durham. What we're picturing is Old West Durham, possibly the defining neighborhood of our city.  

There were settlers here as early as 1850, but Old West Durham as we know it really started in 1893 when Benjamin Duke and William Erwin opened their cotton mill on Ninth Street. As the land was cleared of trees to build the mill, the trees were used to build homes for the new members of the community. More than 1,000 workers moved into the surrounding area spanning 15 blocks, and encompassing 440 houses. Most of the homes had running water and electricity, but many did not have bathtubs or toilets.  

Intermixed with the modest mill houses were mansions built by the textile company owners. Several impressive churches also mark the neighborhood, along with a neoclassical styled bank building (now Bruegger's Bagels) and E.K. Powe Elementary school (named for the first general manager of Erwin Mills). 

Not long after the construction and success of Erwin Mills, Duke University (then Trinity College) built its West Campus [near] Old West Durham. Where Wallace Wade Stadium stands now, was once a ravine where pigs were kept, and adjacent to the football stadium parking lot, is the Rigsbee family grave yard, the final resting place of the original owners of the farmland that is now Old West Durham.

The neighborhood now is defined by Broad Street west to Hillandale Road and from Englewood Avenue south to the Durham Freeway. Today, Old West Durham has one of the most involved neighborhood associations in the city. Their neighborhood sign says it all: Diversity, Harmony, Community. The members of the association host annual events including picnics, holiday celebrations and walking tours. 

They have been actively involved in development decision-making, including offering input on plans for the development Ninth Street North and now Ninth Street North Phase II. The group has helped to increase the number of streetlights and sidewalks in their neighborhood, and is always working to assure public safety with their neighborhood watch program "Partners Against Crime."

Old West Durham has one of the most impressive Web pages of any Durham neighborhood association at www.owdna.org. An amazing amount of Durham history is beautifully archived in an easy to navigate Web site. The Web site has been recognized by the American Association for State and Local History and honored at a banquet in Rhode Island.  

One of its best features is the description of a self-guided walking tour around Duke University's east campus. The tour takes you to 18 stops from Broad Street and Perry Street at the break in the East Campus wall (you'll find out why there's a break in that wall), around to Ninth Street and Perry Street where you'll learn that Ninth Street was once a part of Highway 10, the first roadway to cross the state all the way from Tennessee to the Atlantic coast.

The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association has been honored with national, state and local recognition, including being designated a Local Legacy by the U.S. Library of Congress in 2000. In 1986, the area surrounding Erwin Mills, Ninth Street and the old mill village was added to the National Register of Historic Places.  

Next time you visit Ninth Street, or Duke University, think about the history of the little West Durham Mill Village that once stood here, and you'll have a greater sense of the history that surrounds you.


History of West Durham :: http://www.owdna.org/History/history.htm