[Durham INC] DIY East Campus walking tour; three Postcards talks now on YouTube

[John Schelp]


Dear neighbors,  

All three of my talks, Postcards from Durham, are now posted to YouTube… 
-Part 1: West Durham, Duke, Erwin Mills, etc,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN0Wi5ww9xw

-Part 2: Watts Hospital, Christian’s Mill, downtown, etc,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZZZK6n1PEY 

-Part 3: more downtown, Hayti, NCCU, beginnings of RTP, etc. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1GTFdRh3Ug

Also, a neighbor asked for another walking loop idea so, thought I’d share something I wrote years ago...
 
Walking tour around East Campus (updated) 

Why is Ninth Street called Ninth Street? What song
writer for Nora Jones was 'born on a kitchen table'
near the East Campus wall? Where did Richard Nixon
live as a Duke Law student? What's the origin of
Walltown? Where did Elvis go for re-hab? These
questions and more will be answered during your
self-guided tour. 
 
Start on Broad, across from Whole Foods Market.
Your route will take you along the gravel path by
the East Campus wall and offer forays into the
surrounding neighborhoods.
 
Stop #1) Broad & Perry, break in East Campus wall: 
 
OK, let's get started. Some folks ask why the stone
wall around East Campus (built in 1916) stops for a
stretch along Broad Street? 
 
Before West Campus was built in the late 1920s, the
Duke (excuse me, Trinity College) football team played
their home games at Hanes Field -- named after the
Winston-Salem benefactor who made underwear.
A red-brick wall with several ticket windows facing
Broad Street once stood where the cedar trees now
Grow tall. Today, the field hockey team plays here. 
 
Across the street is the neighborhood of Old West
Durham, a turn-of-the-century mill village that is a
national historic district. Today, it is home to Ninth
Street, Monuts, the city's oldest fire station, and the
Erwin Mills cemetery
 
Follow the gravel path inside the wall (to the south).
 
Stop #2) Corner of Broad & West Main: 
 
The large gray houses across the street belonged to
managers of the nearby cotton mills. In the early
days, living alongside the rail road tracks was
considered desirable. 
 
Beyond the gray houses was the African American
settlement of Brookstown. 100 years ago, a brick yard
(owned by the Fitzgerald's -- one of Durham's many
successful African American families) made bricks for
most of the tobacco factories and textile mills.
Today, the old brick yard is the site of Duke's
Freeman Center. Like Hayti and Hickstown, Brookstown
suffered a great loss when the Durham Freeway was
built through the community in the 1970s and 80s. 
 
The hamlet of Pinhook was located near the large gray
Erwin Square tower to the west. Established before
1850 (and before Durham existed), Pinhook was half-way
between the old colonial capital in Hillsborough and
the new state capital in Raleigh. The camp ground and
tavern was a 'roaring old place' where travelers could
relax after a long day's walk.
 
Stop #3) Free-speech tunnel: 
 
Across the railroad tracks stands Duke's Center for
Documentary Studies. The two-story white frame
building is a wonderful resource that's worth a visit
(a place where town and gown communities often come
together). 
 
Stop #4) Main entrance: 
 
Look all the way up the quad to Baldwin Auditorium.
The shape of East Campus roughly follows the shape of
the original horse race track at the old Blackwell
Fairgrounds. 
 
Worried after Meredith College declared they wouldn't
locate in a 'rum-soaked mill village' -- Durham
business leaders topped Raleigh's offer of Pullen Park 
and $25,000 -- with the offer of these 62 acres and $85,000 
for buildings and endowment to bring Trinity College to 
the Bull City in 1892. (Duke historians say the college 
would not have survived the Depression of 1893 had 
they remained in Randolph County.) 
 
In 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt stopped his train
across West Main Street to extol the college's recent
courageous stand for academic freedom (Bassett
Affair).  
 
Just past the rail road tracks is the Smith Warehouse.
The largest of the twelve warehouses operated by
Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co, now Duke classrooms
and offices.
 
Stop #5) Grove of magnolia trees: 
 
The original entrance road onto East Campus ran
straight through the grove of magnolia trees. Look
back to the East Duke Building and you'll see large
trees lined up on either side of the old roadway (on
either side of the statue, The Sower).
 
Hidden behind the large magnolia tree in the back [was]
the Ann Roney fountain (ca. 1901). This tribute is
important because Ann Roney took care of Washington
Duke's two sons after their mother died. The Duke
family went on to become the university's major
benefactor (building West Campus and changing
Trinity's name to Duke). [Today, this fountain has no
plaque, no indication of the role Ms. Roney played in
Duke's history. Getting a plaque made would be a
wonderful project for a student group.]  Fountain 
was later moved to Duke Gardens.
 
Stop #6) Corner of Buchanan & Minerva, Trinity Park: 
 
At the small break in the wall, cross Buchanan Blvd
and walk up Minerva Ave into the neighborhood of
Trinity Park.
 
Although many of Trinity Park's early settlers were
connected with Trinity College, the majority were
merchants, businessmen and professionals. In contrast
to Durham's late 19th-century neighborhoods, fewer
Trinity Park residents were directly associated with
tobacco and textiles. They were part of the broader
local economy produced by their families' successes in
Durham's leading industries. These younger generations
chose not to live in the older neighborhoods where
they grew up close to Durham's mills and factories. 
 
Stop #7) The Elvis Presley House: 
 
When you arrive at Minerva and Watts, look across the
street at the large dark brick house with green tile
roof. Local lore holds that Elvis Presley came here
for drug re-hab. Turn left onto Watts and walk up
to the neighborhood park on the corner.
 
Stop #8) Community park: 
 
In the 1970s, developers tried to build apartments on
this corner. Neighbors mobilized, bought the land and
built this corner park instead. Keep walking up Watts
until Urban St and turn left back to East Campus.
 
Stop #9) The Ark: 
 
By the break in the wall, look to your left at the
three-story, white-frame building. The Ark is so named
because students had to walk in pairs to make it up
the narrow entrance-way into the building. Built of
salvaged wood from the grandstands at the old race
track, one of the first college basketball games in
the state of North Carolina took place in 1906 at the
Ark.
 
Following a "humdinger" of a Southern Conference
tournament in 1928, the Atlanta Journal wrote: "That
Duke is going to be a big factor in conference is
certain. They have already done enough in basketball,
whether they win the title or not, to make their
school remembered in Atlanta. In football, wrestling,
boxing, baseball and track, the baby member is going
to make the old timers look to their laurels. And we
don't mean maybe." 
 
Stop #10) Markham & Onslow, Trinity Heights: 
 
Following the path around the bend, walk out through
the break in the wall. Behind Bassett, Baldwin, and
Pegram, you can still see the old curves of the horse
race track where the ground slopes.
 
Cross Markham and walk up Onslow Street (to the
north). One of the first planned residential
developments in Durham, Trinity Heights has
traditionally been home for folks from a broad range
of backgrounds and interests, including employees and
students of Trinity College.
 
Stop #11) Onslow & Green: 
 
Across Green Street is the community of Walltown. In
the late 1880s, a young African-American man named
George Wall followed his job with Trinity College to
Durham. Wall bought a wooded plot of land north of
what is now East Campus. Walltown became a
neighborhood for mostly African American workers
moving into the Bull City for jobs in the tobacco
industry. The narrow shotgun houses and small
residences provided easy access to the tobacco
factories. Mature hardwood trees now provide cool
summer shade on these same streets. 
 
Walltown's east-west streets were lettered and its
north-south streets were numbered. So, you're now
standing at what was once 3rd & B streets. (Ninth
Street is called Ninth Street because of Walltown.) 
 
The neighborhood is crisscrossed with deep gullies and
creeks. When this area of Durham was first developed,
wealthy interests purchased the highlands for larger
homes -- leaving bottomlands for smaller dwellings in
gullies. If you drive along the length of Englewood
Avenue, for instance, you'll see larger homes in
elevated areas and smaller homes as the street goes
downhill. Historically white Watts-Hillandale, Trinity Park
Duke Park occupied higher ground while historically black
neighborhoods, like Walltown, occupied the creek bottoms.
 
Stop #12) Green & Berkeley:
 
For many years, the block of new residences between
Berkeley and Sedgefield was mostly open space. More
Recently, Duke developed the land by building homes
For university employees. (And loaned millions to local 
banks to redevelop/gentrify Walltown.)
 
When Trinity College first began making plans to
expand and become Duke University in the 1920s,
administrators purchased this land and thought about
extending the original campus to the north. When word
got out about Duke's plans, real estate prices in
Trinity Heights soared. The idea was dropped and,
Instead, school officials bought the Rigsbee farm to the
southwest. 
 
Had the expansion plans been kept secret, Duke Chapel
and the quad might have been located about where
you're standing now. The Rigsbee family's pigs might
still be running around their ravine -- where the Blue
Devils now face football foes on what is today called
West Campus.  
 
Stop #13) Green & Clarendon: 
 
Take a look down Clarendon, towards East Campus. When
he was a Duke law student, Richard Nixon lived in the
two-story blue house at 814.
 
Nearby (across from East Campus) is the Broad Street
BP station. Recently planned as a large
'interstate-style' gas station with two rows of pumps,
three neighborhoods mobilized to come up with the
smaller pitched roof design you see today.
 
Stop #14) Green & Iredell: 
 
Hall of Fame song writer John D. Loudermilk was 'born
on a kitchen table' just north of here. Loudermilk
wrote some 1500 songs, including 'Tobacco Road' (sung
by Lou Rawls) and 'Turn Me On' (performed by nine-time
Grammy winner, Nora Jones).
 
In the early days, the entire area smelled like a
Laundromat -- from the hot, soapy water being
discharged by the textile mills into South Ellerbe
Creek nearby. 
 
Stop #15) Green & Ninth:
 
This is the heart of Old West Durham. Long-time
residents recall that a sawmill was placed in the
middle of the nearby woods to cut the planks to build
the first houses in the mill village. Company housing
was modest with coal stoves and running water. Most
had electricity. Several Italian stonecutters who
helped build Duke's West Campus lived in this
neighborhood (and near Clarendon & Club and
in shacks near what’s now the Emergency Room
at Duke.
 
To the right is EK Powe Elementary. One block north 
is the best donut shop in in the Southland: Monuts.
The two-story red brick building on your left is Ninth
Street North -- a mix of retail and office that replaced
a block of old vacant storefronts. 
 
Several groups have volunteered in Old West Durham 
-- doing everything from picking up trash along creeks 
and railroad tracks to fixing up the elementary school 
gardens and nearby Erwin Mills cemetery. 
 
Turn left and head up Ninth Street. Durham's first 
Kentucky Fried Chicken stood where 810 Ninth is today. 
The owner asked Col Sanders if he could call his franchise,
"Pete Rinaldi's Kentucky Fried Chicken." The colonel
agreed -- making this restaurant one of a few KFCs in
the nation to carry its owner's name. 
 
Stop #16) Ninth & Markham:
 
On the corner, Vintage Home South used to be a bakery 
that elderly residents say, "smelled wonderful and made 
the best donuts in town". Generations ago, the vacant
Thai ice cream store was Pender's grocery – famous for 

its wagon which delivered goods to the mill village.

Dain's Place was the original Ninth Street Bakery.

 
Established in 1922, McDonald's Drug Store (was) the
oldest business on Ninth St. Dogstar Tattoo, was once
West Durham Cash Store which sold dry goods. Both 
are now gone. 
 
The Regulator Bookshop was originally Cheek's Dry
Cleaner's. Folks thought the glass blocks were a bit
fancy for a mill village shopping district. Blue Corn 
Cafe were once Rambeau's Barber Shop and nearby 
was a pool hall -- Ninth Street's roughest spot. Most 
neighborhood kids were not allowed to pass through 
its doors. 
 
Stop #17) Erwin Cotton Mills:
 
The long red brick building on the hill across the
street seems to be an almost forgotten footnote of
history. And yet the Erwin Cotton Mills were the
driving force that made Old West Durham what it is
today. Started by the Duke family the same year
Trinity College came to Durham (1892), the new 
company bought several adjacent tracts of land and 
built the mills, picker building, dyehouse, boiler room, 
and engine house. The steady noise of the mills
reverberated throughout the surrounding village. The
humming roar so pervaded the workers' consciousness
that they noticed it only when it ceased, making
Sundays seem unnaturally still. 
 
To help protect what’s special about 9th Street, the
neighborhood association negotiated with developers
and the City to limit the height of buildings on the mill side
of Ninth to 50% 3-story and 50% 4-story – and the buildings
on the Regulator side to 2-stories. Also worked out
setting aside property taxes to pay for new street lights,
trees, trash cans and sidewalks.
 
Stop #18) Lower Ninth Street:
 
Vaguely Reminiscent once served as both Kime Barber
Shop and the West Durham Beauty Shop. Art Craft
Framing was Morgan's Cafe for many years. The night of
Martin Luther King's assassination, the front of
Morgan's Cafe was hit with a lit gasoline-filled
bottle. Farther down, Couch's Furniture Store was
burned to the ground. 
 
Native Threads once housed the popular Ruby's Cafe.
Ninth Street Flowers was Brewer's Drug Store for many 
years.
 
Brueggers Bagels is in the old Fidelity Bank. A couple
of two-story mill houses stood across Ninth St from
the old bank. Don Schlitz grew up in one of these houses
and went on to compose, "The Gambler" -- the song made
famous by Kenny Rogers that was eventually made into
a movie. 
 
Stop #19) Ninth & Perry: 
 
In the 1920s, Ninth Street was part of Old NC 10 --
the first roadway that crossed the state (going from
the Atlantic coast to the Tennessee border).
 
Turn left onto Perry Street. Once called Hillsboro
Ave, Perry connects Ninth Street with East Campus.
Here, you can see two of the nine churches that started 
in the mill village: Blacknall Presbyterian and St Joseph's
Episcopal.
 
Stop #20) Break in East Campus wall: 
 
Congratulations, you're done. Hopefully, this 
tour will give folks a better sense of place for the 
neighborhoods beyond the walls and may help open 
more connections between Duke and the surrounding 
community. Come back for another visit, you're always 
welcome!

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20200418/aaa49d70/attachment-0001.htm>