Comments (0) The next D-OGS meeting will be Wednesday, October 5th at 7pm at Duke Homestead.
Map
The speaker will be Thomas H. Krakauer, Ph.D. He will be speaking about the Museum of Durham History, a new virtual community that ties elements of Durham’s past together into a cohesive story for generations to come. More information can be found on their website at the Museum of Durham History.
Sue McMurray
Sue McMurray will be presenting this Wed night, May 4th, at 7 pm. The program is entitled “Knowing your Forbears Inside and Out – based on the Writings of James Leyburn.”
We will be meeting at the Chapel Hill Library at 100 Library Drive, Chapel Hill, NC. Here is the map:
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Thank you,
Ginger Smith
The Durham County Library’s North Carolina Collection brings you a program entitled Sincere Forms of Flattery: Blacks, Whites, and American Popular Music, which will be held Sunday, March 20 at 3:00 in the Main Library Auditorium, 300 N. Roxboro Street.
Durham’s own Billy Stevens will talk about American popular music as a product of the South’s unique culture. Focusing on North Carolina and Durham in particular, he uses musical instruments and rare recordings to illustrate the relationship between blues, ragtime, and the tobacco culture of the Piedmont. The result is a better understanding of how our music reflects America’s social fabric, affirming the contributions of performers both famous and forgotten.
Stevens has extensive international touring experience, speaking throughout the world about American music, as well as many years experience as a solo artist with a variety of bands. He has a master’s degree from the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
For more information, please contact Lynn Richardson at the North Carolina Collection, Durham County Library, (919) 560-0171 or lrichard@durhamcountync.gov.
The next D-OGS Meeting will be held on Wednesday evening, 1 September, 2010 at 7 p.m. at the Duke Homestead Visitor’s Center, 2828 Duke Homestead Road, Durham 27705. Phone: (919) 477-5498 – One-half mile from I-85 and Guess Rd (Exit 175), Follow the brown historic site road signs.
The program for this meeting will be presented by Frank DePasquale. The title for the program is Downtown Durham Building Architecture & History.
Frank DePasquale graduated from the NCSU School of Design in 1951. He is a founder of DTW Architects & Planners, Ltd, a group responsible for the planning of several Durham Schools. He has been highlighted on the Triangle Modernist Houses website for homes he’s designed throughout Durham. He is President Emeritus of the Historic Preservation Society of Durham and was a recipient of their prestigious Bartlett Durham Award in 2000.
Please join us in learning about how Architecture has helped to shape the history of Downtown Durham.
Exposed cobblestones and Trolley tracks on Mangum St, in front of City Hall, downtown Durham. Photograph taken 21 August, 2010 and is copyright Ginger R. Smith, 2010
A few weeks ago, I came across this post on the Endangered Durham blog about some cobblestone and trolley tracks that were exposed on Kent Street in Durham during a repaving project. I made plans to drive around until I found them before they were paved over. I never did accomplish this. However, a couple of weeks ago, we were driving through downtown Durham on the motorcycle and my partner pointed out to me the exposed cobblestone and trolley tracks on Mangum Street in front of City Hall. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I told her we definitely had to come back and photograph it before they completed the repaving project.
Yesterday we managed to photograph the exposed cobblestone and trolley tracks. It wasn’t an easy feat because this is actually a heavily traveled road. Luckily my photographer is great with lighting and centering and took a great picture on the first try. I’m not sure what the passerby’s thought of my standing in the middle of the road.
Back to the photo….
Notice how the cobblestones on the left of the picture are laid kind of diagonally but the ones under my feet are laid in a straight line. We were curious to know why this was. Was there originally some kind of aesthetic pattern in the road? Gary actually created a map of the trolley line as it originally went through Durham in the early 1920s here.
I had first heard of this in Raleigh in front of NC State University on Hillsboro Street. There was a big discussion about whether the City was going to rip the tracks up or leave them down and “rebury” them again with the new paving project. They seem to be able to remain intact whilst buried, and I think it’s a very cool sight to see when its uncovered! I’m glad we were able to get a glimpse of this part of Durham’s history!
Exposed cobblestones and Trolley tracks on Mangum St, in front of City Hall, downtown Durham. Photograph taken 21 August, 2010 and is copyright Ginger R. Smith, 2010.
This picture was taken a little further up the block. These cobblestones all seem to be going diagonally. The trolley track is on the left hand side of the picture.
How about in your area? Have you noticed any exposed cobblestones or trolley tracks during your City’s repaving projects?
Dear Friends,
Don’t miss this upcoming program-”A Community Dialogue about School Desegregation”-part of the North Carolina Collection’s Commemorating Courage series, presented with Duke University’s Pauli Murray Project.
The program will be held this Sunday, August 22, to honor the first African-American students to integrate several of Durham’s previously all white schools and to mark the 50th anniversary of the first of these students to graduate from Durham High School. We invite you to bring your memories of Durham or the places you grew up-to share your stories and learn from the stories of your neighbors.
Thanks for helping to get the word out! I look forward to seeing you on the 22th.
Lynn
Lynn Richardson
North Carolina Collection
Durham County Library
(919) 560-0171
The following query was submitted by: Kelly Southard
Address:
514 Ashley Court
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Phone:
919-942-6796
Email:
kellyjordanmatt at yahoo dot com
Surnames: HARWARD & SOUTHARD
Kelly writes:
Seeking information on Bera Harward born about 1902 in North Carolina and lived in Durham, North Carolina. She married Arthur W Southard (nickname Wilkes). Interested in knowing Bera Harward’s death date and place of death, along with place of burial.
The next D-OGS Meeting will be held on Wednesday evening, 7 July, 2010 at 7 p.m. at the Duke Homestead Visitor’s Center, 2828 Duke Homestead Road, Durham 27705. Phone: (919) 477-5498 – One-half mile from I-85 and Guess Rd (Exit 175), Follow the brown historic site road signs.
The program for this meeting will be presented by Lynn Richardson, NC Room director at the Durham County Public Library on Roxboro Street. The title for the program is The Bull City–A Short History of Durham, North Carolina.
This presentation is a whirlwind tour of the highlights of Durham history. Lynn Richardson, local history librarian for the Durham County Library’s North Carolina Collection, will talk about the local American Indians and the explorers who first “discovered” them, settlements that predated Durham (and a bit about their reputation!) and Durham’s founding, the Civil War and the tobacco boom it engendered, the entrepreneurs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Durham’s two institutions of higher learning and how they got here, the beginning and growth of the Civil Rights Movement, and urban renewal and its consequences. Pictures from the library’s photo archive will enhance the talk.
From: James Stewart
Fuquay Varina, NC 20744
Email: djnazz1@hotmail.com
Query:
I am looking for the date and location for both the marriage and death of my great grandfather, Bud Spence. He was likely married sometime around 1910, and lived in either Durham or Fuquay Varina, NC. One of his daughter’s birth names was Lillian Spence. Thanks.
Join the Sierra Club and Get Up & Go Durham on April 10th, 2010 at 9:00 AM for our annual neighborhood hike through East Campus, West Durham & beyond. This walking tour will be narrated by our local history lover John Schelp.
Saturday, April 10 at 9:00 AM
Meet at Markham & Buchanan
Was Duke Chapel really going to be built in Walltown? What Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist went to EK Powe school? What song writer for Nora Jones and Lou Rawls was “born on a kitchen table” behind Magnolia Grill? Why is Ninth Street called Ninth Street? Where did Madonna take early dance lessons?
Come along and find out…
1920 Street Map: Trinity College is shown on the right while the Erwin Cotton Mill is on the left (where the three railroad spurs extend north into the mills). The West Durham mill village is north, west and south of the mills. Walltown and Trinity Heights are north of the college while Trinity Park lies to the east. Courtesy of Durham County Library.
The 4-mile loop starts at Markham & Buchanan (at the old City limits).
We’ll start by walking past the homes of Duke’s famous faculty and coaches on Buchanan, including the father of Duke basketball. We’ll go down Watts Street, past Trinity Park park, and then walk across East Campus to Ninth Street.
We’ll stroll up Ninth, past EK Powe, and see the South Ellerbe Creek Nature Area. We’ll walk through an old mill village, see some old liquor houses and a parsonage that was ordered from the Sears catalogue. We’ll continue up Oakland, past Oval Park, and Indian Trail Park in the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood.
We’ll head east along the West Ellerbe Trail in the 17-acre wood, then walk past the old Watts Hospital and cross Club Blvd (near 9th Street). We’ll go down a hidden alley, head over to Walltown and hear about Duke’s original plans to build here. Then through Trinity Heights and back to where we began.
You’ll see a little nature and learn some Durham history along the way. We might even get into current events in the Bull City.
Local history lover John Schelp will narrate along the way. You don’t have to register. Parking is available on streets near Markham and Buchanan.
2008 Walking tour. Image courtesy of Ildar Sagdejev
Co-sponsored by the Sierra Club and Get Up & Go Durham.
Please visit the History of Old West Durham website for more information.
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