Endangered Durham

(Courtesy Durham County Library)
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

Snow Day - February 1st, 1948.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

(You win an EDdie award if you can tell me where this is - I don’t know the answer.)

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The small town of Bahama evolved much as Durham did: a crossroads settlement that solidified its position as the center of (very) local commerce with the addition of a rail line.

This rail line was the Durham and Lynchburg railroad, which was established around 1890. This line branched off from the main North Carolina railroad line through Durham just east of the core of Durham, near where Prattsburg had been located. (A small segment of this line, which runs past Golden Belt and the John O’ Daniel Hosiery Mill is still in operation in Durham, I believe only as a siding for Southern States.)

The Durham and Lynchburg Railroad established small depots in Durham County at Willardsville, just to the east of Orange Factory, another near a small crossroads community originally established around 1750, known as Balltown (located at the juncture of the Raleigh-to-Roxboro and the Hillsborough-to-Oxford Roads), and a third at Rougemont.

The new station at Balltown became a focal point for some additional growth, and the older crossroads community 1 mile to the south, known as both Round Hill and Hunkadora (one of my favorite lost Durham names) faded in importance.

1887 Map showing Hunkadora, and the Ball property at the crossroads.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by digital Durham.)

The former Balltown community became known as Bahama, pronounced Ba-Hay-Ma, a portmanteau from the surnames of three prominent area families, Ball, Harris, and Mangum. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Bahama had grown to establish a post office, the A. W. Tilley and Turner and Hill stores, a graded public school with three teachers, and the Tilley Brothers’ Roller Mill. The Durham and Lynchburg railroad became the Durham and Northern Railroad, and later the Norfolk and Western railroad.

1914 Map showing ‘Bahma’ junction.
(Courtesy University of North Carolina)

Following World War I, the Umstead Bothers’ converted the Roller Mill into the Bahama Milling Company, which, under the ownership of Bradley Mangum, continued operations into the mid-twentieth century.

Teasley’s store, 08.27.52
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Teasley’s store, late 1950s/early 1960s.
(Courtesy Bob Blake)

Bahama train depot, 1950s.
(Courtesy Robby Delius)

Dedication of the then-new Bahama post office, 04.17.66.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

I don’t know when the Norfolk and Western Line north of Durham was abandoned, but it has been long enough for reasonably sized trees to have grown up through the tracks. The mill has been closed a long time as well, and the depot at Bahama was torn down.

Bahama has retained its small-town character and charm with a variety of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century buildings. The Parrish store evidently attained some renown in the early 1990s for hosting regular festive dances, leading to Bahama being profiled in media such as Life Magazine, National Geographic, Our State, Down Home in North Carolina, and Charles Kuralt‘s On the Road.

Parrish’s Store ~1990.
(Durham County Historic Inventory)

Parrish’s store is now a gun shop, lowering Bahama’s national profile. The town is a favorite spot of mine to swing through on a a nice drive through northern Durham county (if I could hack it, I’m sure it would be a great bike-riding waypoint.)

The former Teasley’s Store, at 1424 Bahama Road, 10.26.08 - now owned by the Bahama Volunteer Fire Dept. (Hopefully not for one of those ‘practice’ burns.)

The former Parrish’s store at 1425 Bahama Road - now Drye’s gun shop, 10.26.08. You can tell that I took these pictures in October.

A former gas station at 1500 Bahama Road, now a church, 10.26.08

1502 Bahama Road, 10.26.08

1501 Bahama Road, 10.26.08

1505 Bahama Road, 10.26.08

1523 Bahama Road, 10.26.08

Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church. - 1605 Bahama Road, 10.26.08

1623 Bahama Road, 10.26.08

1519 Bahama Road

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36.16609,-78.876187

Horton Grove Dwellings, 02.07.09

Horton Grove served as the farming center of the Bennehan-Cameron plantation (Stagville and Fairntosh) by the mid-19th century. Paul Cameron oversaw the building of the houses for enslaved workers on the plantation in 1850, likely based on Duncan Cameron’s design. The two-story structures were highly unusual, and of very high quality for such dwellings. They are only examples that remain standing in North Carolina. Jean Anderson notes that the design the houses, 4 rooms on each floor separated by a 4 foot hallway, was nearly identical to a design Duncan Cameron devised for housing to be constructed on Bennehan Square in Raleigh.

The Big Barn associated with Horton Grove, likely designed in part by Paul Cameron, was the last structure built on the plantation by enslaved labor. It was and is an impressive structure: 135 feet long, 33 feet wide on a stone foundation. The mortise and tenon trusses, with pegged, protruding tenons are impressive enough to me in and of themselves. The structure is two stories tall and was completed in 1860.

Big Barn, 02.07.09

Horton Grove was occupied by tenant farmers after emancipation and reconstruction; at least one dwelling was still occupied in the 1970s. The site was added to the National Register in 1978, and given to the State of North Carolina by Liggett and Myers. It is part of the Stagville state historic site and can be toured for free.

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36.125804,-78.839859

Fairntosh, 1950s
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The site of Fairntosh was originally part of the Stagville Plantation, owned by the Bennehan family. After Duncan Cameron married Mary Benneham in 1803, the couple lived at Mary’s homeplace, Stagville for several years before beginning building their own house in 1810.

Fairntosh began with the gift of 300 acres from Richard Bennehan to Duncan Cameron, evidently for the express purpose of building a house. The house was initially called Woodvill(e) by the Camerons, but by 1813 they seem to have settled on Farentosh/Fairntosh - after the birthplace of the Reverend John Cameron in Scotland. They appear to have moved to the house ~1811, and certainly by 1813.

The kitchen building was added in 1814. Piazzas and colonnades were added by 1817, and a chapel, named Salem, was built in 1825-6. Numerous farm buildings, overseer houses, houses of enslaved people, and other buildings were added during the mid-19th century.

With the death of Richard Bennehan, Stagville passed to Thomas Bennehan. Duncan Cameron was clearly the manager of the large plantation by that time, and Fairntosh was its epicenter. The Camerons continued to acquire land during the entire 19th century, and the plantation encompassed ~30,000 acres by 1890.

While only a portion of this land was farmed, it obviously took a great deal of labor to sustain the business of the plantation, which was provided primarily by enslaved people. Paul Cameron, Duncan’s son, held a large number of enslaved people, ranging from ~600 to approximately 900. They farmed wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, cotton, and tobacco and also raised sheep and cattle.

A general renovation and reconstruction of the buildings occurred in the 1850s, including renovations of Fairntosh the construction of houses and the big barn at Horton Grove.

After emancipation and Reconstruction, the houses and farm fell into some disrepair. Duncan Cameron - this one being Paul’s son - began to adapt the farm to a system that did not rely on slavery, and began to refurbish the buildings. Duncan, however, died in 1886 from cancer - before his father Paul, who died in 1891.

When Paul died, the massive plantation splintered, but Bennehan Cameron, who had lived at Stagville during the 1880s, inherited the tracts of land with Stagville and Fairntosh on them. After his brother Duncan’s death, he came to live at Fairntosh.

Bennehan, like his father and grandfather, trained as a lawyer, and soon veered into politics. The rise of Durham to the southwest brought him into business ventures there. By 1897, he had moved to Raleigh, and Fairntosh remained, as Stagville, under the guidance of an overseer. Presumably there were tenant farmers and hired labor who tended to horses, livestock, and crops.

Bennehan died in 1925. Fairntosh and Stagville languished during the mid-20th century, falling again into disrepair. Fairntosh, then 3600 acres, came into the hands of Cameron’s daughter, Sally Labouisse, who renovated the house during the 1950s.

Fairntosh, 1950s
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Fairntosh, 1950s
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Fairntosh, 1950s
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Fairntosh, 1950s
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Fairntosh, 1978.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Fairntosh, 1978.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

She sold the property to William McFarland in 1974. Sometime thereafter it came into the possession of Terry Sanford, Jr.; I don’t know the history of the development of Treyburn, but all of Treyburn was once part of the Stagville-Fairntosh plantation, and I assume that Sanford acquired Fairntosh and the land at the same time. As of ~2005, Sanford, developer of Brightleaf Square and the Erwin Mill/Erwin Tower, still lived at Fairntosh.

The sign out front was rather uninviting, so I don’t have any present-day pictures of the house, which isn’t visible from the road. Maybe if someone knows Terry Sanford, they can get me in for some pictures.

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36.106312,-78.83199

The construction of Stagville Plantation arose from Richard Bennehan’s trek south from Virginia in 1768 to work with William Johnson at his store on the Snow Hill Plantation. He managed Johnson’s store, living at Snow Hill for 8 years. It appears that he fought for the rebel side in the Revolutionary War - likely fighting in the Battle of Moore’s Creek.

With proceeds from his labor at Johnson’s store, Bennehan purchased 1213 acres of land from Tyree Harris, former Sheriff of Orange County. Bennehan and his new wife, Mary Amis, moved to Harris’ old homeplace, the Brick House Plantation. Bennehan’s wife had inherited money as well as five enslaved people from her father; she evidently brought these people with her to the Brick House plantation.

After Johnson’s death in 1785, Bennehan became executor of his estate; he sought a new method of remuneration. He purchased 160 acres of land from the Stagg family, known as “Stagg’s Old Raw Ground” on the deed, but also likely referred to as Stagville prior to Bennehan’s purchase. The land was bisected by the Old Indian Trading Path, which was the primary north-south route leading from Petersburg to the Catawba Indian land at the South Carolina border and the Cherokee land in Georgia. Johnson’s store had been located on the trading path, and Bennehan likely saw significant advantage to having land on the path. His new location was also close to a pathway leading to Person County, and another leading southeast into Wake County.

In 1787, Bennehan opened a store at Stagville, and somewhere between 1788 and 1790, he built a small, 24ft x 16ft house which later became the small wing off of a larger structure. A kitchen, smokehouse, milkhouse, and several cabins where enslaved people lived were constructed during this same period. A blacksmith shop was added in the late 1790s.

The Bennehans appear to have prospered, though not ostentatiously, at least in comparison to some of the excesses that characterized southern plantations. In 1799, the original house was expanded with a larger addition, transforming the original house into a small wing. Though more stately than the original structure, the new structure was again unadorned with architectural ornament - a simple colonial style structure. By that year, Bennehan owned 3,914 acres of land. He had added barns, granaries, cribs, and stables. He also kept 42 enslaved people.

The Bennehans had two children, Rebecca and Thomas. Rebecca would marry Duncan Cameron in 1803. In 1802, Richard Bennehan had purchased an additional 600 acres of land on the north side of the Neuse River, 10 miles from Stagville. He built a second store at the ‘Fish Dam Ford’ on the Fish Dam Road.

In 1806, Richard established a partnership between Thomas and his new son-in-law, Duncan, to run this store, and he conveyed 2,283 acres of land to them as part of this venture. This was a predecessor to a second contract between Cameron and Bennehans in 1807 that would consolidate Cameron’s pre-existing land holdings with Bennehans, and form a vast tract of 6000 acres overseen from Stagville. This would be the genesis of Farintosh, Cameron’s estate built in 1810 (and the subject of my subsequent post.)

The center of the ever-growing estate shifted to Fairntosh, particularly after Richard Bennehan’s death in 1825. Thomas Bennehan inherited Stagville and lived there until 1847. Bennehan-Cameron land holdings would eventually grow to ~30,000 acres.

In the 1880s, after inheriting both Stagville and Fairntosh from his father Paul Cameron, Bennehan Cameron moved to Stagville and began refurbishing the house. By 1887 he had moved to Fairntosh. After his death in 1925, Stagville fell into disrepair.

Stagville, 1930
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

In 1950, the Stagville-Fairntosh estate was divided between Cameron’s daughters, and Stagville was sold to a timber company. After removal of the tract’s trees, the timber company sold the house and land to Liggett and Myers Lige which donated the complex to the State of North Carolina in 1976. The Bennehan House was placed on the National Register in 1973.

Stagville is currently a state historic site, and can be visited for free.

Stagville main house (1788 and 1799 construction), 02.07.09

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36.120028,-78.83715

Two little green signs have appeared on the former Graybar Electric building in the past few weeks, courtesy of our pals at NIS.

Evidently, your commercial building lacking running water and power is a condemnable offense, but should that not suffice, you can always write in the unassailable and undefinable “Unsafe!”

So, let me run down the chronology here: City of Durham takes possession of this 1930 commercial structure sometime in the early 1990s, neglects building for 10+ years, transfers building to the Triangle Transit Authority for a train station development that is in the deep freeze, and now wants to tear down the building as unsafe.

If you’re new to this scene, this might sound a bit, well, inane. If you’ve been on the Durham scene awhile, you’ll recognize it as more of the same.

Let’s enumerate the reasons why tearing down this building is - I’ll be charitable here - misguided.

1) As much as I’d like one, there is no TTA train, and no funding that I know of for Triangle Transit (as they are now called) to develop this triangle of land (between S. Duke, West Chapel Hill, and the RR tracks) into anything positive. Tear down this building, you have a big vacant lot.

2) News flash: we are in a recession. Despite the fact that it is traditional in Durham to tear down buildings when economic times are tough, it is a bafflingly bad idea. Tear this down and we reduce the available square footage for businesses downtown - who could use inexpensive commercial space now, more than ever.

3) Why do we have a Green Durham / Sustainability Manager if we are going to continue the unsustainable practice of tearing down existing buildings, particularly those close enough to multiple businesses and transit to promote walking and minimize car trips?

4) Historic Tax Credits - though not currently on the National Register, this building certainly would stand a good chance of being listed; 40% of the renovation costs could be returned to a developer who would take this on. See #2 - tax credits are a very good thing to bring in front of your friendly neighborhood lending institution right now.

5) It’s Durham’s history - I leave the historic reason for last, since it remains such an unpersuasive argument for our public sector. But families in Durham remember places like this - their Mom worked there, or their uncle was the regional sales manager, etc. I received a great email from someone at the national Graybar office who was happy to see the building was still around - he sent me clippings from their files about the branch in Durham. These are the things that make us unique, interesting, and connected to our past and each other.

Building codes are in place in order to ensure that occupied buildings meet a safety standard that we can rely upon, and that the public health isn’t threatened by a building that is going to collapse on the sidewalk.

Who is this building unsafe for? It isn’t in danger of collapsing on anyone. Why this particular building? Why now?

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35.997747,-78.908541

Orange Factory was established in 1852 (so named because it was the first factory in then-Orange County,) by John Douglas and William Lipscomb on the banks of the Little River. The Little River was one of the three rivers of now-North Durham County (the Eno, the Flat, and the Little) that drew settlement and the establishment of industry that utilized the water power that the rivers provided. Much of this settlement came east from Hillsborough, the county seat.

The factory itself was first built as a frame structure, and the original dam across the Little River was made of wood as well. The mill was purportedly 94 feet high from base of foundation to peak of roof. The mill produced plaids, ginghams, ticks, tobacco bags, rope, twine, toweling, yarns, and thread. In 1859, Orange Factory post office was established. By 1860, the factory was producing 140,000 pounds of cotton yarn and employed 50 people, 30 women and 20 men. The factory utilized both water and steam to power its machinery.

During the Civil War, 3/4 of the production was for Confederate government contracts; the factory produced Confederate military uniforms. Although Sherman rode through the town with his troops, the town was spared Sherman’s ‘total war’ destruction because, to quote one of his soliders “there weren’t nothin’ there but just poor folk.”

In 1864, the factory was purchased by William H. Willard, who in turn sold the factory to SW Holman in 1873.

A mill community, initially comprised of only 4 houses, grew around the town. Approximately 24 dwellings were constructed, including a 20 room boarding house known as “the twenty house” as well as two general stores run by AG Cox and SW Holman, a schoolhouse, and Riverview Church served the mill village. WH Moise ran a tailoring store called “Billy Button.” A grist mill was established that utilized the water power from the factory dam.

By 1880, the factory had 42 looms and 1300 spindles; in 1887 Willard repossessed the factory, and renamed it the Willard Manufacturing Company. WC Holman was vice-president, and SW Holman was superintendent. The factory was producing rope, twine, hosiery yardage, and seamless bags from sweepings procured from the Pearl Mill in Durham.

It may have been at this time that the original frame mill was replaced with a brick masonry structure, 3 1/2 stories with low-sloped roof, thick brick walls, and eight-over-sixteen sash windows. A smaller three-story wing projected from the west facade and a four-story tower was attached to the south side of the factory.

In 1904-5, AG Cox took over ownership of the factory along with James Mason (after unsuccessfully trying to persuade Benjamin Duke to join him.) Mason moved to the former Lipscomb House to be closer to Orange Factory, which the pair renamed again, as Little River Manufacturing Company. This name wasn’t to last long, as JA Long of Roxboro purchased the mill in 1916, and renamed it the Laura Cotton Mill, which made yarns and “striped convict cloth.”

In 1938, the mill was sold to the Roxboro Cotton Mill and was shut down. The community around it largely fell into ruins thereafter.

In 1983, the Little River was dammed to create an additional water supply reservoir in Durham County - flooding the site of the village and the original mill.

Orange Factory house, early 1990s.
(Courtesy Durham County Historic Inventory)

Orange Factory house, early 1990s.
(Courtesy Durham County Historic Inventory)

Orange Factory house, early 1990s.
(Courtesy Durham County Historic Inventory)

2-3 houses remained, although two were removed after Hurricane Fran badly damaged them.

It appears that Riverview Church may be the only still-extant structure associated with the original mill village.

Old Orange Factory Road, looking northeast, 02.07.09.

Riverview Church, looking southwest, 02.07.09

The reservoir, and site of the town, 02.07.09.

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36.128932,-78.875892

Among the early structures scattered through northern Durham County, the Lipscomb House/Arrowhead Inn is potentially the most recognizable and recognized. A large stone arrowhead sits at the corner of the property, marking the location of the old Indian Trading Path.

The property’s European roots date to 1755, when Joseph Brittain received a grant of over one thousand acres of land from John, Earl Granville. The land was transferred from Brittain to William Cain, and through family to Edward Davis and his wife, who acquired the land, and perhaps a house. In 1834, Davis sold the property to someone with the surname Lipscombe, who is surmised to be John D. Lipscombe, a wealthy planter and, for a short time, partner (1856-57) in the area’s first textile industry, the Alpha Woolen Mills.

Around 1835, Lipscombe constructed a side-gabled Federal-style house, joining it to an earlier two-story dwelling that is now a rear wing. Early-and mid-twentieth-century additions surround this central structure. A one-story wing on the east, a two-story wing on the west that includes an enclosed porch, a large rectangular one-story shed that covers the rear facade, and a colossal portico added to the front facade have expanded and modified the appearance of the house.

The Lipscombe House is now the Arrowhead Bed and Breakfast Inn, named for a stone arrowhead at the corner of Roxboro and Mason Roads, which marks the route of the old Indian Trading Path.

Arrowhead Inn, looking northeast, 10.26.08

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36.118195,-78.903956

Christian’s (West Point) Mill, 1890s.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection - Wyatt Dixon Collection)

West Point may the most persistently relevant site in Durham - a place of importance to Native Americans, early European settlers, and present-day residents of Durham.

The West Point area was well-known to the Eno Indians, who appear to have utilized the area for hunting and fishing as well as its numerous springs.

The first mill at West Point was established around 1778 by William Thetford and Charles Abercrombie; the location was just downstream from the Synott mill (considered the first mill on the Eno River) and adjacent to Shoemaker’s Ford and the then-new Roxboro Road.

William Ansley bought Abercrombie’s mill in 1786 along with the old Synott tract and additional land to the south of it. William Ansley sold to George Carrington, under whom the mill lands were extended to over one thousand acres. This land came into the posession of Herbert Sims in 1817 when Carrington’s ran into financial trouble.

Herbert Sims was a justice of the peace, colonel in the local militia, representative to the General Assembly for Orange County, and a renowned local figure. The mill community prospered under Sims; he ran the mill from 1817 until he died in 1843, after which his widow, Rachel Cabe McCown, and stepson continued the operation. Rachel’s father, John Cabe, had established other mills on the Eno River: both his own, upstream from present day Cole Mill Road, and another for Rachel’s first husband, Moses McCown, at the Cole Mill Road crossing.

Under Carrington’s ownership, the community had consisted of a grist mill, a store, a dwelling, and a tavern. Under Sims, the community expanded greatly, adding a blacksmith shop, cotton gin, oil mill, saw mill, still, and a general store. The general store sold all variety of goods - from surviving ledgers, these included clothing materials, grocery, furniture, coffins, meat, whiskey, coffin, books, stationery, and the patent medicines of the day. 300 families called the area home. In 1839, a post office was established at the mill - as the western terminus of the mail route from Raleigh, the mill and community became known as West Point.

In this heyday of mills on the Eno, 32 mills would be established along the river.

John Cabe McCown, later owner of the West Point Mill during the period after the Civil War, built his Greek revival farmhouse residence at West Point in the 1840s.

Near the end of the Civil War, General Sherman stationed Brevet Major General Kilpatrick’s cavalry unit at West Point during negotiations at Bennett Place. Additional troops appear to have congregated at West Point, causing no small amount of trouble; Kilpatrick evidently threatened to hang the miller of West Point and “people buried their molasses and hid their daughters” while the troops were stationed nearby. General Sherman’s field orders reference the mill community:

“The general commanding announces to the army a suspension of hostilities, and an agreement with General Johnston and high officials, which when formally ratified, will make peace from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. Until the absolute peace is arranged, a line passing through Tyrrell’s Mount, Chapel Hill, University, Durham’s Station, and West Point, on the Neuse River, will sepa-rate the two armies. Each army commander will group his camps entirely with a view to comfort, health, and good police. All the details of military discipline must still be maintained, and the general hopes and believes that in a very few days it will be his good fortune to conduct you all to your homes. The fame of this army for courage, industry, and discipline is admitted all over the world. Then let each officer and man see that it is not stained by any act of vulgarity, rowdyism, and petty crime.”

The Cabes, McCowns, and Sims were present at Bennett Place for the surrender.

John Cabe McCown managed to keep the mill running after the end of the Civil War, but economic circumstances were difficult, and sold a half-interest in the mill to William Lipscomb in 1869, and lost the other half to him in 1873. Lipscomb, however, married McCown’s daughter, Mary, keeping the mill in the family.

In 1888 Lipscomb sold the mill to W.J. Christian; the frequency with which the mill is referred to as ‘Christian’s Mill’, and the road to Roxboro referred to as “Christian’s Mill Road” attests to the prominence of the mill during this period.

In 1891 McCown’s house was sold to Presley J. Mangum, an early Durham postmaster who had lived in a house on East Main St. on the later site of Alexander Ford left Durham to move to West Point. Hugh Mangum, Presley Mangum’s son, was an early photographer out of Durham, who took numerous photos throughout the southeast, preserved on glass plates. (The collection is housed at Duke, and digitally available for perusal. Hugh had been born in the East Main St. house, but moved with his father to West Point in 1893.

Increasingly, Durham became the epicenter of the area; Lipscomb (1883) Christian (1888-89) and John Cabe McCown’s son, Moses Ellis McCown (1898-1901) all served as mayors of Durham.

Hugh Mangum photograph of the mill, likely from the flood of 1908.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

Early 20th century postcard of the dam at “Christian’s Mill”
(Screenshot from “The Story of West Point”, accessed here.)

In 1909 Mrs. Mangum wrote to her son Hugh Mangum:

“We had a big rain Friday and the branches and river was out of the banks. Knox Vaughan’s corn land was under water yesterday. He had it already to plant. I think he will have to plow it again before he plants it now. Christian has sold the mill to Jim Hopkins and Will Holloway so it is no more Christian’s Mill; some way it makes me sad to think about it, but I guess it is for the best for they intend to improve things around there, and Christian would not as long as he could get 30 dollars rent as it was. They gave him forty-five hundred for it. After they bargained for it, another man offered him five thousand, but it was too late. I know it made him sick to lose that five hundred dollars. Durham is still moving out this way; it will get here some day if it keeps on. I don’t expect to see it, but some one will if time still lasts.”

The mill at West Point, in operation since 1778, stopped running in 1942 after 164 years when a freshet (flood from spring thaw) cracked the dam.

The Mangum family occupied the McCown-Mangum house until 1968. The house and land were sold to Ervin Industries, a housing and commercial developer who purchased 700 acres of land along the Eno River, along both sides of Roxboro Road, intending to develop the east side of the road into a shopping center and housing development, and the west side (present location of West Point Park) into office towers and condominiums. The house and mill were left to looters & vandals, the pond & garden behind the house bulldozed.

Fortunately, the Eno River Association had been thrust into existence and organization several years earlier to combat the city and state plan to dam the Eno River, creating another large reservoir for drinking water. When Ervin Industries began to implement its plan, with bulldozers on site to demolish the McCown-Mangum house, the Eno River Association managed to necessitate an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The cost and delay involved pushed Ervin Industries to sell the portion of the land holding th
e mill and house to the city. A look at the blight that is the east side of Roxboro Road, across from the present-day park, should induce a shudder as to what the park might have become.

The house and mill were in poor shape by this time.

Abandoned, dilapidated McCown-Mangum house, 03.17.70
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

McCown-Mangum house - although this was in a folder with the same date as the above picture (3.17.70) it appears that work is underway, and this is sometime later.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The mill, before 1973.
(Screenshot from “The Story of West Point”, accessed here.)

The mill, before 1973.
(Screenshot from “The Story of West Point”, accessed here.)

In 1973, as plans were being implemented for the formation of the park and restoration of the house and mill, the foundation of the mill gave way, and the mill collapsed.

Collapsed West Point Mill, 1973.
(Screenshot from “The Story of West Point”, accessed here.)

Collapsed West Point Mill, 1973.
(Screenshot from “The Story of West Point”, accessed here.)

100 additional acres of purchased and donated land were added to the park, and in 1974, a master plan for the park was developed. Through the use of photographs of the original mill, remains of the framing, and the intact foundation, the mill was reconstructed with materials from other local grist mills.

Rebuilding of the mill, 1970s.
(Screenshot from “The Story of West Point”, accessed here.)

Rebuilding of the mill, 1970s.
(Screenshot from “The Story of West Point”, accessed here.)

The 1840s McCown-Mangum house was renovated as a museum with period furniture, and an original packhouse became a museum for Hugh Mangum’s photography.

West Point park was dedicated in July 1976. Soon thereafter, the reconstructed mill was completed, complete with functional machinery that can grind corn and wheat with water power. The NC Folklife festival was held in the park in 1978, and the first Festival for the Eno was held on July 4, 1980, and has been held every July 4th since.

McCown-Mangum House - 01.17.09

West Point Mill, 01.17.09

The park is a jewel of the city park system, a wonderful respite from the pace of Durham daily life, and Eno Fest has become a mainstay in what makes Durham Durham - an integral part of our culture. The Eno River Association and the Friends of West Point Park continue to advocate for protection of the entire Eno riparian corridor.

Most recently, this has been threatened (once again) by the legacy of the Ervin Company, which had rezoned portions of the land for dense residential development, notably a section that was not acquired in the establishment of West Point Park, known as Black Meadow Ridge. Ostensibly, the logic behind the rezoning was to ‘match’ the intended Eno Drive construction.

Black Meadow Ridge sits south of the current park, near Roxboro Road. The Ervin Company transferred the land to Ray in 1984, undeveloped. The land had remained undeveloped until 2004, when a purchase agreement was signed between Ray and Sun Forest Systems of Chapel Hill - a real estate development company that intends to develop 119 single family dwellings and 206 townhomes on the site.

The Friends of the Eno and Eno River Association, along with surrounding neighborhoods, have sought to preserve the Black Meadow Ridge site from inappropriate development. The solution has revolved around an exchange, wherein West Point on the Eno would be transferred to state of NC control and the state would purchase Black Meadow Ridge to make it part of the park / Eno State Park.

I’m not familiar enough with the entities to know whether this is a good, bad, or neutral idea from a management perspective - undoubtedly, as with all such decisions, there are elements of good and bad. From my experience as a patron of both Eno State Park and West Point, both seem to be well-managed. Some compromise is undoubtedly worth stomaching for land preservation. I would hope that landowners and developers would consider looking beyond their narrow self-interests when it comes to greenfield development, but that seems like an unlikely turn of events (although one of the side benefits of our current economic situation is to, hopefully, destroy the proformas of greenfield developers.)

I hope that, someday, I’ll be able to ride a bike up the north-south greenway from downtown to West Point on the Eno, and hike or ride from there to Cole Mill Road, and maybe even to Ochoneechee Mountain near Hillsborough. That’s going to take a lot of beneficence on the part of landowners, some strength by our city, county, and state governments, and a proactive rather than passive role of the city/county Planning Department.

Find the mill on a Google Map.

Find the McCown-Mangum House on a Google Map.

36.06931,-78.90907

(Lochmoor, date unknown, likely ~1920. Scanned from an Eno River Association Calendar - I’d love to track down the original photo to scan if anyone can help.)

Lochmoor was most well known as the ‘country estate’ of Edward James Parrish, Durham’s first tobacco auctioneer, and builder of the first brick warehouse in Durham.
Lochmoor’s origins are a bit confusing, as the historic inventory seems to state that Lochmoor was both EJ Parrish’s “original homeplace”, and that the main structure dated from ~1850, when EJ Parrish was 4. Jean Anderson states that Lochmoor had been part of the Horton estate when it was acquired by the Lockharts (John Lockhart was married to EJ Parrish’s sister) in 1870.

Parrish was born in 1846, near Pound Hill post office and moved “from Orange County” (the county that Durham was in at the time) to Durham in January 1871 to open a grocery and confectionery. It appears that his initial business was not that successful, and he became an auctioneer in the Reams Warehouse - the first tobacco warehouse in Durham, which stood on the current American Tobacco property, approximately where the Hill Warehouse is located. Parrish He left Reams in 1873 to establish his own warehouse with JE Lyon, called the Farmer’s Warehouse; however, his business succumbed to the Panic of 1873. Parrish leased back the old Reams warehouse in 1876, the same year, he built a beautiful Second Empire structure at the northeast corner of East Main St. and N. Dillard St.

‘Captain’ Parrish (so titled for his position in the Durham Light Infantry) also built his own auction warehouse in 1879 - the first brick warehouse in Durham in what is now the 100 block of East Parrish Street; obviously the street was named after him. It was the first warehouse to feature skylights to provide a better view of the tobacco leaves to prospective buyers.

In September, 1886, Colonel Parrish bought the Z. I. Lyon Company’s factory, which manufactured “Pride of Durham” tobacco.

In October, 1886, a fire stared downtown, which consumed a substantive portion of the town, including Parrish’s warehouse, destroying that together with his steam plant and buildings on the other side of the street - a total loss of $140,000. Parrish subsequently built a new, larger warehouse on the north side of the street and built an office building named, appropriately,the Parrish Building on the site of the original warehouse.

Parrish lived in the house at East Main and N. Dillard until 1898 (when he sold the house to Richard H. Wright.) Having lost a great deal of money in the depressions of 1893 and 1898, he was ‘rescued’ from his debts by the Dukes. He became a representative for the American Tobacco company he traveled to Japan to open new markets. Upon his return, in 1904, he originally intended to build a new house just to the east of the courthouse. However, he instead bought the farm that had belonged to his brother-in-law, John Lockhart and, later, the extended family of another sister - the Moores. He called his estate Lochmoor to honor his sisters.

Parrish expanded the original 1850s farmhouse with multiple additions, adding a two-story classical portico and multiple open and closed porches. He developed the farm with shrubs, flowers, fruit trees, beehives, livestock, and domestic animals. He lavished a great deal upon the farmstead - the best that his money could buy.

In 1909 and 1911 , Parrish built an arcade of shops and a hotel adjacent to the courthouse. The venture was not very successful, yielding to the more well-appointed and large Hotel Malbourne across the street, but the subsequent owner renamed the hotel the “Hotel Lochmoor” in honor of Parrish.

Lochmoor, late 1910s.
(Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory)

Lochmoor, late 1910s.
(Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection)

Parrish died in 1920 and is buried in Maplewood Cemetery. Lochmoor was auctioned off as several smaller farms in 1922. Below, the auction flier, provided by Dave Piatt

It was bought by William M. Piatt, an engineer originally from Tunkhannock, PA who had started an engineering firm in Winston-Salem before coming to Durham in 1910. When the city of Durham decided to shift its water supply from the Eno River to the Flat River, Piatt’s firm executed the design of the Lake Michie dam. In 1922, Piatt, his wife, and their children moved to Lochmoor. Piatt also was the engineer for the primary Durham waterworks at Hillsborough and Hillandale Roads, as well as multiple sewerage plants in Durham.

Lochmoor, likely 1950s
(Courtesy Dave Piatt)

Lochmoor, 1950s-1960s
(Courtesy Dave Piatt)

Lochmoor water tower, 1950s
(Courtesy Dave Piatt)

Lochmoor in snow, 1950s-1960s.
(Courtesy Dave Piatt)

After his death in ~1961 and his wife’s death several years later, the house passed through a number of owners. The property appears to have been subdivided during the 1950s-1960s to build housing, including Argonne Hills.

By the 1970s, the house had gained a reputation as a party house inhabited by various wildly-inclined young people; it was dubbed ‘The Plant(ation).’ Per David Southern

“The place was famous for its Chili Wars, and when the NC Folk Life Festival was staged at the nearby West Point on Eno Park, the denizens of the Plant countered with their own Forklift Festival.”

The house was still standing in 1980.

Lochmoor, 1979-1980
(Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory)

Water Tower, 1979-1980.
(Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory)

The house and surrounding buildings were torn down in 1985 by the City of Durham (by NIS’s predecessor.)

The northern extent of the property was developed as JFK towers, a senior housing development, but the site of Lochmoor has never been developed. You can see the old entrance to the driveway on your right as you head north on Roxboro Road, across from Argonne Hills.

The stone entry from Roxboro Road, 10.26.08

Looking up the former driveway, 10.26.08.

I believe this was the site of the house, although it is very overgrown, and it was hard to tell. I should really go back now that it’s winter. Below is the only evidence of one-time habitation I could find - a foundation. Given its position and size, it might have belonged to the water tower.

10.26.08

Find this spot on a Google Map.

36.064028,-78.903801

Liggett and Myers Operations Center, 1967.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Although I don’t know the motivation behind the construction of the Liggett and Myers Operations Center out North Roxboro Road in 1967, I’d like to think that the large neo-colonial structure was meant to evoke the image of the other tobacco magnate manses - Bonnie Brae and Lochmoor - along this stretch of roadway.

By 1974, the company moved its central operations from New York to Durham -and this building became the world headquarters for Liggett and Myers. As such, it represented an interesting second peak for Durham’s importance in the tobacco industry - just as the manufacturing and auction sales were waning.

I’m not sure when Liggett pulled out of this building for good; the building was occupied by GTE for a number of years, and, I believe, currently houses an array of office tenants.

Former Liggett and Myers world headquarters, 10.26.08

Find this spot on a Google Map.

36.047321,-78.90054

(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

I’m a bit embarrassed by the lack of detail in this post, but I’ve found information difficult to uncover at best. The aerial above shows Fairfield Road, North Duke St., Roxboro Road, and Duke Homestead Road in 1959 - the mostly rural nature of the landscape is even more evident in a non-zoomed view of this, but clearly the large tract in the center featured another of the large houses lining this portion of Roxboro Road.

I haven’t been able to determine when North Duke Mall was built - I can trace the deeds back to 1973, when a series of merged partnerships result in the transformation of what was entitled “North Duke Plaza” into North Duke Mall. But there I’ve hit a bit of a dead end. So the best I can say for now is that, sometime before that, it appears that this land was purchased, house demolished, and a mall built. That mall is now North Duke Mall.

2007 aerial.

Shops, shops, shops, 02.07.09

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36.049069,-78.904576

The last of the large ’summer houses’ of Durham’s early industrialists along Roxboro Road to remain standing in its original setting/location, the Teer House was built in 1915 for Nello L. Teer. Born in 1888, Teer started work in the East Durham brickyard of his father, Washington Teer after having dropped out of school at age 9. A work accident amputated his right hand in 1906, ending his brickmaking career. However, by 1909, he started his own paving business, early on winning contracts to macadamize Durham’s roadways. His immediate success is evident in the construction of this house 6 years later, when Teer was 27 years old. Over time, Teer built his paving business into a major company that paved thousands of miles of roadways - throughout NC, the US, and the world, including the Pan American Highway in Central and South America.

Nello Teer’s brother and partner in the company, Hubert Teer, built another well-known house in Durham: the large colonial revival house at Chelsea Circle and Hope Valley Road with miniature version of same in the yard.

Aerial showing the Teer house just to the north of the housing development; Bonnie Brae - Richard Wright’s house - is to the right, across Roxboro Road.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

After Teer’s death in 1963, his children gave the house and surrounding land to Duke. Dr. Kempner utilized the house for one of his Rice Diet clinics for several years, and Duke later used the house for a Faculty Club, and later yet, a nurses’ training center.

Duke appears to run a health system community education program out of the house now; the house and grounds have been undergoing extensive renovation of late.

Teer House, looking west, 01.17.09

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36.044651,-78.903865