JOHN CHEEK HOUSE, 201 South Driver Street The original 1898 house was a one story gable and wing house with high Victorian ornamentation but around 1925 it was significantly enlarged with craftsman style touches. Despite the decline of the neighborhood during the 1990s, owners Kim and Karen Sage kept working at restoration of their house, returning it from apartments back to a single-family residence with a respect for the architecture of the house and an appreciation of its significant features. Now they have turned their attention to improving the neighborhood and are active participants in their neighborhood organization, Uplift East Durham.

PENNY FURNITURE BUILDING, 111 W. Chapel Hill Street This commercial building in the heart of Downtown has been restored by Cynthia Hill to accomodate a residence upstairs over commercial space below. Much of the original structure had been destroyed in a fire in the 1970s, and the facade was restored based on old photos of the building. Many of the features in the residence are recycled products from within this building or other buildings, including the sliding fire door at the entrance to the bedroom; cabinets, sinks, and countertops in the kitchen; and the wood doors from Duke University.

TOM WILKIINSON HOUSE, 406 E. Markham Street This custom-built Colonial Revival home was designed by local architect Tom Wilkinson as his own home in 1940. Eugene Brown and his wife Signe have made numerous renovations to the house since they purchased it in 1984, most recently a project to improve the traffic flow in the home. The house has many attractive hallmarks of the 1940s, and all of the changes the Browns have made are sensitive to the house’s architectural style. Eugene is particularly proud of the newly landscaped yard that includes two 900 gallon koi ponds which inspired the house's new name: Fallingwater.

*JAMES S. MANNING HOUSE, 911 N. Mangum Street This outstanding example of Victorian Queen Anne architecture was built around 1880 for attorney James S Manning. When Jeff and Trudy Burdette moved in in the fall of 1996, the house needed a lot of work. Jeff and Trudy repaired, refinished, rebuilt, and refinished the house from top to bottom while saving the many original features. The Burdettes have also worked with Preservation Durham to convert several houses in the surrounding Old North Durham neighborhood to owner-occupied status and to assist in preservation efforts for these houses.