The Northwood Apartments on Geer Street
are a Place in Peril in 2011.
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Preservation Durham introduced its inaugural Places in Peril list on March 31, 2010. A new list of Places in Peril will be chosen each year by public nomination and through activities of Preservation Durham in the community. To be considered, a property must be culturally or historically significant; actively endangered; and able to benefit from increased public awareness its perilous situation.
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Preservation Durham has three goals for Places in Peril.
- Raise community awareness about Durham's architectural and cultural history
- Galvanize the public to act to preserve historically and architecturally important properties
- Raise awareness about Preservation Durham and its activities
Places in Peril in 2011 include the home of a Civil Rights pioneer, Mid-Century Modern commercial and residential buildings, a classic downtown office building, and a street full of Victorian homes. Preservation Durham is seeking the assistance of the media to help raise awareness of the threat to these properties and their ongoing effort to focus on the long-term preservation of Places in Peril. The program is also designed to remind the community that Preservation Durham is an organization to which they can come for information and help in preserving threatened parts of Durham's heritage.
We look forward to working with the community to preserve the indispensable elements of Durham's heritage that are Places in Peril. Look here for updates on places listed in previous years. In the years ahead, this program will help the Durham community celebrate preservation accomplishments and inspire us all to continue this vital work in the future.
PLACES IN PERIL 2010
JOIN PRESERVATION DURHAM
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| 2011 PLACES IN PERIL |
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500-600 BLOCKS OF HOLLOWAY ST
Dating from the 1880s to the 1910s, this neighborhood has some of the best examples of Victorian architecture in Durham. Unfortunately, like much of downtown, the area fell into decline in the 1960s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and became Durham’s first local historic district in 1987. While the streets immediately to the north have seen a resurgence of owner-occupants and significant re-investment, vacancies continue to plague this historic corridor. |
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What's Needed: Several homes in the 500 block have sold recently and Preservation Durham would like to see the remaining vacant homes on these blocks revitalized and occupied as single-family homes. Infill construction that is complimentary to the neighborhood's unique scale and architectural detail would benefit the neighborhood, along with extension of downtown streetscaping.
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ELIGIBILITY BUILDING
Main Street at Roxboro Street
Designed by Milburn & Heister as a Freemasons Lodge in 1924, the building was acquired by Durham County during the Great Depression. It has been vacant since 1992, and deterioration of the roof has resulted in significant water damage, especially to the top floor. The Eligibility Building and the vacant site to its east were purchased in 2007 but the status of any renovation project remains uncertain. |
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What's Needed: Preservation Durham supports the redevelopment of the building and infill development on the adjoining lot. Ideally, the development would encourage uses that re-engage the street level and re-open the once gracious storefronts. Until a full renovation can be completed, the building should be secured and stabilized, starting with repairs to the roof and building envelope to prevent further deterioration. Preservation Durham also offers our assistance in identifying funding sources such as state and federal grants and tax credit programs that might help kick start the project.
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DOWNTOWN MID-CENTURY MODERN
Chapel Hill Street Corridor
Durham’s best examples of Mid-Century Modern commercial design include the 1963 Jack Tar Motel, the 1968 Mutual Community Savings Bank, the 1960 Holiday Inn, and the 1966 North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. Once seen as ‘futuristic’, many people now see these buildings as dated. However, they remain valuable pieces of the Bull City revitalization puzzle.
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What's Needed: The Mutual Community Savings Bank and the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Building remain in use as office space, with future plans for the Mutual Community Savings Bank to include a ground-floor restaurant or design firm. We hope that these buildings can be a stronghold for citizens to embrace the recent past. The Holiday Inn and Jack Tar Motels have fallen into disrepair as hotels, but they have great potential as office space or affordable studio and artist space. Overall, Preservation Durham will work to broaden public perceptions of ‘historic’ buildings to include these mid-century structures. The Modern buildings along the Chapel Hill Street corridor represent a distinct period in Durham’s history. While each was built on the site of a building that we now mourn, we must be careful to not make the same mistake again.
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NORTHWOOD APARTMENTS
North and Geer Streets
These two-story brick buildings are Durham’s only representative example of post-war superblock apartments, excellent examples of a Mid-Century building boom typified by Levittown-style planned developments. The new owner of 13 of the 17 apartment buildings has boarded up the empty properties and made necessary structural repairs and put them back on the market.
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What's Needed: Preservation Durham supports the rehabilitation of the buildings as residences. Pursuing National Register status for the group of buildings, which is near the burgeoning Central Park area, would allow the use of historic tax credits to finance their rehabilitation. Further, to alleviate the stark look of the property, streetscaping, landscaping, and improvements to the inner courtyards would benefit the superblock as a whole.
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MEDICAL ARTS BUILDING
South Gregson Street
The South Gregson Street corridor between the railroad overpass and West Chapel Hill Street is a vastly underutilized resource. The most prominent building here is this mid 1950’s, low-slung modern commercial building with distinctive cantilevered canopies. The Medical Arts Building has been vacant since the mid 1990’s and there are no known plans for the building or adjacent parcels.
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What's Needed: The site presents a unique opportunity: a sound mid-century building and substantial amount of vacant land in close proximity to Brightleaf Square, Peabody Place, West Village, and Chapel Hill Street. Preservation Durham supports a comprehensive redevelopment plan that preserves and renovates the Medical Arts Building and the other structures and adds new appropriately scaled mixed-use infill buildings to increase density. Investment in public infrastructure, including shade trees, improved lighting, and other streetscape improvements should be made to increase pedestrian connectivity and safety, and to spur private investment.
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WEST END AND THE PAULI MURRAY hOUSE
Intersection of Chapel Hill and Kent Streets and
South on Chapel Hill Street to Morehead Avenue
The most notable property in this historically African-American working class community is the Robert Fitzgerald House, where Pauli Murray, the nationally known lawyer, civil- and human- rights activist, author, poet, and teacher, was raised. The neighborhood has declined since the 1960s, and, although several local community development corporations have stepped in to help revitalize the neighborhood, efforts have included demolition or major alterations to houses.
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What's Needed: Preservation Durham encourages community development efforts that focus on the rehabilitation of existing building stock. Listing the neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places secures eligibility for historic rehabilitation tax credits that would greatly enhance the efforts to rehabilitate the existing housing stock. The Pauli Murray House itself is currently receiving attention from several groups who are trying to raise funds for the adaptive use. Preservation Durham supports their efforts and has offered technical assistance.
MORE ABOUT THE 2011 PLACES IN PERIL
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