Downtown's Vivian to morph into "Avenue of the Arts?"

Lots of streets have changed over the years in the Bull City's downtown, as our friend Gary likes to point out over at Endangered Durham. Tatum is gone, now part of roughly the first base line at the DBAP; so too Matthews, that ran along the ballpark's concourse. Cora, South and Popular all disappeared north of the Freeway to boot. Others simply changed name: McMannen to Mangum, Pine to Roxboro.
And another name appears destined to be changed, wiped off the figurative map: Vivian St.

According to a permit filed with the City by, er, the City itself last month, Vivian St. is apparently going to be changing its name to -- are you sitting down? -- the "Avenue of the Arts."

As the excerpt from Durham's helpful online land development system shows, Joy Mickle-Walker of the City's Office of Economic and Workforce Development filed an application to make the change on January 9.

Among the parties involved:

• The City, which of course owns the DPAC and its site;
• Southern Railway Co., which has retained control over a portion of Vivian St. due to its railroad easement (though the relationship between Southern Railway Co., whose wholeness as a corporate entity appears to have supplanted by Norfolk Southern, and the state-owned private firm the North Carolina Railroad Co., which has an operating agreement with Northern Southern... well, it's complicated.)
• DATA Residential LLC, a company controlled by Capitol Broadcasting; its name refers to the fact that the site used to be part of the City's old DATA bus facility, and to Capitol's plans to eventually build residential units on the grassy knoll that's today's Diamond View park.

We're assuming the renaming is to the "Avenue of the Arts" based on the project name, though it's worth noting that that's not stated anywhere on the site. (Though it's a bit more prima facie than trying to figure out just what the hell a "PLENSA VAULT" was earlier this fall.)

There is some precedent for such a street name. In Philadelphia, for instance, there's such a thoroughfare, according to the folks over at Wikipedia:

The Avenue of the Arts is a segment of Broad Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that includes many of the city's cultural institutions, most notably the theater and museum districts south of City Hall. The name "Avenue of the Arts" originated in a strategy by former mayor Ed Rendell to redevelop South Broad Street in Center City. The definition has been expanded by city planners under Mayor John F. Street's administration to encourage further development in North Philadelphia. The Avenue of the Arts is overseen by the non-profit organization Avenue of the Arts, Inc.

Well, from that perspective, the vision makes sense. After all, the DPAC is part of Durham's downtown revitalization strategy, and the sparkling facility has drawn rave reviews from Durhamites and out-of-towners coming in for shows, all at a cost much less than neighboring cities have paid for their arts centers (though that might explain some of the bubbling of the wood veneer that one City Councilman has complained about in emails.)

On the flip side, Philadelphia's version of the Avenue of the Arts, according to the web site of the non-profit that runs it, "is the longest, widest, busiest street in the region and operates at both street level and underground." 

It unifies a wide range of different neighborhoods, and bridges both the historic and the new.  Moreover the Avenue is home to over fifty of the City’s most important institutions dedicated to arts and culture, education and hospitality, while also becoming known as a place to stay, dine and shop.

Durham's Avenue of the Arts? Well, the Bull City's version is so short that when I looked up driving directions on Google Maps, the search engine chortled and told me to get off my duff and just walk the durned thing. (For the record, the Bull City version will be a whole 0.1 miles.) And of course, once you reach its eastern terminus, the view across the street might make "Avenue of the Slamma" seem a good fit too.

Of course, this "Avenue of the Arts" bit won't be the first street renaming related to new purposes downtown. After all, part of Willard St. was renamed Jackie Robinson Place near the ballpark back in '97, an appropriate nod to the first African-American to play professional baseball since the detested "gentleman's agreement" closed off the sport to persons of color around the turn of the century.

(Note to City fathers and mothers: one might think that Joe Morgan, the only black member of his '63 Durham Bulls in the then-deeply segregated Durham and the only ex-Bull ever elected to Cooperstown, might be worthy of some recognition. It wouldn't be hard to lengthen Morgan St. to Joe Morgan St.)

We'll keep folks posted as we hear more about this little renaming.

Comments

[John Jacob Jingle Hymer Schmidt]

Joe Morgan? Sunday Night Baseball Baby! I love Morgan's commentary. I think you've inadvertently started a campaign to change the street name.

[TT]

To council and mayor if you're reading this - please don't change Vivian St. to Avenue of the Arts. If the deed has already been done, please consider changing it again.

It's not just that Avenue of the Arts is uninspired, but that there are alternatives so much more appropriate.

My favorite alternative is "Pandora's Box", after the name of Bartlett Durham's residence - the same Bartlett Durham who gave up part of his land just south of Pandora's Box to build a railroad station, which is why we have a city here and why we call it Durham. Vivian Street is where that first railroad depot was located. See this map http://www.endangereddurham.org/Photos/Map_GreenBlackwell_1867.jpg (thanks to Gary K) Vivian is located where it says "Wagon Rd".

Alternatively, if Pandora's Box gets too many minds in a swivet over paradoxical interpretations of the box from which evil as well as hope are mythologically packaged and released (especially considering the proximity to DPAC and the jail), how about more simply Bartlett Durham's Place?

Before we lose Vivian, who was she and why do we no longer like her? Perhaps Gary or another history buff can fill in.

Echoing Kevin's comments, this little street is hardly a avenue in the traditional sense - perhaps "Wagon Rd" is still more appropriate?

TT

[barry]

"Joe Morgan? Sunday Night Baseball Baby! I love Morgan's commentary. I think you've inadvertently started a campaign to change the street name."

Dear God, no.

[Michael Bacon]

First the "Innovation Highway," then the Durham "Convention" Center, now this. Will the insanity never end? Ugh.

[GK]

[gag]

Why the powers-that-be want to quash all that makes Durham quirky or unique in favor of this sort of sanitized vanilla-ness is beyond me. I'll only find this agreeable if the jail can have an AotA address.

Unfortunately, I can't put my hands on a resource that tells me the origin of Vivian St. I want to say that it was named after some prominent Durham person's young daughter, but can't find a source to back that up. It got that name between 1888 and 1893 - that much I can tell you.

GK

[Andrew Edmonds]

http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/15020564/article-Street-name-mystery-solved?instance=main_article

Seems obvious in retrospect, huh?

[Andrew Edmonds]

Okay, it seemed more obvious when the paper ran the story identifying William T. Blackwell -- the man for whom Blackwell Street is named and the owner of Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco Company -- as Vivian's father.

Now they've corrected it saying that, instead, George was her father.

Who the heck was George Blackwell?! William's brother?