Home tours have long been a popular way for urban Durham neighborhoods to get the word out on what's happening in their necks of the woods -- and Old West Durham is no exception.
The popular district between Duke's East Campus and Hillandale Rd., with its collections of old mill houses that initially provided shelter for employees of the once-bustling Erwin Mills off Ninth Street, is one of Durham's success stories of the past quarter century, with strong community organization and activism helping OWD to fight back the specter of drugs and gangs and to become one of the most popular in-town, walkable areas in the Bull City.
OWD's modest mill houses have found new life, serving as examples of what tour organizers call "the cornerstone of the 'not so big' movement" in housing.
Included on this fall's tour: the Tate House, a fixture on Markham Ave. across from Duke's East Campus that came close to demolition before Durham resident John Martin moved the house to OWD and renovated the structure. (See some of the history over at Gary Kueber's Endangered Durham web site, or via ABC 11's coverage.)
Other structures on the tour include one-time parsonages and the so-called Prohibition House, an on-the-market home featuring what its renovators call a "bootlegger's hideyhole" in a structure where booze was sold out the back door even as religious gatherings were held in the front. (That house sits not far from the site of early-Durham debauchery called the Pinhook, from which the downtown watering hole draws inspiration for its name.)
Tickets are $5 in advance and can be purchased at The Regulator on Ninth Street, or $10 day of tour at 900 Virgie, at the corner of Virgie and Green. Proceeds benefit the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association.
Thanks for posting this, Kevin. Appreciate your help getting the word out!
Bull City Rising is getting around. A google search for "Old West Durham Home Tour" results in several sites that have picked up this entry on BCR.
Folks, this is shaping up to be a fun tour. Hope you all can come see what's happening in an area that, 15 years ago, was a popular drive-by drug market.
Onward and upward.
Info: http://www.owdna.org/hometourpage.htm
Posted by: John Schelp | October 10, 2009 at 07:36 AM