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About the City of
Medicine - from the Herald-Sun
Arts Profile - Durham, NC - from
Bravo
City of Durham home page
County of Durham home page
Destination
Guide - from AOL
Durham City/County Planning Department
Southwest Durham (including
Hope Valley)
Durham - The town
tobacco built (from the News and Observer)
Durham County - from the
Triangle Roots home page
Durham ONLINE
Durham Overview - from
the Hearld-Sun
Durham Public Schools
Durham's Dynamic History
- from the Herald-Sun
Golf Courses - from
Citysearch11
Historic Presevation Society of Durham
Hope Valley Country Club
Hope Valley Neighborhood Association
Triangle Guide
Welcome to Durham
Early History
The early development of the area has been traced back as far as 1740. In fact, Orange
County Tax Archives note that in 1740, William Blackwood paid tax for a family of 3
individuals. William Blackwood is an ancestor of Billie Crabtree and Robert Blackwood, two
SWD-PAC Members. Their ancestor came into the area long before there was either a Durham
City or a Durham County and lived in Orange County which, at that time, extended almost to
what is now the Virginia State Line. While official records are unavailable, it is
generally known that early settlers of Southwest Durham included individuals of Scotch,
Irish, and English descent. The surnames of these early settlers included Freeland,
Kirkland, Patterson, Blackwood, Mebane, Tate, Strayhorn, Watkins, and Nelson. Most of them
ascribed to the Presbyterian faith.
A lay historian in Southwest Durham cites the Pattersons as owners of one of the
largest plantations in the pre-colonial South. An original house of the plantation still
stands near Watkins Road; built around 1750, it was once occupied by I.N. Patterson, a
contractor who helped construct part of the original University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill Campus. During the Revolutionary War and Lord Cornwallis' occupation of
Hillsborough, he occasionally stopped at this house to have his horses shod. For almost a
century after becoming part of Durham County, the area in the vicinity of this house was
in the Patterson Township.
In 1852, Dr. Bartlett Snipes Durham offered a four-acre
parcel of land in eastern Orange County to the North Carolina Railroad Company for use as
a railroad depot. When the railroad arrived in 1854, Dr. Snipes established a railroad
depot on this parcel, naming it Durhamville Station. He later shortened the name to Durham
Station. Durham Station quickly became the nucleus of mercantile activity in the area,
around which grew the City of Durham. It wasn't until around 1881 that the North Carolina
Legislature approved the Charter of Durham County, which included the City of Durham.
Post Civil War
During this era, the two segments of Southwest Durham on opposite sides of Garrett Road
began to demonstrate very different growth and development patterns. Many of these
patterns survived into the fairly recent past. The area east of Garrett Road seems to have
established an early identity with the City of Durham, and developed accordingly. Mostly
farmland at the outset, much of this area is generally referred to as Hope Valley. Development in Hope Valley began in
the early 1920's. It was touted as one of the first, full-fledged, Country Club
communities in the South, boasting an eighteen-hole golf course. The centerpiece of the
"Valley", which this community came to be called, was the building housing the Hope Valley Country Club Clubhouse, constructed by
the Mebane Company. The Mebane Company built many of the early homes in Hope Valley, many
of which are still architecturally significant and well preserved. The period revival
styles of these homes influenced most of the residential design in Durham prior to the
early 1940's. Careful planning resulted in an optimum number of homes fronting on the Hope
Valley Golf Course. While this particular country club community was an obvious success,
the Mebane Company was forced into bankruptcy before construction of the Hope Valley
Community was completed and other contractors had to be brought in to finish to job. This
accounts for the varying architectural styles and concepts among homes of similar age
built during one of the early building phases of this "planned community".
Agricultural and dairy farming and wood milling were the primary commercial activities
of the day. Each of these enterprises have had their lingering effects on the area, the
most noticeable was notoriety that Durham achieved as a manufacturing center for tobacco
products. To a lesser extent, Durham became known for its production and distribution of
North Carolina dairy products. Perhaps the most obscure, yet lingering impact of this area
on Durham history, comes from early milling activity. Lumber for most homes in early Hope
Valley was milled in the steam-powered sawmill of Henry Green. This lumber came from area
trees, a good deal of which grew on his own land. Henry Green's original holdings of 200
acres made him perhaps the largest Black landowner in Hope Valley. The remains of those
old steam boilers stand as a landmark at the entrance way to Green Mill, a residential
area in Hope Valley being built by one of Mr. Green's heirs. Mr. Green bought his land
from the Patterson family, who, together with the Atkins, Bookers, Coles, Mangums,
McMannens, Pearsons and Vickers were among the earliest and most prominent families in
this part of Southwest Durham.
As the area east of Garrett Road began to prosper during Post Civil War Reconstruction,
the area west of Garrett Road (the balance of Southwest Durham) fell into a severe
economic depression. This situation did not change until World War II, when the economy of
the region was bolstered by military activities. Nevertheless, this boost did not manifest
itself in the noticeable change in land development and related entrepreneurial activity
as was the case with areas closer to Durham, Chapel Hill, or Raleigh. Instead, it meant
that people who lived in this portion of Southwest Durham now could support their families
from something other than the meager incomes that came from traditional farming
operations. Prominent family names in this area include Hudson, Markham, Pope, Jones,
Davis, Blacknell, Degraffenreidt, Pendergraft and Crabtree. World War II brought
employment to area residents at facilities ranging from the Naval Pre-Flight School in
Chapel Hill to the hospitals in Durham and Butner. The gap in economic prosperity that
opened between these two segments of Southwest Durham continues to widen.
Hope Valley School, constructed in 1927 to house grades 1 through 11, was the first
public educational facility in Southwest Durham. While structural changes and additions to
the facility were made in 1941 and 1952, the school was subsequently downgraded to an
elementary school with the opening of Southern High School in the Fall of 1956. The Jordan
High School education complex on Garrett Road was constructed in 1964. This complex was
the original location of Southwest Durham's first junior and senior high schools.
Recent Planning
A "Plan For Southwest Durham," designed and intended for use as a development
guide, was completed by the Planning Department in 1973 and adopted by the Durham City
Council in April of 1974. The most recent update of that Plan was adopted, in concept, by
the Durham City Council in April of 1979. For the last 14 years, local legislative
decisions regarding zoning, public facility construction, and all matters affecting the
growth and development of portions of Southwest Durham covered in these early plans have
frequently followed the recommendations that these plans contained. Durham City Council
action to approve plans for commercial development in the vicinity of South Square Mall
and Shannon Plaza are specific examples that reflect this use of the 1979 Plan. In the
context of residential development, the same holds true for the Mews, Shannon Manor, and
Colonial Apartments.
There has been a significant change in the planning boundaries of Southwest Durham
since the most recent Plan update. The small area north of Chapel Hill Road and east of
Garrett Road is the only remnant of the former planning area. The size of the current
Southwest Durham planning area is several times larger than the areas planned for in 1974
and 1979.
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