Hill's Durham (Durham County, N.C.) City Directory [1958], Part 2

Author: Hill Directory Company.
Publication date: 1958
Publisher: Hill Directory Co.
Number of Pages: 1318

USA > North Carolina > Durham County > Durham > Hill's Durham (Durham County, N.C.) City Directory [1958] > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1865 Washington Duke, a Confederate soldier, walked from New Bern to his home in Durham, and with the same stout heart that had carried him through the vicissitudes of a lost cause, turned his attention to the battle for bread, which was doubtless a cruel and bitter as the war from which he had returned. He built the second factory in Durham, composed of a log cabin 20 x 30 feet, and with his own hands manufactured a product out of a small supply of tobacco that the Federal soldiers had not found. This he called Pro Bono Publico. The annual output of this factory was originally four or five hundred pounds, and in 1872 had grown to 125,000 pounds.

In the meantime, W. T. Blackwell had moved to Durham to engage in the tobacco business. He was to the early development of the tobacco industry in Durham what Napoleon was to France, or Caesar to Rome. The Durham Bull got upon the map and in a few brief years his sonorous voice, like the shot at Lexington, was heard around the world. In 1872 the two small tobacco factories had grown into twelve.

James Buchanan Duke, becoming convinced that it was neither practicable nor profitable to compete with Bull Durham smoking tobacco, turned the vision of his great genius into the cigarette field, and from that day to the present hour the increasing volume of the tobacco industry has become the common property of mankind.

On April 10, 1869, almost exactly four years after Johnston surrendered to Sherman, Durham wasborn. There were only 258 inhabitants in the village, and the total municipal revenue was $357.44. The largest taxpayer paid $40.62 in taxes. In 1870 there were probably less than 100 wage-earners in industrial pursuits in the town.

The tobacco industry grew at a very rapid rate, using large quantities of bright-leaf tobacco. While much of this type of tobacco was grown around Dur- ham, it was sold at tobacco markets in Richmond and other Virginia cities, and local manufacturers had to pay the cost of transporting the tobacco from Vir- ginia to Durham. This condition made desirable the opening of warehouses for the sale of leaf tobacco in Durham, and resulted in this city becoming one of the largest bright-leaf tobacco markets in the world, now selling from 40 to 57 mil- lion pounds each season.

During all this time there were no banks in the town, practically all the bank- ing being transacted in Raleigh, and on days of big sales at the tobacco ware- houses it was necessary to obtain cash from the merchants in order to pay the farmer for his product. Such inconveniences could not long continue, and soon two banks were established.

The next step in the industrial and commercial history of the town was the bringing in of additional railway lines. By the cooperation of manufacturers, merchants, and the city and county governments, the Seaboard Air Line Rail- way, the Southern Railway, and the Norfolk & Western Railway were given access to this market. Later the Norfolk Southern Railroad and the Durham & Southern Railway were added to the railway lines serving the city, giving a total of five railway companies with five lines radiating in every direction.

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Duke Hospital (for the Public) and Duke Medical School Situated on the West Campus

Airplane View Showing East Campus, Duke University, and Part of City of Durham

View of Hope Valley Country Club

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Durham had now grown into a very prosperous and thriving community, but its citizenship was not satisfied with having purely a commercial and industrial town. The people felt the need of better schools and, in 1885, after a heated po- litical campaign, bonds were voted for public school buildings and a tax levied for maintaining a public school system. Today Durham has one of the finest pub- lic school plants of any city of its size, with physicial property valued at $9,- 972,664.70, and with a personnel of teachers and management that gives it first rating among the cities of North Carolina.

In 1892, Trinity College, now Duke University, was brought to Durham through the philanthropy of Mr. Washington Duke and General Julian S. Carr. Today Duke University has a physical plant worth $50,311,919.81, 5,219 students, and a 600- bed hospital, and ranks among the leading educational institutions of the nation.

As the tobacco industry grew and prospered, certain persons used some of their dividends in establishing cotton mills, and this industry soon assumed a position of importance in the industrial life of the city. Later hosiery mills were established, until today Durham ranks as the first city of the South in the manu- facture of full-fashioned hosiery. Other industries were added from time to time, including flour mills, fertilizer plants, iron works, woodworking plants, printing establishments, etc., until now there are engaged in industry over 19,000 wage- earners, producing $200,000,000 worth of manufactured products annually. These industries pay into the Federal treasury approximately $70,000,000 each year. Durham today produces 19 per cent of all the cigarettes made in the U. S.

In 1914 a program of civic improvement was undertaken, and although it was interrupted by the first World War, it has now reached the point where Durham has all the conveniences of a modern city, including complete sewerage, asphalt streets, paved sidewalks, electric power, gas, the latest dial telephone service, Western Union telegraph service, American Telephone & Telegraph repeater station, insuring rapid long-distance telephone communication; a fine recreation program, and a system of waterworks with an impounding reservoir sufficient to care for the needs of a city of 100,000 people.

Any story about Durham would be imcomplete without mention of the notable contribution which the Negro race has made to the industrial, commercial and civic development of the community. The progress the race has made here has been truly amazing. Under the leadership of E. R. Merrick, and later, C. C. Spaulding, and their associates, Durham's colored people have established in- dustries, insurance companies, banks and other commercial businesses which would be creditable to any city. The labor which they furnish the city's indus- trial plants is intelligent and dependable. The high type of leaders among the colored people here has made Durham a conspicuous outpost in the advancement of Negro civilization.

One of the finest things about the founders of Durham is the material pros- perity merely opened to them avenues of service to mankind. It has been said that more philanthropists have been produced in Durham than in any other city of the South. Watts Hospital, of 305 beds, was a gift to the city and county by Mr. George W. Watts. Lincoln Hospital, of 150 beds, is largely the gift of Mr. Benjamin N. Duke. Duke University is a living memorial to Mr. Washington Duke and his two sons, Benjamin N. Duke and James Buchanan Duke. Other philan- thropists have remembered the city from time to time in ways that help in mak- ing Durham a good place in which to live and work.

Durham is today the fourth city in North Carolina in point of population, having 77,000 inhabitants, and is second in industrial payrolls, and second in importance in the value of its manufactured products. It is far in the lead in its educational facilities, having an unexcelled public school system and Duke Uni- versity within its corporate limits, and having within a radius of a few miles the University of North Carolina, Wake Forest Divinity College, Meredith College, North Carolina State College, Peace Institute and St. Mary's.

The colored people have in Durham, in addition to excellent public schools for their race, the North Carolina College for Negroes, the only college of lib- eral arts for Negroes supported by taxation in the state.

All these things have been accomplished by people not especially favored by nature, but who by their determination, unconquerable will and tireless effort,

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and by their faith in mankind and in this community, have created a city that proudly takes its position as one of the representative cities of the new South and of America.

BRIEF FACTS ABOUT DURHAM, ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED

Altitude: 406 feet above sea level.

Area: 15.46 square miles.

Automobiles: All types of vehicles in county as of Dec. 31, 1955. . . 37,685 Banks: 1955

Capital, surplus and

(As of Dec. 31)

undivided profits. $ 7,722,021.12

Deposits. . 91,545,291.25

Total resources. 99,745,172.83

Industrial Banks: 1956 1955 (As of Dec. 31) (As of Dec. 31)

Capital, surplus and undivided profits

$ 952,623.37

$ 924,724.16

Deposits. .

4,515,255.24

4,415,768.66

Total resources.

5,711,401.17

5,628,493.66

Graduate Dormitory Tower, Duke University

INTRODUCTION

View of City Hall

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Veterans Administration Hospital

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Building and Loan Associations:

Year

No.

Assets

1956

$55,122,736.94

Building Permits:

Year

No.

Value

1952

2,046

$9,273,076.00

1953

1,689

7,086,659.00

1954

1,522

5,821,139.00

1955

1,141

9,849,540.00

1956

991

8,958,504.00

Churches: 141, representing 21 denominations. Durham is noted for its many beautiful church edifices.

City Incorporated: The City of Durham was incorporated by act of the Gen- eral Assembly, ratified April 10, 1869.

Civic Organizations: Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club, Lions Club, Sertoma Club, American Business Club, Civitan Club, Exchange Club, Optimist Club, Altrusa Club, Business and Professional Women's Club, Pilot Club, Durham Merchants' Association, Junior Chamber of Commerce, Durham Chamber of Commerce, National Secretaries Association

Climate: Equable. Annual mean summer temperature, 71.3; winter 48.3. 63 per cent sunshine days. Annual rainfall, 40.23 inches. Annual mean snowfall, 2.6 inches. Prevailing westerly winds.

Colleges:

Duke University Enrollment

1946-47

5,121

1951-52.

778

1947-48

4,890

1952-53.

4,776

1948-49

6,882

1953-54.

4,839

1949-50

5,211

1954-55

5,011

1950-51.

5,018

1955-56.

5,180

1956-57.

5,219

There is also located in Durham the North Carolina College for Negroes, the only college of liberal arts for colored people, supported by the State, in North Carolina. Enrollment for 1956-57, 1,370.

Convention Facilities: Four hotels with total of 578 rooms. Maximum capa- city of lodging accommodations, 1,374 persons; capacity in excess of ordinary requirements, 700 persons. Assembly halls, capacity, 800; ballroom capacity, 500; twelve committee rooms, auditorium, seating capacity, 1,750; Armory Auditorium seating capacity, 2,500.

County: Durham County was created by act of the General Assembly in 1881 from parts of Orange and Wake counties. While Durham is not a large county, it is the center of the famous bright-leaf tobacco belt. Between 40 and 57 million pounds of tobacco are sold each year on the Durham market. Tobacco is the principal money crop, although cotton, corn and truck crops also are important. Dairying has increased rapidly during the past few years. The county has good roads and splendid schools and churches. According to the 1950 U. S. Census there were 1,784 farms in the county.

Education: Durham is recognized as being one of the leading educational centers of the South. Its colleges and university, its public school system, its schools of music and business schools are rated among the best in the South by leading educators. (See Colleges, also Schools).

Fire Protection: Durham has a well-equipped fire department, with four stations and paid personnel giving Durham first-class insurance rating.

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Malbourne Hotel

View at One Eleven Corcoran Street, Constructed at a Cost of $1,000,000, in the Heart of Durham's Business District

Government: Durham has had the council-manager form of government since May 4, 1921. It is admitted to be one of the best-governed cities in the state.

Health: Durham has a well-organized board of health, with 72 employees, charged with the supervision of health conditions in the entire county. It has been remarkably successful in its work. The white resident death rate for 1956 was 6.5 (colored residents, 8.7) to the 1,000. The death rate for both races was 7.2. The birth rate for white was 21.1; for colored, 24.7; total, 22.4. Milk, meats, water, markets, dairies, hotels and eating places are carefully inspected.

Hospitals: Watts Hospital (public, white) is one of the finest hospitals in the South, value, $4,327,019; 305 beds; personnel of 70 physicians and 108 nurses; endowed by Mr. George W. Watts and partly supported by contributions from city and county. Lincoln Hospital (public, colored); value, $1,180,115; 148 beds;

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personnel of 7 resident and 90 practicing physicians, and 22 graduate and 42 student nurses; partly supported by contributions from city and county. Mc- Pherson Hospital (private-eye, ear, nose and throat); value, $120,000; 45 beds and personnel of seven physicians and 16 nurses. Duke Hospital with 600 beds, representing an investment of more than $3,000,000 is said to be the best- equipped hospital in the world. It was opened on July 21, 1930. During 1932 the Duke Hospital Nurses' Home was completed at a cost of over $300,000. Two other nurses' homes have been added. The North Carolina Cerebral Hospital (palsy), has 40 beds. The State has taken over the 3,300-bed Army hospital at Camp Butner, and this is now a mental institution. Recently completed is the 500-bed U. S. Veterans medical and surgical hospital here. Durham is the chief medical center south of Baltimore.

Hotels: Durham is unusually well provided with hotel facilities. The Wash- ington Duke is one of the finest hotels in the South, having been constructed at a cost of more than $1,750,000. It has 300 bedrooms, all with bath. The Malbourne Hotel-200-room capacity-is a fireproof hotel. Other hotels are the McArthur; the Biltmore and Isler hotels for Negroes.

Durham Public Library

HOUSE

DERHAM COUNTY COURT

Durham County Court House

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Industries: Durham is the second largest industrial center in North Caro- lina, its output of manufactured products being valued at $200,000,000 annually (U. S. Census of Manufactures). It has large tobacco industries, manufacturing such well-known brands as Duke's Mixture smoking tobacco, and a great many brands of cigarettes. It is the home of the Durham Hosiery Mills (manufacturers of hosiery and synthetic yarns), and the Golden Belt Mfg. Co. (manufacturers of cloth bags). There are also manufactured in Durham, Erwin and White-Star sheetings and pillow cases; Virginia-Carolina fertilizers; Occoneechee, Peer- less and Climax flours; blank books, corrugated boxes, wooden boxes, castings and iron products, harness and saddles, bread, ice, mattresses, brick, building materials, proprietary medicines, furniture, roofing, meat-packing products, machinery, and hogshead heads. Due to proximity to source of raw materials, natural gas, cheap electric power and its transportation facilities, Durham of- fers unexcelled opportunities for the location of industries.

Location: Durham is situated in the geographical center of North Carolina, a few miles north of the center of population of the state. Its terrain is slightly rolling and is well drained.

Payrolls: The payrolls of Durham exceed $100,000,000 annually.

Population (U. S. Census):

City of Durham

County of Durham

1890

5,485

1890

18,041

1900

6,679

1900.

26,233

1910.

.18,241

1910.

35,276

1920.

.21,719

1920

42,219

1930.

.52,037

1930 .

67,196

1940

.60,195

1940

80,244

1950

.71,311

1950

101,639

Post-Office Receipts:

1946

$640,006.00

1951 .

$815,003.00

1947.

584,333.00

1952.

881,003.00

1948

661,413.00

1953

919,819.00

1949

751,039.00

1954.

974,143.00

1950 .

777,205.00

1955

983,966.00

1956 . .

$1,003,793.00

Public Utilities: Durham has public utilities furnishing bus service, gas, telephone and electric current service. These facilities compare favorably, both in cost of service and in efficiency, with those in other cities of similar size.

Public Services:

1953

1954

1955

1956

Electric meters .

44,749

47,138

49,621

51,611

Telephones.

29,833

31,577

33,226

34,978

Gas meters.

4,460

4,823

5,243

5,721

Miles of paved

streets.

118.9

129.23

136.81

Miles of water

mains. .

194.14

197.68

201.955

211.56

Miles of sewers .

333.5

336.7

339.44

342.87

Number of

water meters.

18,232

18,902

19,426

19,799

Recreation: Community recreation, under supervision of the Playground and Recreation Commission, supported by public taxation. Thirteen public parks, containing swimming pools, tennis courts, etc., 14 city playgrounds, and several large playgrounds maintained by industrial plants for the use of employees. Three 18-hole golf courses; magnificent country club; tennis and gun club; col- lege football, baseball, basketball, track, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, and wres- tling. The schedules of Duke University and the University of North Carolina offer Durham citizens the opportunity of seeing some of the best college teams of the nation in action. Both these universities have magnificent stadiums, that of the University of North Carolina seating 44,000 with temporary stands, while the stadium of Duke University has a seating capacity of 41,000, and 56,500 with temporary stands.

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Schools: The public school system of Durham is nationally-known for its equipment, high scholastic standards and progressive policies. Croft Secretar- ial School and Kennedy's Commercial School are fully accredited class "A" institutions.

City Schools Enrollment

1946-47.

9,973

1947-48 9,791

1948-49 10,409

1949-50 10,665

1950-51

11,135

1951-52. 11,220

1952-53 11,503

11,012

1954-55

12,656

1955-56 .

13,226

1956-57.

13,643

Number of Schools: White, 14; colored, 9. Number of teachers, 515. Value of public school plant, $9,972,664.70.

Social Agencies: Young Men's Christian Association, Young Women's Chris- tian Association, Salvation Army, Red Cross, King's Daughters, Board of Char- ities and Public Welfare. Wright Refuge for Children, Junior League, Council of Social Agencies, Association for the Blind, Family Service Association, and Duke Legal Aid Clinic.

Streets: Durham is today one of the best paved cities in the state. The white- way lighting system in the business district is admitted to be one of the best in the South. Excellent street markers.

Taxes and Valuation: As of 1956, the city of Durham had an assessed valua- tion of $160,944,350, with acity tax rate of $1.45 on the $100. Property assess- ed on 75 per cent of true value. The county of Durham had an assessed valuation of $301,400,371, and a county tax rate of $1.12 on the $100. Property assessed on 75 per cent of true value. No property is levied by the State.

Theatres: 5 motion-picture theatres for white, 1 for colored. 3 drive-in theatres for white, 1 for colored. Total seating capacity in the motion-picture theatres-5,000.

Tobacco Market: The tobacco market in Durham sold in the 1946 season, 50,937,288 pounds for $23,449,361.07; 1947 season, 49,603,108 pounds for $21,329,568.07;

1948 season, 45,541,102 pounds for $22,466,317.40; 1949 season, 37,023,456 pounds for $17,949,631.94; 1950 season, 43,661,544 pounds for $24,245,803.10; 1951 season, 47,163,724 pounds for $25,657,065.86;

1952 season, 45,429,642 pounds for $22,037,694.08;

1953 season, 31,507,206 pounds for $14,789,264.30; 1954 season, 40,728,718 pounds for $21,820,042.63;

1955 season, 43,109,762 pounds for $22,772,071.70; 1956 season, 50,728,478 pounds for $26,836,810.85.

Transportation: Durham has five lines of railroad, radiating in seven direc- tions. It has two lines of the Southern Railway, the Seaboard Air Line Railway, the Norfolk & Western Railway, the Durham & Southern Railway, and the Nor- folk Southern Railroad. These railroads afford unusually good freight facilities. Durham is on the National Highway and the Central Highway, the principal routes between the North and South and between the East and West. Excellent bus serv- ice is maintained between Durham and Raleigh, Wake Forest, Henderson, Ox- ford, Roxboro, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, Pittsboro, Siler City and Danville, Va.

Water: Durham has an ample supply of pure water. An impounding reser- voir completed in 1926 stores 4,600,000,000 gallons, which, if used for no other purpose, would, at the present rate of consumption, supply the demand for a period of two years. There is no longer any danger of a water shortage. The water is excellent for domestic uses and is soft and free from iron, making it very desirable for industrial purposes.

1953-54.

YELLOW PAGES

DURHAM

NORTH CAROLINA

1958

ASSOCIATION

RETTCO

NORTH AMERICAN

1898

Hill's Durham (Durham County, N.C.) City Directory [1958], Part 2

Author: Hill Directory Company. Publication date: 1958 Publisher: Hill Directory Co. Number of Pages: 1318

Author: Hill Directory Company.
Publication date: 1958
Publisher: Hill Directory Co.
Number of Pages: 1318