Quick update: Greenfire grows again

I posted last year on a large parcel put together by the city (with a little help from the demolition fairy) on Mangum St. between Broadway and Hunt Streets. Well, according to today’s Herald, this now 0.86 acre parcel (extending west to Rigsbee Ave.) is now in the Greenfire portfolio. It stretches between the block just south of Little Five Points and Durham Central Park.

I’ve felt for awhile that this was prime territory for investment – how the rejuvenation of downtown and the rejuvenation of Old North Durham have continued to leave the space in the middle (and much of it is just that, space) untouched is a mystery to me. To a great extent, this is one of the reasons why I felt the city needed to be more careful in their approach.

This parcel brings the potential redevelopment projects between Little Five Points and Morgan St. to three – along with Scott Harmon / Susanna Dancy’s Mangum 506 and the somewhat mysterious Wesley at Manugum. Who knows where this addition will fall in the Greenfire timeline, though. They have a few things on their plate.

RIGSBEE/MANGUM: BUS STATION/CANTEEN/SERVICE STATION

Looking north at the intersection of N. Mangum St. and Rigsbee Ave. and SE Rochelle’s motorcycle club, ~1910.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The northeast portion of what we now consider ‘downtown’ was a primarily residential area well into the early 20th century, gradually supplanted by commercial structures during the 1920s and onward.

Above, an aerial view of the E. Chapel Hill St, Rigsbee Ave, N. Mangum ‘triangle’ in 1924. Many of the houses in the first picture have been demolished (although the house at the left edge of the frame in the first picture is still visible at the left edge of the above picture) and supplanted by commericial buildings and gas stations.

One of the buildings constructed on the triangle was Rochelle’s bike and motorcycle shop, already profiled. The other commercial structures were two gas stations and the main bus station. One of the gas stations is visible in the above picture, at the southern ‘point’ of the triangle.

The bus station had previously been located further west on East Chapel Hill St. near the intersection of Corcoran and E. Chapel Hill. It appears to have moved to this location in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

The bus station in 1940, looking east from Rigsbee Ave. Rochelle’s shop is to the left, and the steeple of Trinity Methodist is visible in the distance.
(Courtesy Library of Congress)

The below picture is extraordinary – It is hard to find pictures that document segregation in Durham. But the entire combination – including “Hitler’s Love Life” is an amazing composition.

Looking west-northwest along the north side of the bus station – the post office is visible in the background.
(Courtesy Library of Congress)

Another picture documenting the segregation of the bus station – looking north along the east side of the bus station, up North Mangum St, 1940. (The intersection of N. Mangum and East Chapel Hill is in the background. Note the residential character beyond.)
(Courtesy Library of Congress)

In 1942, the new bus station was built on East Main St. at Dillard St.
The old station was converted to a ‘service canteen’ for WWII soliers.

Looking east from Rigsbee Ave, 1944
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

After the war, the building became a pool hall.

Looking north from Rigsbee and N. Mangum – a service station is in the foreground, followed (along Mangum) by the old bus station and another service station – likely late 1950s.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

Looking southwest at the corner of East Chapel Hill St. and North Mangum, 1960. The service station appears to be vacant.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking north from Rigsbee and Mangum, 1961.

In 1961, these buildings were demolished by the city for surface parking (prior to the urban renewal program.)

Looking southwest from North Mangum and East Chapel Hill, 1961.

Looking north from Rigsbee and Mangum, 1961.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking north from Rigsbee and Mangum, 1961.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

The completed parking lot, 1963.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking southwest from East Chapel Hill and North Mangum, 1970.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

In the late 1960s, Durham closed the one block section of Rigsbee that ran between East Chapel Hill St. and North Mangum St., after having taken the buildings on the west side of Rigsbee via urban renewal. With the new, large parcel, they began construction of a new parking structure.

Looking southwest from East Chapel Hill and North Mangum, 1970.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

This behemoth is still with us, albeit with bright reddish accents

Looking north from the former intersection of Rigsbee and North Mangum, 2007.

Looking east at the former site of the bus station, 2007

Looking north up North Mangum along the east side of the former bus station.

Looking southwest from East Chapel Hill St. and North Mangum.

While I’ve hit a pretty constant drumbeat on the need for first floor retail or liner buildings to mitigate or eliminate the deadening effect that parking garages have on the streetscape, this one just needs to go away. The space here – with some great architecture around it – on East Chapel Hill, Orange, Parrish, and Mangum/Main (everything, essentially, except City Hall) is too valuable to be blotted out by a parking garage. This is a central space, and whether it contained public space or public space + new development, it should not be wasted on parking (particularly parking which obliterates the view of the post office, Rue Cler, etc.)

SE CORNER RIGSBEE AND EAST CHAPEL HILL

Looking southeast from Rigsbee Ave. and East Chapel Hill St. Trinity Methodist (pre-steeple) is in the background.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The building at the southeast corner of Rigsbee Ave. and East Chapel Hill St. was likely built by S.E. Rochelle as the second home of his bicycle, motorcycle,and gun shop, which he started in 1910 at the northeast corner of Corcoran and Parrish Sts.

Rochelle fought in the Spanish-American War, in the Philippines. After returning to Durham in 1901, he opened a fish stall at the market building that preceded Union Station. When this was demolished for the station, and a new market was built at the Municipal Building / Academy of Music, Rochelle decided the city’s rent was too high, and began his business.

Rochelle became quite successful, and built the building at Rigsbee and East Chapel Hill sometime in the 1920s. He supplied the city with motorcycles and bicycles, and helped promote motorcycle stunt events at Lakewood Park.

William T. Cash (?) leaning against the Rochelle building, 1928.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Rochelle moved the business to 405 N. Mangum sometime in the 1930s, and retired in 1945.

The business then became Claude Hull Florist.

Looking southeast, 1960.

The triangle of land betweeen Rigsbee, East Chapel Hill St. and North Mangum was torn down in 1961 for a city surface parking lot.

Looking north, 1961.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

In 1970, this became a part of the Chapel Hill St. parking deck, when Rigsbee was closed between E. Chapel Hill St. and N. Mangum St., which it remains.

Looking southeast at the former corner of Rigsbee Ave. and East Chapel Hill St., 2007

RIGSBEE STREET "SUPER-MARKET"

Looking northwest, 1924.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

The building just behind the First Baptist Church in the above photograph began as a livery stable (where people would stable their horses) but later became a car garage.

By 1940, the building had been replaced or remodeled as one of Durham’s first “super-markets”

Looking northwest from Rigsbee Ave. near Mangum.
(Courtesy Library of Congress)

This A&P likely closed with the opening of an A&P one block away, at N. Mangum and East Chapel Hill Sts. – which probably occurred in the 1950s. The building then changed to warehouse space.

Looking northwest, 1963.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

A view southwest from N. Manugum shows the building just to the south of the Gulf Station on East Chapel Hill.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

This building was torn down by the city as part of the urban renewal program. Rigsbee Ave. between East Chapel Hill St. and N. Mangum was closed, and part of the land the grocery sat on was used to construct an obstrusive parking deck in the 1970s.

Looking northwest, 2007.

400 EAST CHAPEL HILL/RUE CLER

Looking northwest, 1924.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

The building on the northeast corner of East Chapel Hill St. and Rigsbee Ave. was built sometime between 1913 and 1924, likely in the early 1920s. Early on, the structure housed a hardware store.

A view of 400 E. Chapel Hill looking across Rigsbee from the post office construction site, 1934.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

A partial view of the facade, looking north-northwest down Rigsbee. The Big 4 warehouse is visible in the distance, and the post office is to the left.

A blow-up view of the window, where you can see pots and mason jars.

Above, the view in 1945, when the building housed the “P&T Cafe” or the “R&M Cafe” depending on whether you believe the sign or the window. But you could get “chops”, regardless.
(Courtesy Herald-Sun)

The view in 1963, looking north from Rigsbee and Mangum. A vertical sign is visible on the corner of the building, but not readable from this angle. A barber shop is located in the eastern half of the building.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking north, 1966. This fuzzy pic serves primarily to show the billboard that had appeared atop the building.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

This building remained barbershop then beauty salon for many years with, I believe, a seamstress upstairs. This past fall, the owners of Pop’s decided to brave the real, core downtown with an endeavor I am sure many people tried to dissuade them from doing.

Looking northeast, 2007.

I don’t know how their numbers look, but there always seems to be business at Rue Cler, and a regular crowd for weekend evenings and brunch. Not only is it a good restaurant, but having a successful, good restaurant had taken the seeming stigma away from dining options downtown. At least that’s my hope, and the recent announcement of a restaurant in the old fire station #1 seems to substantiate this.

204-208 RIGSBEE

(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The once-residential area on Rigsbee developed from the tobacco warehouses south and from Mangum north during the 1920s. The house in the middle, now 204-208 Rigsbee, was demolished for parking (yep, even back in the 1920s.) The above photo shows the lot to the left of 216 Rigsbee from the construction site of the post office, 1934. 400 East Chapel Hill would be just out of frame to the right.

Below, this picture from 1938 shows that the lot remained vacant – it appears that there might be a parking kiosk at the back of the lot.

Looking east, 1938.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

The below picture serves only to narrow down the date of construction – it shows nothing more that the roof of the buildings that were built on the lot, but the picture was taken in 1940.

Looking northeast from the Washington Duke Hotel, 1940.
(Courtesy Library of Congress)

The post office makes a view of the front of the buildings difficult – only the top floor is visible.

A view of the east side of the 200 block of Rigsbee, 1960.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

This shot is a reach – but it does show the vertical signs along the fronts of the buildings. I really like the effect of the mutiple vertical signs on the streetscape.

Looking north, 1963. A “Hardware” sign is visible, as is “Fridgidaire”.

In the 1990s, these buildings housed Smith’s Furniture store, Equipment Broker Service commercial kitchen supply store, and Captured Live studios. However, faulty wiring in the studio was later blamed for a fire that gutted the buildings in July 1998.

John Warasila had some guts and vision to take on both buildings and renovate one as office space for Alliance Architecture (with condos upstairs) and The Eleanor – which I believe is condos and meeting space.

Looking east-southeast, 2007.

I hope Greenfire shows similar love for Durham’s history on the fire-gutted 120 West Main St. and doesn’t use the fire as an excuse to take those buildings down. The classic counter to the preservation argument is “oh, it was too far gone.” While there is such as thing as ‘too far gone’ – total collapse comes to mind – it’s more often an excuse. The more honest answer would be “it wasn’t worth it to us.” I’m thrilled that it was worth it to Warasila.

220-228 RIGSBEE AVE

The structures near the intersection of Rigsbee and Morgan were likely constructed in the 1920s, on land that had previously been residential. The buildings, like most of Morgan St. contained light industry and services. Many of the commercial buildings in this area had a market relationship with the nearby tobacco warehouses, providing services, meals, or products to farmers or people working in or around the warehouses.

A view of the east side of the 200 block of Rigsbee, 1960.

Looking southeast from Morgan and Rigsbee, 1966

224 Rigsbee, looking northeast, 1966.

A piece of 220 Rigsbeee and 222 Rigsbee, looking northeast, 1966.

Both sides of Morgan St., and much of Rigsbee were cleared in the late 1960s by the city using urban renewal funds – expressly to create more parking. 220 Rigsbee survived, although it was significantly modified.

Looking southeast from Morgan and Rigsbee, 2007

Looking northeast from Rigsbee, 2007.

STAR BRICK WAREHOUSE

Although our new ubiquitous ‘wayfinding’ (to use the earnest planning lingo) signs proclaim the area of the Liggett redevelopment as the “Warehouse District”, the real warehouse district in Durham stretched along both sides of Rigsbee Ave., north of Morgan St.

The view in 1924, looking northwest. The two very large brick warehouses straddle Rigsbee – the Big 4 Warehouse on the left and the Star Brick Warehouse on the right.
(Courtesy Duke Archives)

These were the warehouses where the real commerce of the tobacco industry took place – hundreds of farmers coming to market and buyers purchasing the tobacco at auction.

The warehouse district expanded to include most of the area we now deem ‘Central Park’

Looking northeast from the Washington Duke Hotel, 1940 – East Chapel Hill St. is in the foreground. Tobacco warehouses cover the landscape north of Morgan St.
(Courtesy Library of Congress)

Below, the entrance of the Star Brick Warehouse – looking northeast from Morgan and Rigsbee, 1940.

(Courtesy Library of Congress)

In 1944, the Big 4 warehouse burned in a protest over the acquittal of the murderer of Private Booker T. Spicely. The Star Brick warehouse survived the fire.

Below, another view northeast, 1960.

(Courtesy Duke Archives)

The warehouses – with the exception of the Liberty – were torn down during the 1960s-1980s – not by urban renewal, but just by changes in the marketplace. From the Surgeon’s General Warning in 1964 onward, the health consequences of tobacco became clear, and its fortune (and that of those who dealt in it) faded.

Never fear, though – we southerners don’t give up a slow death that easily.

Looking northeast, 2007.

211 RIGSBEE

211 Rigsbee Avenue was built ~1947 for the Durham Insurance Service Company. Above, the view from Rigsbee Ave., looking west-northwest, 1966. Aside from some fancy awnings, it has changed little, although it now contains the city purchasing office and equal opportunity offices.

Looking west, 2007.

BIG 4 WAREHOUSE – MORGAN AND RIGSBEE

The north side of Morgan St. east of Foster St. was the southern extent of the early 20th century tobacco warehouse district, which extended northward along Rigsbee Ave.

Above, looking north-northwest, 1924. Rigsbee and East Chapel Hill St. are in the foreground, and Morgan St. is the next east-west street to the north. Two large warehouses are to the west of Rigsbee Ave., separated by two small houses. One is labelled “Cozart” and “Big 4” – the other is the Banner Warehouse.

Another view of the warehouse district, significantly expanded, 1940.
(Courtesy Library of Congress)

Looking west up Morgan.
(Courtesy Library of Congress)

Looking northwest from Ribsbee.
(Courtesy Library of Congress)

(Courtesy Library of Congress)

(Courtesy Library of Congress)

In 1944, a large fire destroyed these warehouses.

Above, the view from ~Seminary St. looking south. The structures on the south side of the 200 block of Morgan St. are visible beyond the burned structure.

I’ve copied the comments of “Mitchell” below into the body of the text, with addenda of my own after reading Tyson’s essay in brackets. I had not previously been aware that the building

“was burned to the ground in a night of rioting following the cold-blooded murder of an African-American soldier by a white bus driver.”

“Booker T. Spicely, a private stationed at Fort Butner – he’d been an employee of Tuskegee Institute before the war – boarded a Durham City bus in the company of another black soldier and a young woman and her little boy he’d just met at the bus stop. They all took seats right behind the driver, a breach of segregation protocol. When a couple of white soldiers boarded the bus shortly after the driver – a hot tempered man with an apparently well earned reputation for drinking on the job named Herman Council – told Spicely and his companions to move to the back of the bus. [Spicely’s companions moved immeediately to the back of the bus, while Spicely stayed. Spicely appealed to the white soldiers – they all fought together for the same country, why should he be moved? The white soldiers agreed with Spicely and, surprisingly, themselves went to the back of the bus. Council continued to insist that Spicely move, and Spicely told him that he wasn’t going to be told what to do by someone who was driving the bus because ‘he was 4-F’. The insult engraged Council, who told Spicely ‘he had something that would cool him off.’ A short time later, Spicely tried to apologize for the insult, but Council would have none of it.] As Spicely disembarked through the rear door at a stop, somewhere along Club Blvd. I believe, Council exited the bus through the front door with a .38 pistol in hand. He shot Spicely twice in the chest at close range. The private was not long in dying.”

“The murder touched off a night of violence, and soon those tobacco warehouses along Morgan St. were burning brightly. The City apparently called upon several thousand fireman, civilian volunteers, and soldiers from Butner to battle the fire and maintain order in the streets. From the looks of the picture […] they weren’t match enough for the blaze.”

“A couple of months later an all white jury, after deliberating for all of 28 minutes, acquitted Council of murder.”

Sometime during the 1950s-early 1960s, these were replaced with two car related businesses, Midtown Motors and Goodyear.

212-222 Morgan, looking northwest, 1966.

200-210 Morgan, looking northwest, 1966

These were still in operation in 1987.

Looking northeast from the Hill (CCB/Suntrust) Building.

Midtown motors was torn down during the 1990s, and the Goodyear building persists in a more eye-catching form.

Looking northwest, 2007.

The ‘fire view’, looking south from ~Seminary