Old West Durham Neighborhood Association




| Settlement of Pinhook |
| Ninth Street |
| 1920 Street Map |
| McDonald's Drug Store |
| E.K. Powe School |
| Southside School |
| Old Neighborhood|
|Photos & Memories|
| Grocery Stores |
| Erwin Auditorium |
| 8 mills of Erwin Mills |
| Roads to West Durham |
| Life in the Mill Village |
| Working on "Mill Hill" |
| Faces of "Mill Hill" |
| Child of Erwin Mill Village |
| Erwin Mills No. 1 |
| Erwin Mill No. 2 |
| Erwin Mill Cemetary |
| Cooleemee Mill No. 3 |
| Pilgrim Holiness Church |
| WD Church of God |
| OWD's Faith Community |
| Broad Street |
| Duke in History |
| Duke Stonecutters |
| WPA Interviews |
|Oral Histories of OWD|
| Brookstown & Hickstown |
| Bull Durham |
| Growing up on Hillsboro Road |
|The Depression in West Durham|
| The Erwin Chatter |
| West Durham Memory-Mary Coles |
| Interview with Mill Worker |
| Ellerbe Watershed History |
| Historic Walking Tours |
| Walking Tour in the News |
| Historic Durham |
| Bull City Timeline |
| Other Durham cotton mills |
| Southern Cotton Mills |
|Tommy Hunt: Memories...|
| Wallace's Auto Article |
| Historic Postcards of Durham |
| Main history page |



Alma Mater
(E.K. Powe song)

On the city's western border
Reared against the sky,
Proudly stands our alma mater
As the years go by.

Forward ever be our watchword,
Conquer and Prevail!
Hail to thee our alma mater,
E.K. Powe, all hail!


    Old West Durham:
    Glimpses of the Past - Local Schools

    Neighbors share their photographs of OWD life in days gone by.

    Erwin Mills was shut down in 1986. All the people in Old West Durham lost their jobs and they didn't have any money. On 9th Street the stores were shut down. There was no blue jeans. All of the streets of Old West Durham were number streets but 9th Street is still here. E.K. Powe is in the middle of Old West Durham.

    -- David Morales & Jonathan Santander (second graders quoted in 'Document' a publication of the Center for Documentary Studies)

    Old E.K. Powe school, Knox Street entrance (where upper playground is today). Note the dirt road and drainage ditch. 1913 article in the Herald expressed dismay about all the drainages ditches and mosquitos in West Durham. (1910)


    E.K. Powe football team. In 1946, '47 and '48, the E.K. Powe Green Dragons won three national age-group football championships. Front line (left to right): Fred Anders, Jimmy Pulley, Charles Dukes, Commie Rigsbee, Sumter Brawley, Craig Moon and Bill Simpson. Backfield (left to right): Bobbie Burns, Paul Reeves, Ralph Dennis and Charles Andrews (1948). In the old days, girls only played in the upper field (by West Knox) and boys only played in the lower field (by Green Street). In 1958, the students demanded to play together and the boy-girl separation was removed.

     

    Young students sit on the steps near Green Street -- back in 1920 (photo courtesy of Jim Eubanks).

    "Go Green Dragons!" E.K. Powe cheerleaders stand on what is now the lower playground. Group includes Barbara Wagstaff, Pat Ball, Lois Jane Riley, Faye Weaver, and Barbara Sutton Andrews (1949).

    E.K. Powe Jr. High School Glee Club (1952). Photo credit: Betty Wayne Waller Blalock


    West Durham Graded School in 1915 (stood where Vin Rouge and Ninth Street North are now located).


    West Durham High School (with old school building on right), 1928. You can see the old cafeteria basement (see doors and windows at downhill end of building). Students ate in the basement under what are now the administrative offices.

    Causeway connecting the old junior high school (shown on left) and "newer" elementary school (unseen on right). Photo was taken from Edith Street in 1951. Ann Moore and Carolyn Meachem stand in front of the old school building near West Knox (which served as a hospital during World War I).


    West Durham High School (E.K. Powe Elementary today), 1928.

    West Durham HS woman's basketball team in bloomers and middy blouses (1924).

    The four photographs above are courtesy of the N.C. Collection, Durham County Library.



    Safety patrol, sixth grade, E.K. Powe Elementary School, 1951 (boys patrolled outside, girls could only patrol inside).

    E.K. Powe's vacation song

    It there's anything you want to know
    Just ask us we can tell
    We've studied hard for nine long months
    And we know our lessons well.

    Why oceans are deep and mountains steep
    And rivers run down hill
    And now we're going to join the brook
    Down by the mill.

    So it's hip hip hurrah!
    For the good old summertime
    An old straw hat, no shoes at all
    And a fishing pole and line.

    The brook is calling to us
    and the Woods repeat the tune
    The very air, without a care
    Says JUNE, JUNE, JUNE!