Behind the public parking lot on Ninth Street, in the broad grassy field that pushes the new Station Nine apartments farther from coffee-scented trappings of downtown, is a swatch of land that is a piece of Durham's history.
John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, says it is from that grassy point that history fans can look out on every horizon and see some remnant of the ever-changing array of neighborhoods and communities that make up Durham's past.
Schelp calls the spot "a microcosm of the history of Durham," needing only to gesture to each of the four horizons to say just why.
North of the nearby railroad, near Club Boulevard, were the wealthiest of Durham's residents. South of the railroad lived the poorest of both white and black communities.
East of that spot lived the wealthiest black residents of Durham, namely those who benefited from the bustling business of Parrish Street, Durham's "Black Wall Street."
Finding history in the landscape was the theme of an "easy urban hike" Saturday morning, organized by the Sierra Club and the Triangle Transit Authority.
Schelp, a self-described local history buff, and the TTA's Juanita Shearer-Swink helped to guide more than 100 people on a trek through Durham. The goal was to shed light on Durham's past and help to answer questions about Durham's future commuter rail.
Schelp offered walkers a bounty of area trivia while Shearer-Swink talked about the future of the 28 miles of commuter rail, construction which TTA aims to complete by 2009.
Beginning at George's Garage on Ninth Street, Shearer-Swink and Schelp led the hikers to the site of the future Ninth Street rail stop, down a dirt road to the Liggett Meyers development through the American Tobacco Campus and past the East Coast Greenway to another proposed rail stop, near Chapel Hill Street.
Many walkers said they'd come to learn a little more of Durham's colorful history.
A recent immigrant, who asked not to be named, said he went on the walk because he'd wondered about Durham's past.
"I walk and I think, these shops always look like they have history," he said.
Durham's Walter Jackson said he knew the city pretty well, but went on the walk to see if there was any history he didn't know.
Other walkers, like Beth Silberman, hoped to learn more about the commuter rail.
Silberman, a 15-year resident of Durham, said she took the walk because she wanted to show support for the commuter rail. She said she thought a public rail system would lighten the "horrendous" traffic.
Silberman added that while she and her husband live close to downtown and are within walking distance of many places, her job involves going from house to house.
"I'm car-dependent," Silberman said, adding that others could benefit from the rail.
Shearer-Swink, project manager for the 12 stations of the TTA's regional rail plan, emphasized that in terms of the commuter rail, "The question is not if; it's when."
"I think there is a communitywide interest in how we can define our future," she said, "... how we can make transportation choices that are more sustainable...
The commuter rail is part of that puzzle."