| Upper Ninth Street | | W. Main St./Erwin Square | | Broad Street | | Ninth Street Shopping District | | Edith, Virgie, and Carolina | | Rosehill Ave | | Hale Street | | Knox, Green, Alabama | | Oakland, Lawndale | Trent Dr., Rutherford, Warner, Bolton and 15th Streets | | Iredell Street | | Hillsborough Road | | West Pettigrew St. | | Gin St. and Dezern Pl. | | Sights Near OWD | Map of Old West Durham

Web Site Guide | News | About OWDNA | Neighborhood Info | Photographs of OWD | Media Spotlight | Citizen Resources | Home Snapshots of Old West Durham This is a growing archive of shots submitted by residents of the neighborhood. Visit it often! These are homes and businesses on West Pettigrew Street (along the railroad tracks in OWD). E.K. Powe house. Philanthropist and Erwin Mills general manager, Edward Knox Powe had this Neoclassical Revival style house, with two-story portico, built during the late 1890s shortly after marrying Claudia Josephine Erwin. The combination of fanciful molded woodworking around the entrance, latticed window sashes and very tall interior chimneys with corbelled stacks is typical of later Victorian architecture. Before the arrival of the Durham Freeway, the Powe property extended south to Hull Street. Today the Powe House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (source: HPSD) Sunnyside, 1507 West Pettigrew Street Jessie Harper Erwin, noted Durham textile executive and director of Southern Railway, had this two-story frame house built around 1904. According to a popular local tradition, when the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus visited Durham early in the 20th century and was camped nearby across the railroad tracks, Mr. Ringling visited Sunnyside to ask about the pebble dash exterior for his own house-building project. In 1914, Erwin covered the pebble dash with cedar shake shingles and added a wraparound porch with Tuscan columns. In the late 1940s, the small servants' quarters, with pyramid roof, was moved closer to the present-day Durham Freeway. Today, it serves as a small doctor's office. (source: HPSD) Memories of the Blue Light on Erwin, near Pettigrew Hello West Durham. My name is Lois Ramsey. I was born in Durham on May 25, 1935 to J.D. and Nettie Carden. I was born on Edith Street. My mother and father worked at Erwin Mills. I grew up in West Durham and went to E.K. Powe School. We lived on Case Street in Monkey Bottom. I went to work for Sam Boy at the Blue Light around 1956. When I worked there the Esso Station was going full force also. This was also owned by the Boy Family. By this time I had married and was Lois Bennett. I worked at the Blue Light when we had car hops (good old days) I remember one young man Ervin Hester who later became a newscaster for WTVD. He a was a very ambitious young man. Sam had a room down stairs at the Blue Light called the Ratskeller. I workd the evening shift from 4PM to midnight. When I would get a break I would go through the kitchen and take the freight elevator to the basement to look in the room. The Blue Devil football team hung out there. I had the pleasure of meeting Sonny Jergenson there who later went pro and played for the Redskins. I also got a friend of mine a job there, Gladys Carrington who still works for John Boy at the Quik Shop. This is the only job Gladys has ever had. I met my present husband while I worked at the Blue Light. He was working for Daniel Construction Co. They were building the Biological Science Building at Duke University he was the field engineer. So you see the Blue Light has a special in my heart as does Sam and Gerry Boy. I am proud of my heritage and my home town. OWD Adopts Erwin Mills Cemetery as Part of Neighborhood Established in 1893, the families of workers from Erwin Mills on Ninth Street buried their dead at this little-known cemetery on West Pettigrew Street for 100 years. The cemetery is of historic significance in the South because African Americans were buried beside whites at a time when even graveyards were, for the most part, strictly segregated by race. The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association organized three clean-ups of the cemetery -- clearing several truckloads of underbrush and coming back to plant daffodil bulbs, paint the fence and install two cemetery signs. Because of its historic connection to the neighborhood, OWDNA voted unanimously to amend its bylaws and include the cemetery as part of Old West Durham. "That's history; let me tell you something, that's history." Excerpt of UNC interview with Mrs. Theotis Williamson, who worked at Erwin Mills from 1915 to 1960. Lanier Rand: Where is the mill cemetery? Mrs. Theotis Williamson: It's up the hill on Burrow Road. You have to go in and back out, because I went to a funeral up there not too long ago. LR: They still use that? TW: Yes. But this man that was buried there then, he was eighty-something years old. I had known him years and years down there, and I went to his funeral. It's a beautiful place up there, but it's scary. I've often wanted to go back and go in there with somebody with me. LR: Maybe you and I could go up there some time, because I'd like to see it. I don't know where it is. I could come get you. TW: Well, we'll go some day then. LR: Because I've never been up there; I don't even know where it is. TW: Well now, I'll tell you, it's back in the woods. You won't be afraid? LR: [laughter] No. TW: I'm not afraid either. LR: Well, we'll go together then [laughter]. That must be the key. TW: Yes, yes. That's history; let me tell you something, that's history. LR: Boy, I'm sure! TW: It's the most sacred place you ever seen. I just think it's the most sacred place. Now we had to get out and walk across the railroad tracks. The only two things that went in there were the family car and hearse. LR: And everybody else just walked? TW: Yes, you had to walk. LR: Because it's real small? TW: Because it's grown up so. I don't think anybody'll bother us. Full interview (courtesy of UNC's Southern Oral History Program) If anyone else has pictures of other OWD homes or landmarks, email me and either attach the scans, or arrange to drop off the pictures to me and I'll scan them and put them on the site. Thanks, Tom Clark, webmaster