Pre-establishment The
Eno and the
Occoneechi, related to the
Sioux and the
Shakori, lived in the area and may have established a village named Adshusheer (or Ajusher) in the area which became Durham.
The Occaneechi Path, a corridor of trading roads and trails, went through the area. Native Americans expanded the region by establishing settlements and commercial transportation routes. In 1701, English explorer
John Lawson, documented the area and would later call it "the flower of the Carolinas". Lawson claimed that Ajusher was situated from Occaneechi Town. In the mid-1700s, Scots, Irish, and English colonists settled on land granted to
George Carteret by
King Charles I, a grant that had by then been inherited by his great-grandson
John. Early settlers built settlements as well as farms and mills, like
West Point Mill. Large plantations,
Hardscrabble,
Fairntosh,
Lipscomb,
Walnut Hall,
Patterson, and
Leigh among them, were established in the antebellum period. By 1860,
Stagville Plantation lay at the center of one of the largest plantation holdings in the South. African slaves were brought to labor on these farms and plantations, and slave quarters became the hearth of distinctively Southern cultural traditions involving crafts, social relations, life rituals, music, and dance. There were free
African-Americans in the area as well, including several who fought in the Revolutionary War. Durham's location is a result of the needs of the 19th century railroad industry. The wood-burning steam locomotives of the time had to stop frequently for wood and water and the new
North Carolina Railroad needed a depot between the settled towns of Raleigh and Hillsborough. The residents of what is now downtown Durham thought their businesses catering to livestock drivers had a better future than "a new-fangled nonsense like a railroad" and refused to sell or lease land for a depot. In 1849, a North Carolina Railroad depot was established on a four-acre tract of land donated by
Dr. Bartlett S. Durham; the station was named after him in recognition of his gift. A
U.S. post office was established there on April 26, 1853, now recognized as the city's official birthday.
Reconstruction and the rise of Durham tobacco tobacco factory and family home, Durham, 1883 The community of Durham Station grew slowly before the Civil War, but expanded rapidly following the war. Much of this growth attributed to the establishment of a thriving
tobacco industry. Veterans returned home after the war with an interest in acquiring more of the tobacco they had sampled in North Carolina. Numerous orders were mailed to John Ruffin Green's tobacco company requesting more of the Durham tobacco. W.T. Blackwell partnered with Green and renamed the company as the "
Bull Durham Tobacco Factory". Mustard known as Durham Mustard was originally produced in
Durham, England, by Mrs Clements and later by Ainsley during the eighteenth century. However, production of the original Durham Mustard has now been passed into the hands of
Colman's of
Norwich, England.
Incorporation As Durham Station's population rapidly increased, the station became a town and was incorporated by act of the
North Carolina General Assembly, on April 10, 1869. It was named for the man who provided the land on which the station was built, Dr. Bartlett Durham. At the time of its incorporation by the General Assembly, Durham was located in Orange County. The increase in business activity, land transfers etc., made the day long trip back and forth to the county seat in Hillsborough untenable, so twelve years later, on April 17, 1881, a bill for the establishment of
Durham County was ratified by the General Assembly, having been introduced by Caleb B.Green, creating Durham County from the eastern portion of Orange County and the western portion of
Wake County. In 1911, parts of
Cedar Fork Township of
Wake County was transferred to Durham County and became
Carr Township. Duke Power also had a significant business in local franchises for public transit (buses and trolleys) before local government took over this responsibility in the mid- to late 20th century. Duke Power ran Durham's public bus system (now
GoDurham) until 1991. The success of the tobacco industry in the late 19th and early 20th century encouraged the then-growing textile industry to locate just outside Durham. The early electrification of Durham was also a large incentive. Drawing a labor force from the economic demise of single-family farms in the region at the time, these textile mills doubled the population of Durham. These areas were known as East Durham and West Durham until they were eventually annexed by the City of Durham. Much of the early city
architecture, both commercial and residential, dates from the period of 1890–1930. Durham recorded its worst fire in history on March 23, 1914. The multimillion-dollar blaze destroyed a large portion of the downtown business district. The fire department's water source failed during the blaze, prompting voters to establish a city-owned water system in place of the private systems that had served the city since 1887. Durham quickly developed a black community, the center of which was an area known as
Hayti, (pronounced HAY-tie), just south of the center of town, where some of the most prominent and successful black-owned businesses in the country during the early 20th century were established. These businesses — the best known of which are
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and
Mechanics & Farmers Bank — were centered on Parrish St., which would come to be known as "Black Wall Street". In 1910,
Dr. James E. Shepard founded
North Carolina Central University, the nation's first publicly supported liberal arts college for African-Americans. In 1924,
James Buchanan Duke established a philanthropic foundation in honor of his father
Washington Duke to support Trinity College in Durham. The college changed its name to
Duke University and built a large campus and hospital a mile west of Trinity College (the original site of Trinity College is now known as the
Duke East Campus). Durham's manufacturing fortunes declined during the mid-20th century.
Textile mills began to close during the 1930s. Competition from other tobacco companies (as well as a decrease in smoking after the 1960s) reduced revenues from Durham's tobacco industry. In a far-sighted move in the late 1950s, Duke University, along with the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, persuaded the North Carolina Legislature to purchase a large tract of sparsely settled land in southern Durham County and create the nation's first "science park" for industry. Cheap land and a steady supply of trained workers from the local universities made the
Research Triangle Park an enormous success which, along with the expansion resulting from the clinical and scientific advances of Duke Medical Center and Duke University, more than made up for the decline of Durham's tobacco and textile industries.
Civil rights movement As a result of its substantial African-American community, including many activists, a prominent
civil rights movement developed in Durham. Multiple sit-ins were held, and
Martin Luther King Jr., visited the city during the struggle for equal rights. The Durham Committee on Negro Affairs, organized in 1935 by C.C. Spaulding, Louis Austin, Conrad Pearson, and
James E. Shepard, has been cited nationally for its role in fighting for black voting rights. The committee also has used its voting strength to pursue social and economic rights for African-Americans and other ethnic groups. In 1957,
Douglas E. Moore, minister of Durham's
Asbury Temple Methodist Church, along with other religious and community leaders, pioneered sit-ins throughout North Carolina to protest discrimination at lunch counters that served only whites. Widely credited as the
first sit-in of the civil rights movement in North Carolina, on June 23, 1957, Moore and six others assembled at the church to plan the protest. The young African Americans moved over to the
segregated Royal Ice Cream Parlor and took up whites-only booths. When they refused to budge, the manager called the police who charged them with trespassing. Unlike the
Greensboro Four, three years later, the Royal Seven were arrested and ultimately found guilty of trespassing. The six-month-long sit-in at a
Woolworth's counter in
Greensboro, North Carolina, captured the nation's attention. Within a week, students from North Carolina College at Durham and Duke University staged a sit-in in Durham. About a week later, Martin Luther King Jr. met Moore in Durham, where King coined his famous rallying cry "Fill up the jails," during a speech at
White Rock Baptist Church. Advocating non-violent confrontation with segregation laws for the first time, King said, "Let us not fear going to jail. If the officials threaten to arrest us for standing up for our rights, we must answer by saying that we are willing and prepared to fill up the jails of the South." This community was not enough to prevent the demolition of portions of the Hayti district for the construction of the Durham Freeway during the late 1960s. The freeway construction resulted in losses to other historic neighborhoods, including
Morehead Hill, West End, and
West Durham. Combined with large-scale demolition using Urban Renewal funds, Durham suffered significant losses to its historic architectural base.
1970s–present In 1970, the Census Bureau reported city's population as 38.8% black and 60.8% white. Durham's growth began to rekindle during the 1970s and 1980s, with the construction of multiple housing developments in the southern part of the city, nearest
Research Triangle Park, and the beginnings of downtown revitalization. In 1975, the St. Joseph's Historical Foundation at the
Hayti Heritage Center was incorporated to "preserve the heritage of the old Hayti community, and to promote the understanding of and appreciation for the African American experience and African Americans' contributions to world culture." In 1987, the American Tobacco Factory in Durham closed, leading to an economic downturn and a decline in the city's reputation. A new downtown baseball stadium was constructed for the
Durham Bulls in 1994. The
Durham Performing Arts Center now ranks in the top ten in theater ticket sales in the US according to Pollstar magazine. Many famous people have performed there including
B.B. King and
Willie Nelson. After the departure of the tobacco industry, large-scale renovations of the historic factories into offices, condominiums, and restaurants began to reshape downtown. While these efforts continue, the large majority of Durham's residential and retail growth since 1990 has been along the I-40 corridor in southern Durham County. Major employers in Durham are Duke University and Duke Medical Center (39,000 employees, 14,000 students), about west of the original downtown area, and companies in the Research Triangle Park (49,000 employees), about southeast. These centers are connected by the Durham Freeway (
NC 147). In 2019,
Village Hearth, a retirement community and one of the first co-housing developments exclusively for
LGBTQ people in the United States opened in northern Durham.
Downtown revitalization is the tallest building in Durham located outside of the downtown area. In recent years the city of Durham has stepped up revitalization of its downtown and undergone an economic and cultural renaissance of sorts. Partnering with developers from around the world, the city continues to promote the redevelopment of many of its former tobacco districts, projects supplemented by the earlier construction of the
Durham Performing Arts Center and new
Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The
American Tobacco Historic District, adjacent to both the athletic park and performing arts center, is one such project, having successfully lured a number of restaurants, entertainment venues, and office space geared toward hi-tech entrepreneurs, investors, and startups. Many other companies have purchased and renovated historic buildings, such as
Measurement Incorporated and
Capitol Broadcasting Company. The American Underground section of the American Tobacco Campus, home to successful small software firms including
Red Hat, was selected by
Google to host its launch of the
Google Glass Road show in October 2013. The district is also slated for expansion featuring 158,000 square feet of offices, retail, residential or hotel space. The
Durham County Justice Center, a major addition to downtown Durham, was completed in early 2013. Many of the historic tobacco buildings elsewhere in the city have been converted into loft-style apartment complexes. The downtown corridor along West Main St. has seen significant redevelopment including bars, entertainment venues, art studios, and
co-working spaces, in addition to shopping and dining in nearby
Brightleaf Square, another former tobacco warehouse in the
Bright Leaf Historic District. Other current and future projects include expansion of the open-space surrounding the
American Tobacco Trail, new hotels and apartment complexes, a $6.35-million facelift of Durham City Hall, and ongoing redevelopment of the Duke University Central Campus. In 2013,
21c Museum Hotels announced plans to fully renovate the
Hill Building. The renovations added a contemporary art museum and upscale restaurant to the historic building. Additionally, a boutique hotel was built in this major renovation effort in downtown Durham.
Skanska is responsible for managing this project. In 2014, it was announced that downtown Durham would be the site of a brand new 27 story high building, tentatively named "City Center Tower," but now called "
One City Center". Along with other new buildings in downtown Durham, it was under construction in 2018. It was built on the corner of Main St. and Corcoran St. Upon its completion, it was the tallest building in downtown Durham and the 4th largest building in the Triangle. Originally scheduled for a 2016 opening, the building opening was delayed to May 2018. The building was an $80 million project. In October 2014, a major new development, the Durham Innovation District, was announced. The development will span 15 acres and comprise over 1.7 million square feet of office, residential, and retail space. On April 10, 2019, a
gas explosion rocked Kaffeinate, a coffee shop in
Bright Leaf Historic District. The blast destroyed a city block and killed Kong Lee, the owner, as well as injuring 25 others. ==Geography==