In 1928, when Rosehill Avenue was still a dirt lane, Mamie
Norwood ordered her dream home from a Sears & Roebuck catalogue and built
a frame house at the end of Rosehill. For many years, the two-story residence
served as the parsonage for a neighborhood
church (West Durham Church of God) -- which was eventually torn down and
replaced with an ABC liquor store. Others have lived in the house including
a number of Duke professors and physicians (which may explain the hard-to-find
Duke stone in the front wall) and the local fire chief.
Floor plans for the Sears
house above. Everything but the brick and mortar arrived on a train
from the company's lumber and millwork plant in Chicago. To allow the
most sunlight into a particular room, home buyers like Mamie Norwood
chose reversed floor plans (which was done by simply writing 'REVERSED'
on the order form). The 1926 Sears catalogue says buying one of its
houses, "promotes happiness and contentment, for it is the most
pleasant and natural way to live... Our easy payment plan will 1) Save
your rent money, 2) Give your kiddies a chance, 3) Get close to nature,
4) Have real friends and neighbors and 5) Be independent in old age."
(source: Sears, Roebuck & Company catalogue, 1926)
This beautiful
garden on Rosehill Avenue was originally a plot to grow vegetables during
the Great Depression. More recently, the garden was the location for
an outdoor wedding and annual ice cream socials for the Methodist Retirement
Home.
On the March: OWD
resident leads her four dogs (from left) Lola, Monty, Henry and King
down Rosehill Avenue in Durham. She recently moved to the area to attend
UNC law school. "Sometimes I feel like I'm leading a parade," she said.
(Photo courtesy of the Herald-Sun, published 14 July 2001).
There is an old fish pond in the back yard of 907 Rosehill made out of white stones and concrete. As a young child, long-time West Durham resident Nancy Eubanks recalls falling in the pond while pretending to be Shirley Temple as she danced on a concrete seat. Her dad fished Nancy out but dropped her back in (all-the-while, fish were nibbling at her toes).
Nancy still has the old concrete seat as a focal point in her garden. She "wouldn't take a plug nickel for it, either."
1950s
bungalow on Rosehill.
A home on Rosehill Avenue...
...and the same house several decades ago.
Frances Houser lived in the brick house shown above (near the northern end of Rosehill). Frances is seen here sitting in front of her bicycle at Rosehill and B Street (Green St today).
Union-Local 257. While a worker's strike against Erwin Mills was taking place around 1950, the Union-Local 257 would hand out small amounts of food items to the strikers. Long-time resident Bobby Jackson remembers the short-lived strike was around 1950 because his mother was expecting his oldest sister at the time.
Jackson's grandfather, Buck Carden, ran a Cafe at the corner lot several years earlier ("when my Mother was just a teenage girl"). For years, Wallace Grocery stood on this corner.
Behind the grocery store, Hilliard's Barber Shop faced Rosehill Avenue. Up the hill, across the creek called "Skunk Hollow" was a small wood yard and saw mill. Just east of Wallace Grocery stood Pilgrim Holiness Church -- an old log cabin church on Hale Street that burned down around 1980 (a beauty salon now occupies the site).
Today, the building is home to West Durham Tire -- a convenient place for neighbors to get their cars repaired.
Jesse Morrow standing in front of Forrest Grocery Store on Rosehill in 1939. Fent's Hotdog stand was farther to the right. Fent's Place was also noted for his 5-penny hamburgers -- a mix of bread and ground beef.
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