| 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 Gin Street and Dezern Place.   For many years, the News Boarding House stood on a section of Gin Street (near here) that is now open space behind the Pizza Palace. This rooming house was mostly used by young, newly-arrived male employees of the Erwin Mills. Row of houses on Gin Street. John D. Loudermilk, the Grammy Award winning Country & Western composer, grew up in this house on Dezern Place (near Hale Street). Loudermilk is perhaps best known as the composer of "Tobacco Road" -- a stark, stomping tale of hard-bitten Southern poverty with a strong blues flavor sung by Lou Rawls, Jefferson Airplane, Edgar Winter, and others. This song was far from Loudermilk's only success. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he supplied material for country stars, teen idols, and rock singers, including "Waterloo" (Stonewall Jackson), "Angela Jones" (Johnny Ferguson), "Ebony Eyes" (Everly Brothers), "Norman" (Sue Thompson), "Abilene" (George Hamilton IV), "What Made Milwaukee Famous Has Made a Loser Out of Me" (Loudermilk), and "This Little Bird" (Marianne Faithfull's moody British hit). Loudermilk's mother gave piano lessons near Wallace's Electric on Hillsborough Road. One of her students was Peaches Riggsbee, Mr. Wallace's daughter.   Redemption Song by Charles Brewer Oh please don't build the cul-de-sac. Yes, let your streets connect.   If you don't, you will have congestion And your life it will be a wreck.   And let your streets be narrow. In the neighborhood cars could slow.   The people they will be happy, And the cars they won't even know.   Won't you help me sing This song of building Places we can love?   Redemption Song.   Oh don't build the gated community. Your society it will destroy.   Strive for income diversity. It will bring you lots of joy.   Oh please don't segregate uses. The pod is a bad thing.   Remember to mix your housing types, And your neighborhood it will sing.   Won't you help me sing This song of building Places we can love?   Redemption Song.   Oh don't be afraid of density. It will bring your cities life.   Remember it's not the people you don't like It's just the things they drive.   Don't make me look at garage doors. You can put them in the rear.   Make the street inviting. The benefits are so clear.   Won't you help me sing This song of building Places we can love?   Redemption Song. Source: http://luciensteil.tripod.com/katarxis02-1/index.html 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