Main Street



The wagon road itself almost certainly followed a precolonial trading path.

The Blount map of Durham's Station c. 1867 shows the wagon road curving south just past Queen Street, then turning east again along the future route of Ramseur Street. By 1887, Main Street met Dillard Street in a T intersection and made a slight jog north before continuing east - a routing to go around the home of tobacco and textile tycoon Julian Shakespeare Carr.

By 1902, the jog had been eliminated and the Dillard-Main intersection was in its present alignment. The realignment may have been done in connection with Carr's construction of two cotton mills and worker housing farther east.

People
Julian Shakespeare CarrWilliam N. PrattJohn Sprunt HillBenjamin Newton DukeJames B. DukeWashington DukeGeorge W. WattsRichard Harvey WrightGeorge Watts HillAtlas Monroe Rigsbee
Landmarks
Brightleaf SquareWest VillageFive PointsHill BuildingOld CourthouseSt. Philip's Episcopal ChurchFormer Durham County LibraryHuman Services ComplexFirst Presbyterian ChurchDurham Rescue Mission