Rigsbee Avenue

Rigsbee Avenue predates the town of Durham, appearing on the Blount Map of Durham's Station c. 1867 as Rigsbee's Lane and running into the farm of Atlas M. Rigsbee.

Blount shows Rigsbee ending near a "small pool used for baptisms by the Baptists & Methodists" which was headwaters for the downtown branch of Ellerbee Creek. The 1884 Sanborn Map shows it as an extension of Orange Street, but the 1888 Sanborn Map re-establishes the Rigsbee name.
(Rigsbee Avenue is not to be confused with Rigsbee Road, now Duke University Road ; it led to another Rigsbee;s farm at the present-day site of Duke West Campus's main quadrangle.)

In the 20th century, Rigsbee Avenue became the heart of Durham's "Tobacco Row"- a district of more than a dozen tobacco auction houses. The downtown market closed after the 1986 auction season.