Nostalgic trip to Durham with parents brings back memories

Duke Chapel, completed in 1932, seats about 1,800 people and stands 210 feet tall; the chapel was designed by Julian Abele, a noted African-American architect who designed much of Duke's west campus

I was born at Watts Hospital which became the NC School of Science and Math in 1980; alumni include Greensboro native Joeletta Patrick who went on to work for NASA as flight controller for the International Space Station

My parents owned this home when I was a toddler before moving to Greensboro when I was 2; Durham's population was 278,993 in 2019, making it the 4th-most populous city in NC (after Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro)

Durham was nicknamed the Bull City in the late 1800s when the Blackwell Tobacco Company named its product Bull Durham Tobacco; Durham is one corner of the Research Triangle area which has a population of 2,079,687 as of 2019

Completed in 1937, the Hill Building was designed by the same firm that built the Empire State Building and housed banking offices until 2005; it was then converted into a luxury hotel which is now part of 21c Museum Hotels

The largest performing arts center in the Carolinas opened here in 2008 with a concert by BB King; the center has exceeded all expectations and has generated revenue for the city and helped revitalize downtown Durham

Better known today as the 1988 romantic comedy sports film starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon, Bull Durham was based on the actual experiences of the writer/director with Sports Illustrated ranking it the #1 Greatest Sports Movie of all time

Recently Durham has stepped up revitalization of its downtown and undergone an economic and cultural renaissance with lots of luxury apartments, converted tobacco warehouses and trendy restaurants; it has a much more livable downtown than Greensboro; this quilt is from the Durham History Museum

BC Powder was invented in 1906 at Five Points Drug Company in downtown Durham; it still has a cult-like following in the South but is just a combination of 845 mg of aspirin and 65 mg of caffeine

This is the house my grandparents built in 1962 after their two daughters left for college; after their death, the 2800 sq ft house was sold in 1998 for $195,000 but sold in May 2021 for $677,500

Cameron Indoor Stadium opened in 1940 and seats only 9291 making for an intense, partisan atmosphere; Duke is an amazing 274–4 in non-conference basketball home games since 1983

My grandparents (mom's side) are buried in Maplewood Cemetery next to the Duke campus; famous people from Durham include David Gergen, John Lucas II, David Lynch, Shirley Caesar and Dr. Kelly Bruno

Durham is home to the Duke Lemur Center (largest in the world) where in 2016 a rare blue-eyed black lemur was born; distancing itself from tobacco, Durham is now known as the City of Medicine

Founded in 1898, NC Mutual is the oldest and largest African-American life insurance company in the nation; when the company started, life expectancy for African-Americans in the South was only 32 years!

In 1950, Pauli Murray published States' Laws on Race and Color, an examination and critique of state segregation laws throughout the nation; Thurgood Marshall, then at the NAACP, called Murray's book the bible of the civil rights movement

The downtown American Tobacco Historic District encompasses 14 buildings constructed between 1874 and the 1950s; the mostly abandoned campus was purchased in 2001 as part of a plan to redevelop downtown Durham and has been a huge success

In 1995 the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (10,000 capacity) opened and is home for the baseball teams from Duke and NC Central Universities as well as the Bulls which is a AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Marlins

The Carolina Theatre (1926) has escaped the wrecking ball several times and today is part of Durham's thriving arts scene; it was the first theater here to admit Blacks, although there were still segregated ticket lines and lounge areas until 1963

The Durham Museum of History was small and disappointing (especially compared to the much larger similar institution in Greensboro); Durham is only an hour east of Greensboro and 15 minutes west of Raleigh

My grandparents owned this house while my mom and aunt were growing up; back then the house had a pitched roof with 2 big bedrooms upstairs but it looks like the current owners are converting it into a true 2 story house