Week9 Hometown Brochure

The Place We Call Home

Black Wall Street or City of Medicine

Whether you know of it as the “City of Medicine” or the “Bull City,” it’s easy to see why so many residents and businesses call Durham home.

Durham quickly developed a vibrant Black community, the center of which was an area known as ‘Hayti’ (pronounced HAY-tie), just south of the center of town, where some of the most prominent and successful blackowned businesses in the country during the early 20th century were established. These businesses — the best known of which are North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company and Mechanics & Farmers’ Bank — were centered on Parrish St., which would come to be known as “Black Wall Street.”

Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Orange and Wake counties. It is the fifth largest city in the state by population. Located halfway between the Great Smoky Mountains and the beaches of the Atlantic, Durham is a community that is home to over 300 restaurants, more than 40 annual festivals, Duke and North Carolina Central universities, Durham Bulls Triple-A baseball, art and science museums, and world-class medical facilities just to name a few.

depots supplying wood and water could not be more than 25-30 miles apart.

Durham originated in 1853 with the search for a suitable railroad depot for the North Carolina Railroad between Raleigh and Hillsborough.

The community of Durham Station grew slowly before the Civil War, but expanded rapidly following the war; the present city charter dates from 1869. Much of this growth can be attributed to the establishment of a thriving tobacco industry.

The wood-burning steam locomotives of the time had to stop frequently to refuel, and

Bull City Durham was nicknamed the “Bull City” in the late 1800s when the Blackwell Tobacco Company named its product “Bull” Durham Tobacco. The rapid growth and prosperity of the Bull Durham Tobacco Company, and Washington Duke’s Duke & Sons Tobacco Company, resulted in the rapid growth of the city of Durham. While the tobacco industry dominated the city’s economy initially, the establishment of multiple textile mills, particularly in East and West Durham, soon rivaled it. Much of the early city architecture, both commercial and residential, dates from the period of 1890 - 1930.

With the birth of the Research Triangle Park (RTP) in the 1950s, Durham began to take on a new look that has evolved into a global center for information technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medicine. The City of Durham is known as the “City of Medicine,” with healthcare as a major industry including more than 300 medical and health-related companies and medical practices with a combined payroll exceeding $1.5 billion annually.

Blue Devil Country Durham is also home to Duke University, North Carolina Central University, and Durham Technical Community College. Duke University is a private research university whose research expenditures are among the largest 20 in the U.S. and its athletic program is one of the nation’s elite. Along with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, the university forms one of the corners of the Research Triangle. Athletics is big in Durham. With Duke sharing rivalries with other Tobacco Road schools (University of North Carolina Tar Heels, North Carolina State Wolfpack, and Wake Forest Demon Deacons), college athletics dominate the sports scene. Durham’s most famous professional sports team is the Durham Bulls International League baseball team.

101 E Morgan Street Duham, NC 27701 (800) 687-0288 Fax: (919) 683-9555

Durham, North Carolina

Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau