{"nrhp_refnum":"03000804","name":"Venable Tobacco Company Prizery and Receiving Room","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"302-04 East Pettigrew","address_restricted":false,"city":"Durham","county":"Durham County","state":"NC","lat":35.993218703000025,"lon":-78.89931165199994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-08-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick and heavy-timber tobacco prizery with an attached one-story concrete block receiving room, at 302-4 East Pettigrew Street in the warehouse district south of the railroad in Durham, North Carolina. The prizery dates to about 1930 and the receiving room to 1952.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the property is significant under Criterion A at the local level as the prizery of the Venable Tobacco Company, a branch of Dibrell Brothers, a major leaf brokerage firm. It is one of two surviving prizeries in Durham, a building type essential to the bright leaf tobacco trade. Together with the neighboring Venable Warehouse it forms one of two remaining independent tobacco company complexes in the city.","narrative":"Built around 1930 on East Pettigrew Street in Durham, this three-story prizery and its attached 1952 receiving room were part of a tobacco handling complex used for rehandling, sorting, drying and packing leaf. The prizery has load-bearing brick walls, heavy timber posts and beams, steel hopper windows and flat lintels, a simpler style than the neighboring 1905 warehouse. The receiving room is a one-story trapezoidal addition of concrete block with steel columns and numerous skylights. A boiler room, redrying plant, stemming building and cooper shop once surrounded the prizery, and their outlines remain visible on its walls. The property is significant for its role in Durham's bright leaf tobacco trade as the prizery of the Venable Tobacco Company, linked to the Dibrell Brothers brokerage. It is one of only two surviving prizeries in the city. The period of significance runs from about 1930 to 1953, though operations continued into the early 1980s.","period_of_significance":"circa 1930-1953","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Other: slow burn industrial construction","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"The prizery was partitioned around 1980 but retains its integrity. The receiving room is divided into two tenant spaces, used as a carpentry shop and a kick-boxing business. The tobacco facility operated until the early 1980s.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:53.031547-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/81/7177/47717781/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/03000804.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000804/2ae14e6b3d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000804/2ae14e6b3d-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venable_Tobacco_Company_Prizery.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venable_Tobacco_Company_Prizery.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"77000998","name":"Downtown Durham Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/downtown-durham-historic-district-77000998/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717781","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venable_Tobacco_Company_Prizery_and_Receiving_Room","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21016301"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/durham-county/venable-tobacco-company-prizery-and-receiving-room-03000804/"}