{"nrhp_refnum":"12000345","name":"Scott and Roberts Dry Cleaning Plant, Office, and Store","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"733 Foster St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Durham","county":"Durham County","state":"NC","lat":36.00695746300005,"lon":-78.90144327099995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-06-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A single-story brick dry cleaning plant, office and retail store at 733 Foster Street in Durham, North Carolina, built in 1947 for the Scott and Roberts dry cleaning business in the Streamline Moderne style.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is one of Durham's best and most intact surviving examples of Streamline Moderne architecture, a style that has become rare locally through demolition and alteration. Its rounded center bay, curved plate glass, header-bond brick, cast-stone banding and glass block express the style. It is judged locally significant under Criterion C in Architecture.","narrative":"Built in 1947 at 733 Foster Street in Durham, this single-story brick building housed a dry cleaning plant at the back with offices and a retail store up front. It was constructed for Scott and Roberts, a local dry cleaning business founded in 1922, after the company was reorganized following the death of Charles \"Buck\" Roberts. The street facade shows the Streamline Moderne style through a slightly projecting center bay with rounded corners, curved plate-glass windows, header-bond brick, wide cast-stone bands and glass block around the entrance. Side and rear walls are plainer red brick with industrial steel-sash windows, and a sawtooth skylight lights the plant interior. The building changed little over the decades and served as a dry cleaner into the early twenty-first century. A 2011 rehabilitation restored the original facade. It was listed for its architecture because it is regarded as Durham's most intact example of a style once prominent in the city but now uncommon, especially after the demolition of a notable Moderne bus station in 1998.","period_of_significance":"1947","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Modern Movement: Moderne (Streamline Moderne)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Dry cleaning operations continued until the early twenty-first century; the building was bought in 2011 for redevelopment, and a 2011 rehabilitation returned the facade to its original configuration. Equipment and fixtures have been removed. Current function is listed as work in progress.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:52.587421-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/44/7200/47720044/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/12000345.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000345/925f3ac06c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000345/925f3ac06c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Maria Miracoli","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scott_and_Roberts_Dry_Cleaning_Plant,_Office,_and_Store.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Maria Miracoli</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scott_and_Roberts_Dry_Cleaning_Plant,_Office,_and_Store.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"13000204","name":"Foster and West Geer Streets Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/foster-and-west-geer-streets-historic-district-13000204/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720044","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_and_Roberts_Dry_Cleaning_Plant,_Office,_and_Store","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21016167"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/durham-county/scott-and-roberts-dry-cleaning-plant-office-and-store-12000345/"}