{"nrhp_refnum":"85002438","name":"Cleveland Street District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly Cleveland St. between Seminary & Gray Aves. & Mallard St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Durham","county":"Durham County","state":"NC","lat":36.00054657150005,"lon":-78.89491389328722,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-09-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residential historic district along Cleveland Street, with two small houses on Gray Avenue, at the east edge of downtown Durham, North Carolina. It holds one- to two-and-one-half-story frame houses built from the 1880s to the 1910s.","why_significant":"The district is one of the few surviving parts of Durham's most fashionable late-nineteenth-century neighborhood, which grew from the city's tobacco wealth. Pioneering families developed it, and industrialists, financiers, merchants and professionals built houses there. The houses are noteworthy examples of vernacular Queen Anne, Shingle, Neoclassical and Colonial Revival styles.","narrative":"Cleveland Street, at the east edge of downtown Durham, preserves a group of frame houses built between the 1880s and 1910s. It is a remnant of the city's most fashionable late-nineteenth-century neighborhood, which grew with the success of the local tobacco industry and was largely cleared in the 1960s and 1970s. Families that helped pioneer Durham sold lots to industrialists, financiers, merchants and professionals, who built Queen Anne and classically inspired houses. The district also includes the 1891 Shingle Style house that architect Samuel Linton Leary designed for himself, regarded as the best example of that style in Durham. Other notable buildings include the Howerton-Masser House, the Markham House with its Corinthian porch columns, and the foursquare houses built by A. A. Murdoch. Tree-shaded streets, uniform setbacks and low retaining walls give the street a cohesive look. Many houses are now apartments, and some have deteriorated, but most keep their original details.","period_of_significance":"1880-1920","architect_builder":"See individual entries; Samuel Linton Leary designed the Leary-Coletta House (1891); A. A. Murdoch built the Murdoch houses","architectural_style":"Vernacular Queen Anne, with Shingle Style, early Neoclassical Revival and Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Described as largely intact but deteriorated. Many houses are divided into apartments, and the Murdoch houses have been vacant and vandalized since 1981, with rehabilitation planned by a new owner.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:49.33706-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/57/7177/47717757/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/85002438.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002438/9ea2a399bd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002438/9ea2a399bd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Maria Miracoli","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:801_Cleveland_St.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:801_Cleveland_St.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717757","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Street_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19461047"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/durham-county/cleveland-street-district-85002438/"}