Trinity Historic District (Boundary Increase II)

Built between 1927 and 1929, this wedge-shaped, one-story brick building at 209-215 North Gregson Street in Durham has four storefronts along a bowed facade, each topped by a stepped parapet with decorative brickwork. Three bays retain original plate-glass windows in metal frames, tiled aprons and entry floors, and wood-framed glass doors. The end bay was removed after a fire, likely in the 1980s. Standing at the south edge of the largely residential Trinity Historic District, it housed a grocery, a dry cleaner, a soft drink store and confectioneries from about 1930 to 1940. These businesses served neighborhood residents, many of them connected to Trinity College, and the soda shop and confectionery drew on the school across the street. Nearby Main Street buildings were oriented to automobiles and tobacco industry, so this block was unusual. It was added to the district as its most intact commercial building, under Criterion A, for its role in early twentieth-century neighborhood development.