Nestled between Duke University’s East Campus and West Chapel Hill Street lies the Burch Avenue neighborhood, a small neighborhood of 300 homes that reflects the diversity of the greater Durham community. As one of the first areas in Durham to intentionally integrate, our neighborhood has attracted people who value social justice, cultural diversity, the arts, and close community for a long while. Others have come for the affordable housing, wooded yards, convenient location, and live-and-let-live attitude.

The Burch Avenue neighborhood was first settled in the late 19th century. One of its earliest houses was 820 Wilkerson. Still standing, it is an architectural gem built in 1890 for William Thomas O’Brien, who helped develop a cigarette-rolling machine for Durham’s booming tobacco industry. Other early residents included building contractor M. Webb Thompson, who built the distinctive house with cedar-shake shingles at 1009 Burch; and cabinetmaker Robert Crumpacker, who built 902 Burch, with its red tin roof, around 1910. Along the northern edge of the Burch Avenue neighborhood is Rome Avenue, which features the last remaining houses of an African-American community called Brookstown. Most of the community’s homes were destroyed by the construction of the Durham Freeway in the 1970’s, and interested drivers traveling East along the Durham Freeway (between Swift and Chapel Hill St. exits) can still see the line of cedar trees that once surrounded an integral part of that community – the West Durham Baptist Church – now just a clearing in the woods.

Burch Avenue has a mix of single-family homes and multi-family rental housing. The Burch Avenue Neighborhood Association is a volunteer group of residents who work with each other, and with neighboring businesses and non-profits, to improve the quality of life in the Burch Avenue neighborhood. The Durham Community Land Trustees has been very active in the neighborhood and has increased affordable housing. Businesses such as Ingold Tire and the Durham Food Co-op, as well as Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, are part of the fabric of neighborhood life. Recently, the Emily Krzyzewski Center has offered a range of academic and after-school supports for youth from the Burch Avenue and surrounding neighborhoods. Duke University has also remained steadily involved in the neighborhood, through various community outreach efforts such as the Quality of Life program and the PathWays House.

For more information about Burch Ave, contact Annie Butzen, BA Neighborhood Association president, at aybutzen@gmail.com.

The Lakewood Park neighborhood takes its name from a 27-acre amusement center once situated at the intersection of Chapel Hill Street and Jersey Avenue. Local residents dubbed this attraction the “Coney Island of the South.” In the 1920s, the site was the southern terminus and headquarters of the city’s electric trolley system, and today it holds the Shoppes at Lakewood.

The Lakewood Park Community Association serves the area to the south of that landmark. In recent years, Lakewood Park has seen many changes. Owners have renovated several residences, and they turned some of the beautiful Victorian homes into offices and businesses that serve a local, national and international clientele.

Lakewood Park is home to Lakewood Elementary, one of the seven Neighborhood Partnership schools, which benefits from Duke University Retiree Outreach volunteer efforts. The Duke University Surplus Store moved to Shoppes at Lakewood at the neighborhood’s request.

Lakewood Park is represented in the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Committee, facilitated by Mayme Webb-Bledsoe in Duke’s Office of Community Affairs. The grassroots committee’s goals include increasing affordable housing options, celebrating the history of its six neighborhoods, strengthening neighborhood nonprofits and encouraging cooperation among businesses.

For more information about Lakewood Park, please contact Patt Stubbings, Lakewood Park Neighborhood Association president, at pqsdurham@aol.com.

Lyon Park emerged early in the 20th century when the West End grew beyond its southern boundary along Morehead Avenue. Many early residents of Lyon Park were African-Americans who worked in tobacco factories and hospitals or as domestics, teachers, merchants and artisans. The neighborhood bounded by Cornell Street, Morehead Avenue, and Lakewood Avenue takes its name from the neighborhood school built in 1929.

The Lyon Park Community Association works to address residents’ concerns and has fostered neighborhood clean-ups, a community watch and youth activities.

In November 1996, a Durham bond referendum allocated $6.4 million to support the renovation of the old Lyon Park School to create the Calvary Ministries of the West End Community Family Life & Recreation Center. With a variety of partners, the center houses programs such as GED preparation, tutoring, child development services, recreation, senior daycare, summer and after-school youth enrichment, and performing and visual arts opportunities.

Neighborhood Partnership efforts in Lyon Park include: the Lyon Park Clinic – a cooperative effort between Lincoln Community Health Center and Duke’s Community and Family Medicine Department; Project H.O.P.E., playground construction, and neighborhood clean-up and celebration days. Lyon Park is represented in the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Committee, facilitated by Mayme Webb-Bledsoe in Duke’s Office of Community Affairs. The grassroots committee’s goals include increasing affordable housing options, celebrating the history of its six neighborhoods, strengthening neighborhood non-profits and encouraging cooperation among businesses.

For more information about Lyon Park, please contact Dorcas Bradley, Lyon Park Neighborhood Association president, at 919-403-0273.

The Tuscaloosa-Lakewood Neighborhood consisting of nearly 500 homes gets its two-part name from two landmarks: the Tuscaloosa Forest, a stand of pines, oaks, and maples that towered over the neighborhood for more than 70 years, and the former Lakewood Park amusement complex.

The racially and economically diverse neighborhood lies between Chapel Hill Road and the Shoppes at Lakewood. In recent years, residents have worked hard to improve their neighborhood.

The clear-cutting of a section of Tuscaloosa Forest in 1998 prompted residents to petition Durham to adopt a tree-preservation ordinance. Neighborhood leaders point to the recent arrival of Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, or TROSA, on James Street and a Durham Police Department substation in the Shoppes at Lakewood as positive additions.

The Community Outreach Partnership Center and IBM’s Wired for Learning are two Neighborhood Partnership programs in Tuscaloosa-Lakewood. Partnership programs at nearby Lakewood Elementary also serve the neighborhood. Tuscaloosa-Lakewood is represented in the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Committee, facilitated by Mayme Webb-Bledsoe in Duke’s Office of Community Affairs. The grassroots committee’s goals include increasing affordable housing options, celebrating the history of its six neighborhoods, strengthening neighborhood nonprofits and encouraging cooperation among businesses.

For more information about Tuscaloosa/Lakewood, visit their website at http://www.rtpnet.org/~tlna/ or contact Christian Ferney, TLNA neighbohood Association President, at tlnadurham@gmail.com.

Historians consider Morehead Hill to be North Carolina’s first suburb. The neighborhood took shape in the early 1900s when Durham’s new electric trolley system connected it with downtown.

Most of the area had been the farm of William Gaston Vickers. In the late 1870s and 1880s, he sold hillside parcels overlooking tobacco factories south of downtown to several well-to-do businessmen who built imposing residences along South Duke Street and Morehead Avenue. Eugene Morehead’s house, built on the highest of these lots, gave the area its name. Morehead Hill was the most prestigious neighborhood in the city.

Today, housing in Morehead Hill contains single-family homes and multi-family rental properties. Some of the large historic homes have been converted to businesses, apartments and clinics.

Partner school Morehead Montessori Elementary is in Morehead Hill. Morehead Hill is represented in the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Committee, facilitated by Mayme Webb-Bledsoe in Duke’s Office of Community Affairs. The grassroots committee’s goals include increasing affordable housing options, celebrating the history of its six neighborhoods, strengthening neighborhood nonprofits and encouraging cooperation among businesses.

For more information about Morehead Hill, please contact Melanie Eberhart, Morehead Hill Neighborhood Association president, melanie_eberhart@hotmail.com.

At what was once the western outskirts of Durham, West End has long been home to factory, construction, Duke University and Veterans Administration Medical Center workers.

The neighborhood south of West Chapel Hill Street between Chapel Hill Road and Arnette Street has a corps of hard-working community leaders who want to revitalize their neighborhood. The West End Community Center grew out of their major efforts to raise funds and identify neighborhood needs.

The center now serves as a community gathering place and hosts an after-school program for neighborhood children and a Teen Focus program for West End teens.

Besides supporting the West End Community Center, the Neighborhood Partnership helped develop the Juanita McNeil-Joseph Alston Teen Center. The neighborhood also benefits from the Technology Program and partnership services at the Lyon Park Community Center, including the Lyon Park Clinic. West End is represented in the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Committee, facilitated by Mayme Webb-Bledsoe in Duke’s Office of Community Affairs. The grassroots committee’s goals include increasing affordable housing options, celebrating the history of its six neighborhoods, strengthening neighborhood nonprofits and encouraging cooperation among businesses.

For more information about West End neighborhood, please contact Juanita McNeil, West End Neighborhood Association president, at 919-401-3912.