Dependable Erection

Friday, November 16, 2007

Penny's Bend

It's been a while since i posted any Friday flower pics. You're not going to get any today either. But i did get up for a hike around Penny's Bend earlier. Here's one of my shots from today.

And of course, i'm unable to head up to Penny's Bend without making a stop at the Catsburg Country Store.

Just an absolutely amazing building that really needs to be preserved and turned into something that both celebrates its history and serves the community. Lots of the land around it has for sale signs, and a new elementary school is going to be built soon about a mile or so north on Old Oxford. It certainly seems to me that the opportunity is there to do something worthwhile with this building.

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3 Comments:

  • Love the Penny's Bend hike. One of my favorites. It's especially beautiful (to me) in the fall and winter.

    By Blogger Lex, at 11:03 PM  

  • I agree about the Catsburg Country Store. I used to work on Old Oxford Highway, and drove past this old building every day, wondering what it might have been. It was only recently, when I began exploring Durham County's history, that I learned it had been a rail station and the center of a small rural community that seems to have disappeared.

    It's something I've noticed elsewhere, but seems to be more pronounced in Durham: small, once-thriving communities vanish, and their history along with them, as farming declines and people move to the cities. Eventually the community is swallowed by the growing city and might become merely the name of another suburban development, if that. (See Carpenter, formerly my favorite small Wake County community and now part of Cary, for a perfect example.)

    If we can at least preserve the old store, then maybe something of Catsburg's existence might be remembered. But I don't know if it's even on the radar of the Historic Preservation Society.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:17 AM  

  • Catsburg store is indeed on the Preservation Durham radar. I can't say where things stand as I am not the one working on that. It would indeed be a shame to lose that great old building.

    PD can't be everywhere as we have a small staff and depend on volunteers. If you are willing to help, see:
    http://preservationdurham.org/epf/identify.html

    If you care about these unique places, the Garrett farmhouse demolition is on the agenda tonight at City Council.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:24 AM  

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