The American Tobacco Historic District is a historic

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

complex and national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from cer ...

located in

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

Durham County, North Carolina Durham County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 324,833, making it the sixth-most populous county in North Carolina. Its county seat is Durham, which is the only incorporated m ...

. The district encompasses 14 contributing buildings and three contributing structures built by the

American Tobacco Company The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members ...

and its predecessors and successors from 1874 to the 1950s. Located in the district is the separately listed

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

style W. T. Blackwell and Company building (1874-1880, c. 1904). Other notable contributing resources are the Romanesque Revival style Hill Warehouse (1900), Washington Warehouse (1902–07), the Lucky Strike Building (1901–02), and Reed Warehouse; Noell Building (c. 1930); Power Plant and Engine House (1929–39); and the

Art Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

style Fowler (1939) Strickland (1946) and Crowe (1953) buildings. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2000 as the American Tobacco Company Manufacturing Plant.

Redevelopment

American Tobacco Campus, Durham, NC (49161668367)

Nearby, but not part of the multi-use redevelopment district, is the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, the studios of Fox 50, and the

Durham Performing Arts Center The Durham Performing Arts Center (often called the DPAC) opened November 30, 2008 as the largest performing arts center in the Carolinas at a cost of $48 million. The DPAC hosts over 200 performances a year including touring Broadway productions ...

. The Historic District is part of a large

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

project in downtown Durham designed to bring residents, businesses, and shoppers to the formerly blighted downtown area. The campus had been the headquarters of the American Tobacco Company, once the largest manufacturer of cigarettes in the United States. The mostly abandoned campus was purchased by the

Capitol Broadcasting Company The Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. (CBC) is an American media company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capitol owns three television stations and nine radio stations in the Raleigh–Durham and Wilmington areas of North Carolina and the D ...

in 2001 as part of a plan to redevelop downtown Durham. Other companies have completed similar plans,

Measurement Incorporated Measurement Incorporated is an educational testing company based in Durham, North Carolina. The company was founded in 1980 by Dr. Henry Scherich. Measurement Incorporated currently administers state-wide standardized tests for Arizona, California ...

purchased and renovated the

Brodie Duke Brodie Leonidas Duke (September 17, 1846 - February 2, 1919) was an American entrepreneur, often credited with starting the tobacco manufacturing industry in Durham, North Carolina. Founder of Semper Idem, and co-founder of W. Duke, Sons & Co., Bro ...

Warehouse, the Imperial Tobacco Warehouse, and BC Remedy Building.

References

External links

American Tobacco Historic District official website
* H Tobacco buildings in the United States Tourist attractions in Durham, North Carolina Historic American Engineering Record in North Carolina Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Italianate architecture in North Carolina Moderne architecture in North Carolina Romanesque Revival architecture in North Carolina Industrial buildings completed in 1874 Historic districts in Durham, North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Durham County, North Carolina 1874 establishments in North Carolina {{NorthCarolina-struct-stub