Historic Hayti redeveloment cost more than 40-acres and a mule

 

The Biltmore Hotel and the Regal movie theater on Pettigrew Street in 1947

What’s the cost to rebuild Durham’s Historic Hayti community after the freeway bulldozed the once vibrant Black community?

It’s more than 40-acres and a mule.

Hayti expands beyond the 19-acres proposed for redevelopment by the Durham Housing Authority (DHA) at Fayette Place. It spreads down Pettigrew Street connecting to Roxboro Rd. It covers space now occupied by Ponysaurus Brewing and the Durham Police Department headquarters. It extends to property on Dillard Street, the home of The Fruit, an art space and creative playground. It includes Hi-Wire Brewing, Durham Bottling Company, Smashing Boxes and remodeled office space on Ramsuer Street.

Development in Historic Hayti began shortly after downtown redevelopment advanced to alter the face of Durham. The site of lavish apartments, and fine dining eateries, wait for transplants lured by the city’s new reputation. The expansion continues beyond the downtown corridor as developers seize hold of rich opportunities.

What about old Hayti?

In 1982, the editor of the Carolina Times warned of the consequence of impending growth. The paper accused city planners of having their sight on the old Hayti district connecting to downtown Durham. Much of that land remains waiting for future development. Parts already redeveloped add to tension related to what could have been and what should become of the former Black housing and business district.

“This is a battle of power and money. The stakes are high. To city planners, the area compliments plan to rebuild downtown. In their judgment, the old Hayti is fertile ground for planning houses to give the revitalized downtown people a 24-hour life,” The Carolina Times said.

Bull House Apartments occupy space near where the Regal, a 500-seat movie theater built and operated by George Logan in 1927, and the Biltmore Hotel, built in 1923 by Dr. Clyde Donnell stood as monuments of Black pride across from Union Station on Pettigrew Street.

The Pettigrew Street section of Hayti connected with Durham’s downtown, within walking distance of the famed Black Wall Street on Parish Street. To fully understand the life and culture of Durham’s Black community prior to the flattening of Hayti, it’s critical to envision the impact of property beyond the area now designated for Hayti development.

West Parrish Street, along with portions of Hayti on the North side of the Durham Freeway, formed a hub of Black-owned businesses that flourished beginning in early 1900s.

“To-day there is a singular group in Durham where a black man may get up in the morning from a mattress made by black men, in a house which a black man built out of lumber which black men cut and planned; he may put on a suit which he brought at a colored haberdashery and socks knit at a colored mill; he may cook victuals from a colored grocery on a stove which black men fashioned; he may earn his living working for colored men; be sick in a colored hospital, and buried from a colored church; and the Negro insurance society will pay his widow enough to keep his children in a colored school,” W.E.B. Du Bois writes in his 1912 essay “The Upbuilding of Black Durham”.

Hayti encompasses more than the space between Durham Freeway and a few blocks past North Carolina Central University. The sadness regarding efforts to resurrect a once thriving Black community regards the limited scope attached to a once thriving Black community.

Hayti includes the Heritage Square retail center, land close to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Scientific Properties, a company owned by Andrew Rothschild, brought Heritage Square in 2007 for $4 million. In 2019, two LLCs, 401 E. Lakewood LLC and 606 Fayetteville LLC, fronted by investors from Austin, Texas, purchased the property for $12.5 million.

Food World Market and Subway occupy space on the 9.58-acre property. The new owners wait as the value continues to increase on land with flexible zoning that allows for retail, multifamily, office and mixed-use development up to 150 feet high.

Before relocating to New York after a failed attempt to purchase the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance building, Rothchild proposed a mixed-use development promoting a walkable live-work community. Opposition from Larry Hester and delays by the City Planning Commission ended a promising plan. It didn’t help that Rothchild is white.

Corinne Mabry, a member of the planning commission, told a reporter with the News & Observer she “was not going to sell her people down the river,” a recap of Durham’s epic destruction of the Hayti district.

The rebuilding of Hayti involves the allocation of more than 40-acres and a mule. Recovery involves more than acreage currently identifies as the former Hayti district. Hayti redevelopment comprises Pettigrew Street, Heritage Square, parts of downtown Durham and land extending past Main Street.

The damage triggered by a freeway aimed at developing the Research Triangle Park came with the annihilation of more than the 19-acres were the former Fayette Place stood. Conversations involving Hayti should extend beyond the goals of DHA. These conversations should involve the gains made by white led businesses on land in the historic Hayti district.

It's time to address the full magnitude of Hayti’s destruction. It’s time to ponder how city leaders participated in the corrosion of Black prosperity beyond a few blocks named as a redevelopment district. Hayti reborn involves the rebuilding of Black affluence inclusive of Durham’s downtown district.

The price for redevelopment cost more than 40-acres and a mule. Add the cost of interest and the loss of land beyond the reimaged plan of city leaders after the freeway destroyed Black dreams.