Historic "Headache" No More?

Durham drug maker, GlaxoSmithKline, one of the mainstays at Research Triangle Park, is making a move that may give some locals a headache.

The original Five Points Drug Company
Courtesy of Duke Archives



In an effort to raise money and focus attention on faster-growing products, GlaxoSmithKline plans to sell 19 of its non-core brands. On Thursday, the company released a list of over-the-counter products it plans to divest including Durham's own heritage product, B.C. Powders.

BC Powders was conceived in 1906 in Durham, NC at the Five Points Drug Company by Germain Bernard and C.T. Council. BC soon developed a loyal customer following among local tobacco and textile factory workers. In 1928, the growing company opened a production facility to meet increasing demand. Photographs of the factory are courtesy of Endangered Durham, a local blog chronicling the architectural history of Durham.

While BC Powders achieved national recognition it was primarily sold in the South where it has maintained a cult following for nearly 100 years. With the future of BC Powders uncertain, now is the time to the celebrate the heritage of one of the products that founded the City of Medicine.

Preservation Durham Hires Former Herald-Sun Editor

Bob Ashley has joined Preservation Durham as its executive director.  Ashley joins Assistant Director Sean Stucker and Preservation Services Coordinator April Johnson, as well as a host of dedicated volunteers.

Ashley, a Durham resident, retired in January after six years as editor of The Herald-Sun. Prior to joining The Herald-Sun, he edited newspapers in Owensboro, Ky., and in State College, Pa. He previously held management positions at The Charlotte Observer and at The Raleigh Times.  He is a 1970 graduate of Duke University, where he was a history major and worked on The Chronicle. 

Board of Directors President Paul N. Yale, Jr. announced the appointment and expressed his excitement with the role that Ashley will play in the organization. “Bob is deeply committed to preservation and to Durham and will bring great energy and innovation to Preservation Durham.”

 “I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to help lead an organization that has worked with great success since 1974 to ensure the preservation of many of Durham’s rich inventory of historically significant properties,” Ashley said. “This is a community that has recognized the social, as well as economic, advantages of adapting a unique historic built environment to be a vital part of a modern city.”

“But it’s important that we not be lulled into thinking that such high-impact successes as West Village, Golden Belt and the American Tobacco Historic District mean that the work of preservation here is done,”  he added. As a reminder, Preservation Durham recently released its second annual “Places in Peril” list, which identifies historic properties deemed at risk of being lost to neglect.

Ashley noted that he had worked closely with preservation groups in each city where he was editor, and he and his wife, Patricia Ashley, received an “Excellence in Historic Preservation, Private Residence” award from the Centre County Historical Society in 1988 for their work restoring an early-20th-century home in State College.

Preservation Durham was founded in 1974 as The Historic Preservation Society of Durham, Inc. and has since achieved a regional reputation as one of North Carolina's outstanding historic preservation non-profits. The mission of Preservation Durham is to protect Durham’s historic assets through action, advocacy and education.

Durham is home to many historic structures that help maintain the community's unique sense of place and character, many of which are chronicled on the local blog, Endgangered Durham.

Endangered Status?

Gary Kueber started looking forward by looking back, and in the process he created a blog that is staggering in its depth. When he started Endangered Durham in 2005, it was an intellectual pursuit - Kueber is a physician by training, but now non-practicing, he is CEO at Scientific Properties - because he was interested in history and architecture. 

Well, the blog sort of took on a life of its own.

Some 1100 exhausting posts later, Kueber is still at it, and he's showing no signs of letting up. However, he's making some changes to improve the site and those changes cost money. He's looking to fans, and those who use his site, for their support. These changes, think better search capability, integrated mapping, a mobile app, and multiple formats of information views, usher in the next phase of his blog known as Open Durham. There are opportunities for fans to offer their support on the site.

For lovers of Durham (there are enough to warrant a mass wedding coming on March 19th), supporting the site is something of a foregone conclusion. Durham is a place that prides itself equally on where it came from, where it is, and where it is headed. The success of Kueber's blog is an empirical example thereof.

Another trait of Durham (and those that live here) is philanthropism. When all the changes are made and all the heavy lifting is done, when citizens have shared their information and images of Durham's past, then Kueber will make the platform available to others who want to do the same with the places they love. He'll just give it to them for free, simple as that, so that the history of their beloved places won't be endangered. 

Preserving Durham's Unique Sense of Place

Once again an iconic building in Durham will remain intact thanks to some good old fashioned common sense.  Take a look at this post by Gary Kueber on Endangered Durham for more:

http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2010/11/concord-reconsiders-proposes.html