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Twenty miles northwest of Raleigh, DURHAM
found itself at the center of the nation's tobacco industry after
farmer Washington Duke came home from the Civil War with the idea
of producing cigarettes - by 1890 he and his three sons had formed
the America Tobacco Company , one of the nation's
most powerful businesses. The Duke Homestead Historical
Site , 2828 Duke Homestead Rd, about a half-mile north
of I-85 (April-Oct Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; Nov-March Tues-Sat
10am-4pm, Sun 1-4pm; free), incorporates an even-handed and lively
museum covering the social history of tobacco farming.
In 1924 the Duke family's $40 million endowment
to the previously small-scale Trinity College enabled it to expand
into a world-respected medical research facility, swiftly changing
its name to Duke University . It's well worth
visiting the campus: the Museum of Art on Campus
Drive (Tues, Thurs & Fri 10am-5pm, Wed 10am-9pm, Sat 11am-2pm,
Sun 2-5pm; free; tel 919/684-5135) has good African, pre-Columbian,
medieval and Asian collections. The Gothic west campus centers
on the soaring cathedral-style chapel (tel 919/681-1704
for hours and services), which boasts one of the most powerful
Flentrop organs in the world. Also on campus, the terraces and
bowers of the beautifully landscaped Sarah P. Duke Gardens
are a blaze of fragrance and color surrounded by pine
forest, especially in May.
Elsewhere, the city has more of a blue-collar feel
and takes pride in its vibrant black heritage
. Based in a number of surprisingly small old plantation homes,
set in 71 acres seven miles north of town in rural Treyburn Park,
the Stagville Preservation Center (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm;
free; tel 919/620-0120) is not a museum as such, but hosts various
workshops and living history demonstrations, illustrating plantation
life from the early 1800s to Reconstruction through the works
of local black craftspeople.
At 5109 Farrington Rd, between Hwy-54 and Old Chapel
Hill Road, and worth a detour, Patterson's Mill Country
Store (closed Monday), at the end of a rutted country
lane, looks like something straight out of The Waltons , selling
everything from old signs and used books to crafts, candy, soap
and spices. A back room is stuffed with vials and potions, and
upstairs there's a bewildering panoply of tobacco memorabilia.
