Monday, December 27, 2010

A Very Musical Christmas Eve

Several lucky neighbors got an exciting surprise this Christmas Eve - carolers!




Thanks to Natalie for organizing the event, and to Eleni for putting together the fantastic video.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Happy Halloween!

How fantastic is this sight!



Children from all over the neighborhood participated in the 2nd Cleveland Hollow'een!

We provided 27 free borrowed costumes from our neighborhood costume chest, 16 free bags of 60 pieces of candy for budget restricted households to pass out, and a fun, safe, and free event for neighbors young and old.


We even had a special guest...Wool E. Bull!



We had approximately 75 (maybe more! we were too busy having fun to count!) neighbors march in our Halloween Parade


Here you can see our special guest Wool E. Bull with our neighbor Maureen who made delicious caramel corn for all the kids.



Some more neighborhood kids enjoying the night...



After the parade and trick or treating, we gathered on the lawn to watch scary movies, swap candy, and eat the pumpkin seeds from our pumkin carving event that Leslie roasted for everyone.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Congratulations to Kyle!

We want to give a big shout-out to our neighbor Kyle Bell for his success and his recent write-up in the Herald Sun. Kyle is 15 years old, and the son of Estella who owns and runs Visions Alterations and Custom Sewing. Kyle recently came in third place in a Rochester, NY Karate tournament.

From the article:
"Before, my attitude was like really, really, bad," he said. "If somebody said something that didn't mean anything to me, I'd get mad over it, and want to fight them. Now, karate has gotten me into a calm state of mind."

Read the rest of the article: http://heraldsun.com/bookmark/9942806

And interestingly enough, Nathan Ligo who runs the Dojo has a similar story to Kyle's. Read it here. (http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/9942954/article-Karate-rescued-Nathan-Ligo--now-he-wants-to-help-others)

Monday, November 1, 2010

Won’t you be my neighbor?

Welcome to the Third Annual Cleveland-Holloway Home Tour!

11am-3pm on Saturday, November 6th

The self-guided tour begins at 501 Oakwood Ave


Around 1890 the city of Durham expanded its boundaries to include our neighborhood. Homes built here were for merchants, and factory workers-- largely Greek and Russian Jews who had immigrated to the area for work. Between the 1940s and 1960s the area gradually became a predominantly African-American community.

Unfortunately a variety of forces, including redlining (banks would not lend money in African-American neighborhoods) and urban flight resulted in a period of disinvestment in downtown Durham and its surrounding neighborhoods.

Despite this sustained period of scant resources and investment many of our residents have called the neighborhood home for 20 and some 40 years, and recently there has been much cause for celebration!

By 2009 the entire neighborhood was granted National and State historic district status, offering tax credits for the rehabilitation of homes. Cleveland and Holloway Streets have local historic district status, which offers protections-- the rest of the neighborhood is under consideration by the City for the same.

Things are happening fast in Cleveland-Holloway. Since our first home tour in May 2008, over thirty homes have experienced, or are undergoing, substantial rehabilitation. The list goes on: two new homes have been built on vacant lots; mixed-use residential development project in downtown Durham has been built by Center Studio Architecture at Mangum 506; Wendy Clark has rehabbed the John O’Daniel building as a business incubator; and Triangle Brewing Company has set-up shop in one of the large warehouses near SEEDS.

We have a vibrant neighborhood organization, an active list serve, and a neighborhood blog.

We would love for you to buy one of our available homes and to call YOU neighbor.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Pumpkin Carving

This past Saturday neighborhood kids and adults got together for a pumpkin carving in Oakwood Park! We had children from Gray, Canal, Carlton, Oakwood, Queen, Primitive, and Ottawa Streets helping the adults create pumpkins of much majesty!



Kids and Parents worked together to create their masterpiece!


At the end of the day we had very creative and awesome pumpkins that are now being displayed across the neighborhood!









Of course, we also had fun playing in our much improved Oakwood Park!



Next event in the Cleveland Hollow'een = Costume Day! Sunday October 31st!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Home Tour to be held November 6th

The residents of Cleveland + Holloway are ready to invite you over.

Our 3rd Home Tour will be held on the afternoon of Saturday, November 6th.

Come see what all the fuss is about.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Article from the Triangle Business Journal


This article by Amanda Jones Hoyle, Durham downtown’s Historic Revival, appeared in today's Triangle Business Journal.

DURHAM – The Victorian-style house with a wide wrap-around porch in Durham’s historic Cleveland-Holloway neighborhood has certainly seen better years.
On multiple occasions, the two-story building at 501 Oakwood St. has faced the threat of demolition.
Many of the windows have been boarded up, and the foundation had started to sag. It has been decades since it felt the brush of a fresh coat of paint.

But the Clapp-Ferguson House
at the corner of Ottawa Avenue is getting a new lease on life, thanks partly to a group of preservationists that has secured valuable historical tax credits for its buyers. The group also helps that the home is in a neighborhood that’s become popular among artists, musicians, young families.
The home and the neighborhood are evidence of urban redevelopment that has slowly graced the fringes of Durham’s downtown district over the past couple of decades.
In the 1980s, it was the historic Trinity Park neighborhood that became the neighborhood of choice for many of Duke University's administrators, faculty and students. That was followed by an eastward movement into the Old North Durham, Watts Hospital-Hillandale and Trinity Heights neighborhoods.

In recent years, families have been targeting homes in the Walltown, Cleveland-Holloway and east Durham neighborhoods, says unofficial Durham historian Gary Kueber, who has been tracking the causes and effects through his Endangered Durham blog. Kueber also is chief operating officer for one of Durham’s most active commercial redevelopment companies, Scientific Properties.
“House prices fall to a very low per-square-footage cost. They become undesirable areas. Then a few people who love the architecture and want the experience of being close to downtown decide to take the plunge,” Kueber says. “They begin renovating these houses and transforming the neighborhood.”

Renovation specialists
Trinity Design/Build of Durham usually has 10 to 15 projects going on around Durham’s historic neighborhoods at any given time, says construction manager Alan Spruyt. “Older properties in older neighborhoods are more likely to appreciate,” Spruyt says. “These are beautiful old houses, and people are eager to live in one.”
But even the well-preserved older homes usually need a fair amount of upgrading and rehabilitation work. Trinity Design/Build is completing an overhaul of the 2,600-square-foot home at 1011 Monmouth Ave. in Trinity Park that was home to multiple generations of the same family before it was sold to Trinity Design/Build’s investors in 2009.

The renovators were able to keep the casements and plaster arches of a dining room window and add radiant floor heat for the rooms downstairs and the bathrooms upstairs.
But the project hit a few snags that aren’t uncommon in historic renovations. For one, contractors discovered a buried heating oil tank in the yard that had to be removed.
Courtney James, managing broker of the Urban Durham Realty real estate firm, says most buyers are looking for homes that have already been renovated. Only a brave few are willing to buy an older home that still needs rehabilitation.

A big selling point of these homes is walkability to shopping areas and to downtown. “People want to be close to amenities,” James says. “They may not be walking there every time, but they want to know they can if they want to.”
Kevin Davis and his wife already live in Trinity Park, about one mile north of downtown, but the couple recently purchased a 1920s-era home on Gloria Avenue to be even closer to downtown – just two blocks from Durham’s Brightleaf Square and two blocks from the new Bull City Connector bus line. “It’s the perfect place to live,” he says.
“On a national level, this is a niche trend with a lot of cities looking to get away from longer commutes. Raleigh has seen it with its Five Points and Oakwood neighborhoods. Durham is seeing this, too,” Davis says. “It used to be after 5:30 you could drive through downtown and see no one on the streets. Now, we have activity centers bringing people in,” referring to recent projects at the American Tobacco campus, construction of the Durham Performing Arts Center and other pockets of downtown development or redevelopment over the last few years.

The Cleveland-Holloway neighborhood caught the attention of partners Adrian Brown and Kevin Flynn last year when the neighborhood offered a tour. “It was hilarious in a way because you usually see these tours in established places like Trinity Park with really expensive homes,” Flynn says.

Cleveland-Holloway still has its pockets of vacant homes, homes in disrepair and crime, Flynn says, “but you could see this glimmer of hope.”

Flynn and Brown, who works for the
Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, had been considering a move closer into the city and were drawn to the Clapp-Ferguson House that Preservation Durham and Preservation North Carolina were struggling to save.

Durham real estate investor Ken Gasch had already started work to shore up the home’s foundation and to replace the floor joists, and now a sales contract with Flynn and Brown will fund the rest of the renovation. About another $100,000 worth of work is needed before they begin moving in furniture.

“We are definitely not pioneers,” Brown says, “Artists, musicians and students have been coming here for 10 years, braving it out. But it was just an attractive place to both of us.”

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Ottawa Street Renovations win Neighborhood Preservation Award


Congratulations to Helena Cragg and Sylvia J. Williams of SYNERGY ENTERPRISES LLC!!

They were awarded a 2010
Preservation Durham Neighborhood Conservation Award for the renovation of 405 & 407 Ottawa Street Houses (1928).

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Message Me!

Thanks to Harris and Dylan and others who created the new neighborhood message board, mostly out of scrap lumber. But it took an entire posse of sleepy C-H'ers early last Saturday morning to get the thing up and in place



Jessie making use of the bulletin board - sorry, folks, that TV was snapped up in about 20 minutes!



Friday, June 18, 2010

Neighborhood Block Party

A beautiful Saturday in late May saw scores of C-H'ers congregating on the vacant block of Primitive Ave--grillin, dancin', chattin', and chillin'.



Thanks to the Durham Bike Co-op for their free mobile clinic and to Clean Energy Durham for sponsorship of the event. To everyone for coming out to party, and to all those who volunteered. Special 'hood shout-out to Catherine Egerton of Queen St. for making this awesome day happen.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Block party this Saturday!


Cleveland-Holloway Block Party

Come join your neighbors this Saturday for great music, food, and a free mobile bike clinic on Primitive Street (the block between Oakwood and Gurley Streets).

Clean Energy Durham is sponsoring the event as part of their "Get Up and Go!" project, along with GoTriangle. Check out the flyer for details, and let your neighbors know - especially those with bikes that need some doctoring! Our beloved Durham Bike Co-op will be there ready to get you back on your wheels.

May Neighborhood Meeting

NOTE: Also, one week until the next neighborhood meeting! Thursday, May 27, at 6:30 in the usual space (the auditorium on the first floor of the library).

Veggies Galore!

Gardens and front yards around here have been looking pretty incredible lately... if you have a garden you'd like to show off on the blog, call Jessie at 381-7707 to get a picture taken!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

A Star Runs Free


A HUGE thank you to everyone who came out last weekend to help unchain Star; whether you gave funds towards her shots and fence materials, came out and sweated laying ground wire or twisting fence ties, or otherwise showed your support, Star and her owners are incredibly grateful. Here are some photos:

Eleni tamps down a post...


Dante gets a kiss of thanks...



Robert has a pensive moment...


Morgan shows off what a big baby Star is...


Dante, Matt, andee and Dylan learn about reinforcing corners (correction: Matt tells me they were learning about hog-tying the ground wire, which keeps Star from digging out)...


Mike works on the gate...


andee and Dylan twist the metal ties...



The crew lays straw for dry flooring...


...and she's FREE!


Playing with Syba of Queen Street...


...and with Cleveland of Mallard Ave.


Sorry for the delay on the video... as soon as we locate Jennifer's Flip, we'll get it online! That's the trouble with moving, even just across the street... things go missing for a while.

Most of all.... thanks to the Coalition to Unchain Dogs, whose work decreases the physical and emotional pain of hundreds of innocent dogs. Renee did a great job leading the build, and everyone who came out was cheery and hard-working. Cleveland-Holloway and Star thank you!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

(Do) Fence Me In - UPDATED

Meet Star. Next Saturday - January 23rd (update: at 10am) - is going to be a big day for her.


Star lives on Oakwood Ave., and is one of the sweetest dogs you'll ever hope to meet. Unfortunately, the chain link on her small pen is pretty messed up, so in order to keep her from escaping, her owners have had her on a chain, which often gets tangled up, restricting her movement, or winds up wrapped painfully around her legs.

Just this month, Durham has put an ordinance into effect that bans dog owners from chaining their dogs unless they are outside with them. This means fewer isolated, depressed, and dangerous chained dogs. But the law can be tough for people who have dogs but not enough money to build them a proper fence to run around in.

Fortunately, there is an incredible group that acts in response to this issue: Coalition to Unchain Dogs. Their goals:
  1. Lobbying for legislation which disallows or severely restricts tethering of dogs.
  2. Building free fences for people who chain their dogs.
  3. Educating the community about the detrimental effects of chaining on both the dog and the community.
  4. Helping groups around the country to start free-fencing programs and to lobby for legislation to help chained dogs.
The Coalition has already helped one family in our neighborhood unchain their three dogs (if you're on Facebook, check out the photos to see the incredible transition in their behavior when they were finally freed from their chains).

But back to Star.


When the Coalition to Unchain Dogs met Star, they got right to work, and today several volunteers came out to set the posts for her fence, which will be built next Saturday, January 23, at 10am. Mike, Renee, Jessica, and Robin knocked the post-setting right out, with some help from James and Matt.









Come and join us next weekend, Saturday 1/23, at 10am, to participate in the fence-build!


She is going to be one happy dog. Thanks so much to the Coalition to Unchain Dogs for the wonderful work that you do. Please visit their website to see some of the videos of recently unchained dogs... and, if you can, make a donation to support the cause.

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