Delux
Known Name(s)
Delux
Address
617 Fayetteville St. Durham, NC
Establishment Type(s)
Barber Shop
Detailed History
DeLux Barber Shop This shop is listed in the 1950-1952 Green Books at 617 Fayetteville Street, Durham. However, the student report profiles the business as it continues to occupy an existing building at 1220 Fayetteville Street. It appears from the report that the students believed this structure to be the original location, but that is unsubstantiated, as confirmed by the 1966 construction date listed on the Durham County tax card for the building, the 1950 Sanborn map, which shows a dwelling at this site, and the Stokesdale Historic District National Register nomination entry for this property. In the 1950 and 1951 City Directories, the shop is listed at 617 Fayetteville Street – several blocks north, on the northeast corner of (Old) Fayetteville Street and (the no-longer-extant) South Elm Street. By 1952, the shop had moved two blocks north to 511 Fayetteville Street, between East Pettigrew Street and the no-longer-extant Mobile Avenue. It occupied this location until at least 1963, currently the most recent digitized City Directory. It seems plausible that the business reamined there until Urban Renewal forced their relocation in 1966 to the 1220 Fayetteville Street site. A visit to the Durham County Library NC Room – where paper copies of the Durham City Directories are held – would help resolve this issue. I have mapped the shop at the location identified in the Green Books – 617 Fayetteville Street. It is no longer extant. This presents a similar situation to the Scott & Robert's Tailor: a continuing business that was friendly to African-American patrons, yet no longer occupies the building listed in the Green Book. The DeLux Barber 29Shop is perhaps even more important than Scott & Robert's, in that the proprietors have always been African- American and their business has always served the greater Hayti community. Finally, the student report suggests that: [t]his building would be a great addition to the national register. The section of Fayetteville Street, that Deluxe, and the property that used to house the College Inn Restaurant, would benefit from becoming a historic landmark, and would insure the protection of at least some of the older businesses from the Hayti neighborhood, which is in jeopardy of changing, based on the City of Durham 2030 Plan. The students may be heartened to know that the building was, in fact, listed to the National Register (in 2010, as a non-contributing resource of the Stokesdale Historic District) and that this section of Fayetteville Street is also included within a local historic district, designated by the City of Durham in 2000. —Andrew S. Edmonds
