There was no heartbreak for this hotel.
Community leaders and Durham residents gathered Thursday to toast the scheduled demolition of one of Durham’s most notorious and well-known blemishes, the Heart of Durham motel.
Located near downtown Durham on the corner of Pettigrew and West Chapel Hill streets, the boomerang-shaped motel built in 1968 was once one of the city’s finest establishments. After being closed for nearly a decade and years of legal wrangling over issues of imminent domain, asbestos clean-up and price negotiation, the deal is done—Durham will pay $1.4 million for the site, well worth the faded red bricks and three floors of disintegrating plaster, residents say.
“A lot of people in the community have said, ‘Gee, we want to see... or be a part of it coming down,’” said Beverly Thompson, spokesperson for the city of Durham. “It is a ceremony to celebrate the fact that this eyesore is coming down.”
The end of one of downtown Durham’s most notorious blights is also a symbolic act, leaders say. This is the beginning of the future of the area, they argue, a sentiment captured by the event’s slogan, “Jump Start the Heart.”
“Tear this mother down,” Mayor Bill Bell told the crowd of nearly 75 people. The Durham School of the Arts drumline sounded off as a yellow earth-mover destroyed part of one of the building’s bricked walls. “Good things are happening in Durham and we are creating a new era with the demolition of the Heart of Durham motel,” Bell added.
And while Durham residents are glad to see the building destroyed, the Heart of Durham holds a history beyond its own notorious exterior.
In 1979, a Bloody Mary served at its Golden Stairs Lounge was the first mixed drink to be legally sold in Durham in 80 years.
But there are few signs left from that once-flourishing motel: a dented-in stainless steel refrigerator sits in pieces on the sidewalk, a metal sign embossed “RATION” rests overturned on the ground and the large Heart of Durham sign that has hardly missed a beat.
With its giant white satellite on the roof, its scalloped railing long since rusted and its openly exposed rooms of blue, yellow, green and orange walls, the Heart of Durham will require five months of demolition to be completely destroyed.
A 14,000 square-foot transportation hub, nicknamed Durham Station, will be built in its place—a planned structure of glass, articulated metal and architectural lighting that will look nothing like the old Heart of Durham.
Durham Station will provide space for both the Durham Area Transportation Authority and Triangle Transportation Authority and will feature pedestrian walkways connecting it to other parts of downtown.
“This site serves as a bridge from its past industrial heritage,” said Chris Garris, an architect with The Freelon Group, which designed the new complex.
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