Downtown Durham: The New South or Newer South?
There was once a time when Durham along with the other 99 counties in North Carolina revered the rule of law to such a degree that the courthouse was its tallest building. Looking at the skyline today, the relatively new county courthouse (opened in 2013)—the fourth iteration—continues to attempt to assert its supremacy. However, it is not without competition. The Hill Building—home of the former Durham Bank & Trust (completed in 1937)—is more centrally located within the city, more vertical in its architectural style (as chosen by the famed New York City firm Shreve, Lamb & Harmon), and now a more interesting place to step inside as it houses the art museum boutique hotel, 21C. More than a symbol of the pervasive power of finance, the Durham Bank & Trust’s Hill Building headquarters was a manifestation of the preeminence of the tobacco industry, which could not express its largesse solely in the architecture of its sprawling warehouses.