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Location: Southwest Durham
Hope Valley comprises about 930 households in a roughly triangular area extending from Chapel Hill Road south between Hope Valley and Garrett roads to Swarthmore Road.
Significance: This neighborhood has the most historical significance in Durham and is a prominent address for the elite society in Durham.
Pricing: Townhomes start in the mid-$150s and go up to $1M
Directions: From I-40, exit 751(Hope Valley Road)to Dover. Left onto Westover at Club House.
Neighborhood Facts:
- Developer: Mebane & Sharpe, Inc.
- Durham's first full-fledged country club suburb, developed around an 18-hole golf course in the late 1920s.
- Fastest growing area in Durham-Southwest Durham
- Just minutes from Streets of Southpoint shopping area
- Landscape Architecture was created by renowned Robert Cridland
- Norman Provincial style country clubhouse was designed by Milburn and Heister.
- The Club was "freshened" in the 40's and a major renovation was done by Robert Winston (Judge) Carr's firm in the early 60's. Most recently a Charlotte firm reworked the north and south ends leaving the Carr work essentially untouched.
- The early homes in Hope Valley are an eclectic mix of revival styles popular in the 1920s and 1930s: Tudor, English Cottage, Colonial, Norman Provincial, and even Spanish. Winding, narrow roads conforming to the hilly terrain weave their way throughout the neighborhood.
- Hope Valley was the site of Historical Preservation Society of Durham's 2002 Annual Old Durham Home Tour.
- Several new neighborhoods grew up around Hope Valley including the popular Hope Valley Farms, Woodcroft, and the Woodlake areas.
Interesting History:
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Although the Hope Valley Homes built in the 1920's and 1930's are significant and of great interest, homes built in the post war boom from the mid 1940's to 1958 are also significant because they show a continuing quality of development for Hope Valley. The ranch style homes built during this era are typical of the finest of the genre, were built by Durhamites at the pinnacle of their careers, and were designed by important architects.
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Robert Winston (Judge) Carr, for example, designed the John and Hatsie Moorhead House and the Henry Nicholson House, both excellent examples of 1950's contemporary design.
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Donald Ross was able to regularly inspect the work at Hope Valley, unlike many of his golf course designs, because at the time of construction he was living in Pinehurst. Over half of Hope Valley's fairways run parallel to city streets, affording the same views to all citizens of Durham since 1927.
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Hope Valley's original roads were numbered "Trails," Dover being Trail Three, and Windsor Way being Trail One. The original roads were poured concrete, much like an interstate highway, a sign of the quality infrastructure created for the new suburb.
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Hope Valley's original designs called for a then unique "urban" service area ,called Hope Valley Marketplace, to include stores, post office, parks and an auditorium, to service the detached semi-rural automobile suburb.
- Hope Valley's original iron street signs are similar to ones at the Aymar Embury II designed Jones Beach Park in New York City.
For more information on Hope Valley feel free to view listings here or contact me directly.
"The deadly enemy of fine old architecture, progress." Aymar Embury II- Designed Hope Valley Clubhouse in 1929
