Saturday and Sunday
April 26 – 27, 2014
12:00 – 4:00 pm

Durham’s history is closely lined to the rise and fall of the NC tobacco industry, and the massive buildings that housed this manufacture are a huge part of Durham’s unique character.

Hope Valley was Durham’s first full-fledged country club suburb, developed around an 18-hole golf course in the late 1920s. Traces of the farms that occupied the land in the 19th Century remain around the historic suburban landscape created by renowned landscape architect Robert Cridland. Mebane & Sharpe, Inc. developed Hope Valley to attract the newly successful the successful young professionals who were thriving in Durham’s tobacco, textile, and health care industries, as well as faculty from the then-new Duke University and the rapidly expanding UNC.
Donald Ross designed the golf course to give privacy to golfers through the use of roadways and greenspaces that flank the course. Aymar Embury II, a well-known society architect known for the structures he created on

Hope Valley was Durham’s first full-fledged country club suburb, developed around an 18-hole golf course in the late 1920s Traces of the farms that occupied the land in the 19th Century remain around the suburban landscape developed by the Mebane Company to attract the newly successful young professionals that were thriving with Durham’s tobacco, textile, and health care industries. The golf course was designed to allow the most houses facing it, and the Norman Provincial style clubhouse was designed by Milburn and Heister. 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. Read more about Hope Valley on our Historic Neighborhoods pages! Homes

Preservation Durham members and friends gathered on Saturday, May 1, 2010, for the 14th Annual Old Durham Tour in Hope Valley. Read more about Hope Valley on our Historic Neighborhoods pages! We first explored this beautiful historic neighborhood in 2002, and it proved to be one of our most popular tours! In December 2009, Hope Valley was named a National Historic District, and the tour included some of the homes that were listed as contributing properties. Tourgoers enjoy Preservation Durham’s annual tour at their own pace, exploring year by year the many neighborhoods that make Durham unique. Each building on the tour is staffed by friendly and well-informed docents to make the tour more interesting and enjoyable. Exchange advance tickets