Bull Durham Tobacco Factory - Durham NC - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The W.T. Blackwell Company was started as a partnership between W.T. Blackwell and Julian S. Carr. Construction of the main factory building was completed in 1874.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977

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Union and Confederate armies regularly traded tobacco for coffee and other goods throughout the Civil War. In Durham Station, North Carolina, near the end of the war, soldiers from both sides raided a farmer’s tobacco crop as they waited for a surrender to be completed. After returning home, these same soldiers wrote back to request more of this tobacco. The farmer, Mr. John Green, was happily obliged to send containers of “brightleaf” tobacco which reportedly had a much milder taste than the tobacco usually found. W.T. Blackwell partnered with Mr. Green and formed the “Bull Durham Tobacco Company”. The name “Bull Durham” is said to have been taken from the bull on the British Coleman Mustard, which Mr. Blackwell mistakenly believed was manufactured in Durham England. From 1874 – 1957, Bull Durham Tobacco, the first truly national tobacco brand, was manufactured in Durham, NC. By the turn of the Century, Bull Durham Tobacco was reportedly the largest tobacco company in the world. The U.S. government is said to have bought every ounce of Bull Durham Tobacco during the World War I years to send to the war effort. W.T. Blackwell and Company introduced production, packaging, and marketing techniques that made Bull Durham a part of American industrial history and folklore. Their advertising and marketing was second to none. It was common for their salesmen to ride the countryside looking for places to advertise. They would find the most prominent building in town and then pay to install “ghost” advertising on the side of the structure.

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Street address: 201 W. Pettigrew St Durham, NC County / Borough / Parish: Durham Year listed: 1974 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event Periods of significance: 1900-1924, 1875-1899, 1850-1874 Historic function: Commerce/Trade, Industry/Processing/Extraction Current function: Commerce/Trade Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] National Historic Landmark Link: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/16/2018 NAVY-guy visited it