Durham (North Carolina)

Durham (North Carolina), city in central North Carolina and seat of Durham County, on the Eno River and the Piedmont Plateau. Durham is an important center for medicine, education, and research; it is near Research Triangle Park, the nation’s largest university-related research park and home to numerous companies engaged in advanced scientific development. The city also has manufacturing facilities producing electrical components and communications equipment and is a center of the insurance industry. The city is served by Raleigh/Durham International Airport.

Duke University (1838), North Carolina Central University (1910), and a community college are located in the city. Of interest in Durham are the homestead of the Duke family, founders of the American Tobacco Company and patrons of Duke University; Duke University Museum of Art; North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, an interactive science museum; and the Downtown Historic District. Bennett Place State Historic Site is the location of the surrender in April 1865 of the Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston to the Union general William T. Sherman in the American Civil War. Nearby is West Point on the Eno, a historic mill community. The American Dance Festival takes place in Durham each summer.

Durham began in the early 1850s as a stop for the North Carolina Railroad, on land donated by Dr. Bartlett Durham, for whom the city is named. It incorporated in 1869, and in the ensuing years its economy grew to be based on the tobacco and textile industries.

Durham covers a land area of 245 sq km (95 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 120 m (394 ft). According to the 2000 census, whites are 45.5 percent of the population, blacks 43.8 percent, Asians 3.6 percent, and Native Americans 0.3 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders represent less than 0.1 percent of the population. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report race. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 8.6 percent of the people. Population 100,538 (1980); 136,611 (1990); 187,035 (2000); 209,009 (2006).