Franklin Humanities Institute

William Thomas O'Brien House is a historic home in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. It was built about 1890, and is a two-story, Gothic Revival style frame dwelling. It has a center hall plan and features a one-story wraparound porch, an original embossed tin shingle roof, and projecting bays. It was the home of William Thomas O'Brien, who perfected the Bonsack machine for the W. Duke Sons & Company. The house originally sat on a large tract of land that extended to Rome Street. The property included a servants' house, a smokehouse, and a chicken coop.The house, located down the street from Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and Immaculata Catholic School, played a significant role in Durham's Catholic community. O'Brien, who was Catholic, invited a priest to perform masses in the home until Immaculate Conception was constructed in 1906 on West Chapel Hill Street, on land that O'Brien deeded to the Church. After O'Brien's death in 1907, his wife moved to South Duke Street. In 1919, a carpenter and interior decorator named Edward J. Long lived in the house.Located in the Burch Avenue Historic District, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Smith Warehouse is a historic tobacco storage warehouse located at Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. It was built in 1906, and is a two-story Romanesque style brick structure divided into 12 70-foot-wide units by projecting corbeled firewalls. The building measures 850 feet long and 100 feet wide and features ornamental brickwork. It is an example of "slow burn" masonry and wood factory construction. It was the last of the 12 brick tobacco storage warehouses erected by The American Tobacco Company trust beginning in 1897. The building has been converted for academic and administrative uses. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Clark and Sorrell Garage is a historic automobile repair shop located at Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. It was built in 1932, and is a one-story brick building, three bays wide and four bays deep, with a flat tar and gravel roof. It was expanded about 1941 with a seven bay, brick-faced addition. The addition features an Art Moderne style entrance with a stuccoed surround. Attached to the garage is a two-story office building. It is the oldest auto repair garage still in operation in the city.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

East Campus is part of Duke University's campus in Durham, North Carolina. East Campus, along with West Campus, make up most of Duke's main campus. The campus follows the Georgian architecture style, making it distinct from West Campus. Currently, East Campus is the exclusive residential home to first-year students. It borders Trinity Historic District to the east and Walltown Neighborhood to the north.

Burch Avenue Historic District, also known as the West End, is a national historic district located at Durham, Durham County, North Carolina, United States. The district encompasses 156 contributing buildings in a predominantly residential section of Durham. The buildings primarily date between about 1890 and 1960 and include notable examples of Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Bungalow / American Craftsman architecture.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

Watts and Yuille Warehouses, also known as Brightleaf Square, are two historic tobacco storage warehouses located at Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. They were built in 1904, and are two identical buildings parallel to each other with a courtyard in between. They are two-story Romanesque style brick structures, seven bays wide and twenty bays long. Each unit of the warehouses is 75 feet by 118 feet, for a total of 35,400 square feet on each floor. They are an example of "slow burn" masonry and wood factory construction. They were among the 12 brick tobacco storage warehouses erected by The American Tobacco Company trust beginning in 1897. The buildings have been converted to retail and office use. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Trinity Historic District, also called Trinity Park, is a national historic district and residential area located near the East Campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The district encompasses 751 contributing buildings in a predominantly residential section of Durham. They were built between the 1890s and 1960 and include notable examples of Queen Anne and Bungalow / American Craftsman style architecture. Located in the district are the separately listed "Faculty Row" cottage: the Bassett House, Cranford-Wannamaker House, Crowell House, and Pegram House. Other notable buildings include the George W. Watts School (1917), Julian S. Carr Junior High School (1922), Durham High School (1923), Durham Alliance Church (1927), Trinity Presbyterian Church (1925), Great A & P Tea Company (1927-1929), Grace Lutheran Church (c. 1950), and the former Greek Orthodox Community Church (c. 1950).It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, with a boundary increase in 2004 and 2008.

The Ark is a building on the East Campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. It serves as an instructional and rehearsal studio for the Duke Dance Program. Built in 1898 as Angier B. Duke Gymnasium, The Ark became the first home for the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team, then known as Trinity College, in 1906. The team moved after the 1923 season, upon the completion of Alumni Memorial Gymnasium. The Ark's current name is derived from the narrow walkway that was originally used to reach the building, forcing people to enter "two-by-two".

Crowell House is a historic home located at Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. It was built in 1891 by local contractor T.S. Christian, and is a two-story, Shingle Style dwelling.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It is located in the Trinity Historic District.

The Bassett House is a historic home located at 1017 W. Trinity Ave. in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. It was built in 1891 by local contractor T.S. Christian, and is a Shingle Style dwelling.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It is located in the Trinity Historic District.

Pegram House is a historic home located at Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. It was built in 1891 by local contractor T.S. Christian, and is a two-story, Shingle Style dwelling. It features a wraparound porch.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It is located in the Trinity Historic District.

The Norfolk Southern–Gregson Street Overpass, also known as the 11-foot-8 Bridge, is a railroad bridge in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Built in 1940, the bridge allows passenger and freight trains to cross over South Gregson Street in downtown Durham, and also functions as the northbound access to the nearby Durham Amtrak station. The bridge was designed in the 1920s, with a clearance for vehicles of 11 feet 8 inches (3.56 m), the standard height at the time it opened. Since 1973, the standard clearance for bridges was increased to a minimum height of 14 feet (4.27 m), which is 2 feet 4 inches (0.71 m) higher than the bridge as built, although bridges constructed before this date were not required to be rebuilt to meet the increased clearance requirement. Despite numerous warning signs about the low clearance, a large number of trucks, buses, and RVs have collided with the overpass at high speed, tearing off roof fixtures, and at times shearing off the trucks' roofs, earning the bridge the nicknames the "Can Opener" and the "Gregson Street Guillotine".The bridge gained fame as a nearby office worker, Jürgen Henn, set up cameras in 2008 to track the collisions with the bridge. Henn has recorded 178 collisions with the bridge, including those after the bridge raising, and as of 2023 the YouTube channel he set up to showcase his recordings has 264,000 subscribers and more than 80 million views. Despite the number of crashes, a March 2014 report stated that only three injuries had been recorded, making rebuilding of the bridge a low-priority concern. Later, in October 2019, the North Carolina Railroad Company, which owns the bridge and tracks, raised the bridge by 8 inches (20 cm) to 12 feet 4 inches (3.76 m) to reduce collisions and to eliminate the grade difference between the level crossing nearby and the bridge itself, although that is still well below the standard height.