What's so special about Hope Valley?

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. It was laid out, by the Mebane & Sharpe Co. of Greensboro, along winding lanes and among rolling hills with a centerpiece golf course designed by Donald Ross -- architect of the hallowed Pinehurst No. 2.

"Location ideal for a permanent home -- plus absolute certainty of profit on the investment if ever minded to sell," read one early advertisement. The "interurban homes" lay well out in the country between Durham and Chapel Hill, and original plans included an ironically New Urbanist touch: a "Hope Valley Marketplace" area complete with post office, town hall, community auditorium and 14 commercial lots.

The Marketplace was never built. Mebane & Sharpe went bankrupt and the development was taken over by the H. Smith Richardson family of Greensboro, manufacturers of Vicks VapoRub. Hope Valley attracted Durham businessmen and their families, and professors and administrators from then-new Duke University. (Wilburt Davison bought 40 country-club memberships for his medical-school staff.)

Still, with the Great Depression in full swing, Hope Valley had only 40 to 50 homes by the outbreak of World War II. Building, DeBerry said, didn't really hit its stride in Hope Valley until the late 1940s. By the time it was annexed by Durham in 1965, the neighborhood was a mix of sizes and styles -- Tudor, Greek Revival, Spanish Colonial, ranch-style and farmhouse vernacular.

"A microcosm of the 20th century," DeBerry said.