Home on Duke heiress’s Durham estate to burn down Friday. Here’s why.
This story was updated Friday, July 14, 2023, to correct the number of homes and townhouses planned for the larger Pinecrest development.
An old home on the Mary Duke Biddle estate is scheduled to go up in flames Friday.
The crumbling structure at 1415 Bivins St. is being destroyed to make way for new homes, and the Durham Fire Department is using it for a training exercise.
In its place four single-family homes will be built on nearly half-acre lots, said Josh Hawn, who is part of the development team. Hawn said construction will begin this fall and that the homes will fit into the character of the Forest Hills neighborhood
Andy Sannipoli, the Durham Fire Department’s assistant chief of safety and training, said the live fire training was scheduled to begin around 8 a.m. Friday, July 14.
Chris Laws, executive director of Preservation Durham, said the home was where Mary Duke Biddle’s daughter, Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, raised her family.
“She lived there until she died in 2012 and the house has been vacant since then. It is not especially well built, and (was) very heavily altered over the years,” Laws said in an email.
The house was built in 1940, according to Durham County tax records. Anything of architectural interest, such as the light fixtures, is long gone, much of it sold at auction by her heirs, Laws said.
Townhomes to be built in Forest Hills
The same developers also own the rest of the Duke heiress’s estate, known as Pinecrest.
They won approval in 2018 to build high-dollar townhomes on the 9-acre site. The rezoning was contentious among residents of Forest Hills because it will be so much denser than the rest of the neighborhood, where large homes sprawl out along wide, quiet streets.
Hawn said they still plan to build 38 single-family homes and six townhouses, but there is no timetable, as they’re still working with the city on a site plan.
“We’re going slower than we anticipated,” he said.
Mary Duke Biddle was the granddaughter of Washington Duke, the wealthy tobacco mogul who is the namesake of Duke University.
Her estate, the more prominent home on the property, will be renovated into a residence. Hawn said a staff house on the property has already been renovated and resold.
This story was originally published July 14, 2023 at 8:27 AM.
