Thriving Durham Neighborhoods Enrich Online Presence
DCVB’s Newcomer Info Portal: Window to a Web of Neighborhood Info
Newcomers often “shop” a community and its neighborhoods as visitors first. Now, several of Durham’s thriving historic neighborhoods — Old West Durham, Watts Hospital-Hillandale, and Trinity Park—are leading a trend to enrich their informative websites with history and background so important to residents, visitors, and newcomers alike.
Newcomers and visitors can easily find Durham’s neighborhood organization websites through DCVB’s relocation and neighborhoods portal on www.durham-nc.com. Through this portal, newcomers are connected to the variety of community and neighborhood information they need, including local government information, public and private school contacts , and other relocation services—even help for relocating a business to Durham.
To date, several Durham neighborhoods are linked through DCVB’s portal, including the following three:
The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association (OWDNA) website, coordinated by association president John Schelp and “webspinner” Pam Spaulding, is a particularly deep example — featuring neighborhood history, a virtual tour, and historic photographs. Just last month, OWDNA debuted a self-guided walking tour of the neighborhood, promoting this historical walk on its site.
The Duke Park Neighborhood Association (DPNA) website, maintained by DPNA secretary Claire Doyle, features neighborhood news, event photos, neighborhood by-laws, and an online store for purchasing Duke Park Neighborhood gifts and apparel.
The Watts Hospital-Hillandale Neighborhood Association (WHHNA) website, constructed by Betty Meeler, has been providing neighborhood info and connecting neighbors on the Web since 1996. WHHNA offered one of Durham’s first neighborhood walking tours online, and its timeline of neighborhood history and profiles of neighborhood residents are particularly worthy of note.
The Trinity Park Neighborhood Association (TPNA) website, maintained bywebmaster John Durrance, is another great example of how neighborhoods are adding dimension and texture to their presence on the Web. TPNA’s site incorporates a calendar of events, history and archives section, and online store. Especially unique is its virtual map tour, which gives the history of specific homes.
Not only are Durham’s historic neighborhoods bringing a wealth of information to the Web, but also new or newly redeveloped neighborhoods are looking to their historic counterparts as role-models. Trinity Heights, a National Register historic neighborhood that has recently undergone a Duke-led redevelopment, has a growing presence on the Web.
Newcomers also regularly stop by the official Durham Visitor Information Center Downtown to pick up an Official Durham Visitors Guide or Street Map. Here, they will find Durham neighborhoods clearly marked for further exploration and listings of other organizations providing newcomer information.
Last updated 06/07
