General Durham Questions
What size is Durham?
Durham County is the 17th-smallest land unit in North Carolina at 299 square miles in area, but it contains the fourth-largest City in the state. Durham is 16 miles across, 25 miles long, and 28 miles from corner to corner. The County population is 257,947 with living 218,179 inside the City limits. Durham is also the core city of a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) with 464,389 residents.
Where is Durham located in North Carolina?
Durham is located 23 miles from the Virginia border in the northeast corner of North Carolina's central Piedmont, a geographic foothills region lying between the mountains and the area where the elevation drops off to Raleigh and the coastal plain. Durham is located 140 miles from the Appalachian highlands and 130 miles from the Atlantic coast, midway between Miami and Chicago and midway between and Atlanta and Philadelphia.
When was Durham founded?
Durham was recognized in 1823 when it first was given a post office. Many date the community to 1853 when Dr. Bartlett Durham provided land for a railroad station here. Like most communities in the South, Durham was officially re-incorporated in 1869 after the Civil War .
What is the makeup of Durham's population?
Durham is the most ethnically diverse of the major communities in the state, with roughly a 50/50 split between White residents and residents who are African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native American, or other people of color. Durham County has a population that is 39.5% African-American, 7.6% Hispanic/Latino, 3.3% Asian, and 0.3% Native American. The City of Durham has a greater makeup of minority groups than any of the five largest cities in North Carolina.
What is Raleigh-Durham?
Raleigh-Durham is shorthand for Raleigh-Durham International Airport, or RDU in airport code. It is often misused by the media as shorthand for the former five-county Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area, redefined in 2003) or the two-metro Raleigh-Durham-Cary CSA (Combined Statistical Area)—upon which nearly all so-called "city" rankings are based...e.g., best places to live. Shortening of these place names is objectionable to those who live in the Research Triangle Region.
Where and what is RTP?
The Research Triangle Park (RTP) is in Durham, midway between Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27709 is a Durham postal substation, but not a city: it is a private, non-profit technology park for research-related businesses and organizations. The majority of the park exists in a special Durham County tax district in which owners and tenants do not pay City taxes. A small portion of the park extends into nearby Wake County near Morrisville. The name comes from RTP's proximity to and relationship with three major research universities: Duke University in Durham, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
Is Durham a blue collar or factory town?
Today nearly 1 in 3 Durham workers is employed in health care, and Durham has a blue-collar percentage less than Raleigh’s but more than Chapel Hill’s. However, Durham is proud of its manufacturing heritage, which began with tobacco and textiles in the 19th century and exists today with companies like GE Aircraft Engines, Freudenberg Nonwovens, and AW North Carolina.
Where is Raleigh-Durham International Airport located?
It is located near Morrisville and I-40, midway between Downtown Durham and Downtown Raleigh. Durham lodging properties are two miles from the airport. RDU is co-owned by the cities of Durham and Raleigh and Durham and Wake Counties. It is operated by an airport authority of representatives appointed by each municipality.
Sauda Zahra: "With these Hands: Quilting as a Spiritual Odyssey" Exhibit
Art quilts by Sauda Zahra, in the Ella Fountain Pratt Legacy Gallery. FREE admission.
