46 Main Street (east side)

Surrounded by a low picket fence, the David Smith Post Office is situated directly in the center of town overlooking the Green.

• Record ID: 110
• Address: 46 Main Street (east side)
• Current Owner: Nelson, William and Jacquelin
• Name of Building:
• Historic Name: Post Office
• Download PDF of Original Record

Notable Features

This building was moved to this lot on Main Street in 1857. An early photograph in Whited’s Durham’s Heritage, p. 106, shows the building soon after it was built. It is clear that alterations have been made. Today the west facade is marked by a central doorway with a plain frame and topped by a crown-moulded cornice, a later addition. The fenestration pattern has been changed. The two windows in the qable were originally located directly over the two windows flanking the doorway below. Earlier, the building had three symmetrically placed operable windows on either-side, topped by three eyebrow windows. There is an east gable-roofed~ center-chimney addition with a south screened porch irregularly punctuated by windows and doors. This addition rests on a concrete foundation.

Historical or Architectural Importance

David Smith built this 1 1/2 story balloon-frame building about 1850. It is oriented gable-to-street, is covered with stained wooden shingles, and rests on a high random-coursed sandstone foundation. A central chimney caps the slate-covered gable roof.
Originally built as a post office by the Reverend David Smith, this building stood immediately east of his house on Maple Avenue. Smith was postmaster from 1850 to 1854 and succeeded by his eldest daughter Catherine. In 1857 Catherine married Henry L. Ellsworth. At this time the building was moved to its present location on Main Street. In the 1870s the building was also the Hale & Davis Store. Other shops and stores occupied the building throughout the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century until it finally became a residence.