28 Main Street (east side) [Note: 24, 26, 28 Main Street are located on the same lot]

The Henry Davis House is located on the east side of Main Street in the center of Durham, just south of the green and across the street from Ackerman’s Store. There are large trees in front of the house.

  • Record ID: 118
  • Address: 28 Main Street (east side) [Note: 24, 26, 28 Main Street are located on the same lot]
  • Current Owner: Sweet, Lloyd L. and Stella P.
  • Name of Building:
  • Historic Name: Davis-Brainerd House
  • Download PDF of Original Record

Notable Features

Full-length wrap-around porch to the south side
Four chamfered posts with sawn brackets.

Historical or Architectural Importance

Henry Davis built this clapboarded, 2 1/2 story, balloon-framed house about 1885. The asphalt shingled gable roof is oriented towards the street and the building rests on a sandstone
block foundation. The facade includes a full-length wrap-around porch to the south side. It has four square chamfered posts with sawn brackets and a simple stick balustrade with a
spandrel of cut work. The unusual facade is marked on the first story by a long central window with two narrow vertical panes; a smaller version of the same window is found on the
second story, and in the gable end is a small double vertical-paned window. The entryway is on the south end of the porch and the door is sheltered by the south porch and is located
on the facade of the south two-story ridge-to-street addition. There is a two-story north addition, an east addition, and. a small shed-roofed porch supported by slender columns to
the southeast off the main part of the house.
Henry Davis, a merchant, was the son of Lewis Talcott Davis and Sarah Burr of Killingworth. In 1883, he purchased 1 2/5 acres from the heirs of Isaac Parmalee and built his house but
only lived here for three years. Frank P. Brainerd, who purchased the property in 1886, lived in the house until 1904, when he moved to New Haven.
The Davis House is another example of Durham’ s architecture which demonstrates the range of late-nineteenth century domestic vernacular taste.