Welcome to Durham!

Durham is a colorful, creative, and entrepreneurial community where diverse and passionate people come together to shape a better world. Known for its activist, outspoken citizenry, Durham values its ability to be open and welcoming, inclusive, and accepting of different ethnicities, religious backgrounds, and ideas. But what really makes it the place “Where Great Things Happen?”

Well, to start with, Durham isn’t like anyplace else. It has no ethnic majority, and people from all walks of life find it a friendly and accepting place where they can make their homes.
As jazz musician and Durham resident Branford Marsalis said in a recent interview, “Durham is everything I ever wanted in a city.

It’s fair… You can find everything: people who are wealthy, people who are not wealthy, blue collar workers, white collar workers, farmers. They are all hanging out together. You go in the grocery store and you see people talking. It’s not like the farmers are in one corner and the lawyers are in another corner. You don’t have those stringent class lines.”

Durham has received hundreds of accolades in the past decade alone highlighting various attributes. Durham ranks very high as a great place to live, work, and play, so much so that there is a searchable database of all the community’s accolades at www.durhamaccolades.com.
In fact, Durham is such a cool place that an inventory both of the things that make Durham great and the great things that have happened here is maintained. There’s that much to keep track of.  Check it out at www.durhamgreats.com.

Here is a small sample of what you’ll find:

Did You Know?

Did you know that the Civil War ended in Durham? Or that Astroturf and barcode readers were invented here? The ctrl-alt-delete computer command? A Durham product. Best place to retire in the US? Durham. North America’s leading and largest high technology research and science park? That would be the Research Triangle Park, located in… Durham. Oh, sports… how about the world’s most famous AAA Baseball team? The Durham Bulls.

Did you know that Durham is the place where the phrase “shooting the bull” originated? The phrase referred to occasions when people would stand around talking while chewing (and spitting) Bull Durham tobacco – the logo of which used to be painted on a pyramid in Egypt and on the wall in the warm-up pen at Yankee Stadium, which spawned the phrase “bull pen.”

Rolling… ACTION!

Durham has also been the backdrop for many movies, including the most famous sports movie of all time, Bull Durham. North Carolina is home to one of the biggest film industries in the country and Durham sees quite a bit of that activity. Billy Bathgate, The Handmaid’s Tale, Brainstorm, Kiss the Girls, and Main Street, among others, were filmed here. It’s too bad the Academy doesn’t recognize the role of best supporting town, because Durham has had its share of Hollywood hits.
But it’s art…

Performing or visual, Durham has great art. Aside from its nationally recognized landmark DPAC – Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham is home to over 400 working artists, so it’s no wonder that Durham also has a great wealth of visual art to appreciate while visiting. There are 43 museums and galleries here, including the Lyda Moore Merrick Gallery at the Hayti Heritage Center and the internationally acclaimed Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

A visit to Durham would be incomplete without a stop by the Room 100 Gallery at the Golden Belt arts complex, which is also surrounded by 35 studios of artists in residence. Such a place might even inspire a walk across the street to The Scrap Exchange where visitors get to create art with, well, scraps…just go – it’s totally worth the experience, especially with youngsters.

Wipe your mouth.

It’s simple, really. Durham has a food scene that continues to garner attention at the national and international level because it is full of innovative chefs and restaurateurs who operate at the top of their game. There is a reason it’s called America’s Foodiest Small Town.

Whether it’s pizza off a truck (that’s not a joke) on up to the nation’s 11th-ranked fine dining restaurant, food in Durham is second to none in the state. Turn a few pages and take a look at Durham’s Celebrated Cuisine restaurants, read up on the food trucks, acknowledge the inevitable tummy rumble, and then make a reservation.

Live, Work, Play… Enjoy.

Spend time in Durham and it is easy to see why those who call it home love it so much. With a celebrated public park system and amazing access to nature at several state recreation areas and forests, as well as distinctive shopping districts, an incredibly varied employment spectrum, homes in settings from urban to rural, and a very walkable Downtown, Durham is a place where both residents and visitors can really enjoy it all.

But probably the most important attribute that makes Durham a great place is that it has not fallen into the trap of being like so many other places in the United States of “Generica” – Durham has a soul and a commitment to greatness like no other. Come see for yourself.