Horton Foote’s choice of Durham, North Carolina, as the backdrop for his screenplay MAIN STREET was reportedly driven by the city’s symbolic representation of economic transformation over the last half-century. The narrative aimed to explore individuals grappling with externally imposed change. While I won’t delve into an exhaustive critique of the film’s overall merit, it’s fair to say that despite a respected cast, the movie feels somewhat lackluster, perhaps weighed down by a screenplay that didn’t quite resonate on screen.
However, my primary concern lies in the depiction of Durham, my adopted hometown of twenty-five years. At the risk of sounding like an overzealous local advocate, the Durham presented in MAIN STREET barely scratches the surface of the vibrant city I know. Anyone who endures the entirety of this film should be wary of assuming they’ve gained any genuine insight into the real Durham. Firstly, Durham is far from a small town; it’s a city boasting over 200,000 residents, anchoring a larger metropolitan area encompassing Wake, Durham, and Orange counties, with a population exceeding 2 million.
It’s true that downtown Durham has faced challenges. Its struggle for revitalization predates the Great Recession and persists in its quest to become a bustling urban core. The need for more retail businesses and attractions to draw suburban residents back downtown for an authentic urban experience is undeniable. In this aspect, Durham is hardly unique among cities across the United States, both large and small. Furthermore, older working-class neighborhoods surrounding downtown also experience their share of economic hardship.
Yet, portraying downtown as the entirety of Durham is a gross misrepresentation. Downtown Durham has demonstrated remarkable resilience and resurgence in recent years. As early as the 1980s, historic tobacco industry buildings in the inner city began undergoing rehabilitation. Durham’s last tobacco market, where farmers traditionally auctioned their crops, closed in 1986, and the massive American Tobacco complex ceased operations the following year. By 2001, the city’s last cigarette factory, belonging to Liggett Group, had also shut down. Despite a sluggish initial pace and the broader economic downturn in the U.S., the past decade has witnessed significant renovation and repurposing of downtown buildings into residential, office, and retail spaces, with ongoing projects further transforming the area. The former tobacco warehouse district has been transformed into Durham Central Park, and a burgeoning bar and restaurant scene now animates the downtown area.
Downtown Durham has also been the site of considerable new construction in the last two decades, including the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, the Durham Performing Arts Center, a modern urban transit center, and a new Durham County legal complex. A large, contemporary Marriott hotel and convention center stands in stark contrast to the “seedy little hotel” where the character Gus LeRoy stayed in the film. Private investment in new construction has complemented these public projects, alongside the restoration of buildings dating back to the early 20th century and earlier, such as the Carolina Theater, which ironically hosted screenings of MAIN STREET itself.
Crucially, MAIN STREET completely ignores Durham’s two thriving universities. Duke University, renowned for its world-class medical center, is the city’s largest employer. North Carolina Central University (NCCU) is a nationally recognized leader among historically black state universities. The film’s police officer character, Harris Parker, could plausibly have been a student at NCCU’s School of Law, one of six university law schools in North Carolina and uniquely offering a night program for working professionals. Furthermore, the movie omits any mention of the Research Triangle Park (RTP), a major employment hub since the 1960s, providing jobs for thousands of Durham residents and those in neighboring counties at prominent companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Cisco, Merck, BASF, Intel, and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, as well as IBM’s largest U.S. operation. Durham also boasts numerous suburban residential areas and shopping centers, alongside well-preserved historic neighborhoods and commercial districts closer to the city center.
Durham is seamlessly integrated into the Research Triangle metropolitan region. Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Cary, Carrboro, UNC-Chapel Hill, and N.C. State University are easily accessible and attractive destinations for Durham residents, and serve as workplaces for many. I actually missed MAIN STREET‘s initial Durham release but caught a showing at a theater in Cary, a mere thirty-minute drive from my Durham home.
Please understand, despite any perceived boosterism, Durham is unequivocally NOT the isolated urban wasteland populated by desperate, blue-collar individuals and fading socialites lamenting the decline of the tobacco industry and anxiously awaiting their next paycheck, as depicted in main street movie. Regrettably, several towns and smaller cities in North Carolina do bear a closer resemblance to the Durham of MAIN STREET, places where textile and furniture mills have relocated overseas, leaving downtowns economically devastated and yearning for new industries and development. Durham, like any city, continuously seeks new businesses and job creation, particularly in the current economic climate. However, it bears only a superficial resemblance to the city portrayed in MAIN STREET. And, rest assured, if a Gus LeRoy-type character proposed transporting “hazardous waste” through Durham en route from Louisiana to Texas, the public outcry would be overwhelmingly loud and clear.
