Where to live in Durham
Durham is 120 square miles of land and 305,561 people on the Census Bureau's estimate for July 2025, the fourth-largest city in North Carolina on that count and just behind Greensboro, with Duke University and North Carolina Central University inside its limits and 11.1% of its residents aged three and over in college or graduate school. One school district, Durham Public Schools, covers every guide, and the two levies on a tax bill are the same in every guide outside the downtown improvement district, so what the neighborhood decides here is everything else: how old the houses are and when the city reached them; whether a local historic district reviews the front of the house or a Neighborhood Protection Overlay shapes what can be built; how near Duke, North Carolina Central or Research Triangle Park it sits; how much of it Ellerbe Creek or Third Fork Creek floods; and whether the address is in the city at all, or in Bahama, Rougemont, Research Triangle Park or the rest of unincorporated Durham County beside it. These are 20 neighborhood guides, filterable by area below.
Browse dedicated pages for Downtown and Cleveland-Holloway around City Hall, Old North Durham and Duke Park up to Interstate 85, and Northgate Park across it, Trinity Park and Walltown beside Duke's East Campus, Old West Durham on Ninth Street, and Watts-Hillandale up to Interstate 85, Southside and Forest Hills below the Durham Freeway, Lakewood Park and Tuscaloosa-Lakewood off Chapel Hill Road, and Rockwood, Hope Valley off Hope Valley Road, Woodcroft by Southpoint, and Parkwood beside Research Triangle Park, Old East Durham off Angier Avenue, and Brightleaf at the Park and Grove Park out toward the Wake County line.
20 communities across the city
A start on a city of about 306,000 people whose own reference map names 234 neighborhoods and covers half its residents, so each guide is one neighborhood of that map, clipped to the City limits and named as the City names it, with downtown drawn on the planning tier around City Hall. Filter by area of the city, then page through the rest.
Brightleaf at the Park
The City's Brightleaf at the Park, a planned subdivision off Sherron Road and Northern Durham Parkway on the city's east side, around Prospect Parkway and Golden Belt Parkway, 334 acres and 1,612 residents in 2020, about 3 km from Research Triangle Park.
Cleveland-Holloway
The City's Cleveland-Holloway, east of downtown between North Mangum Street and North Alston Avenue, north of Liberty Street, around Holloway, Cleveland and Elizabeth Streets, 165 acres and 1,122 residents in 2020, with the County's Main Library and the Holloway Street and Cleveland Street historic districts inside.
Downtown Durham
The City-County Downtown Tier around City Hall, from Duke Street and the Brightleaf warehouses east to Liberty Street and across the Durham Freeway to the American Tobacco Campus, less the edges of four neighboring guides: 584 acres and about 5,600 residents in 2020, seven in ten of them inside the Downtown Business Improvement District, which adds 7 cents per $100 to the City rate.
Duke Park
The City's Duke Park, between Washington Street and Interstate 85 on both sides of Avondale Drive, around Markham Avenue and Knox Street, 430 acres and 1,982 residents in 2020, with the City's Duke Park inside and Ellerbe Creek along its northern edge.
Forest Hills
The City's Forest Hills, south of West Lakewood Avenue between Kent Street and South Roxboro Street, around Forest Hills Boulevard and University Drive, 337 acres and 1,057 residents in 2020, with Forest Hills Park inside and 738 of its residents in the Forest Hills National Register district (2005).
Grove Park
The city's share of the Grove Park development between Wake Forest Highway (NC 98), Holder Road and Stallings Road, around Oak Grove Parkway and Nichols Farm Drive, 639 of its 905 acres and 2,641 residents in 2020, with the County's East Regional Library inside; 459 more residents of the feature live outside the city.
Hope Valley
The City's Hope Valley, between Old Chapel Hill Road, Garrett Road and South Roxboro Street around Hope Valley Road, Dover Road and Rugby Road, 1,376 acres and about 3,050 residents in 2020, with the Hope Valley National Register district (2009) inside and Third Fork Creek through it; about 400 residents live on blocks in its mapped floodplain.
Lakewood Park
The City's Lakewood Park, between Morehead Avenue, Rosedale Avenue and Bivins Street on both sides of Chapel Hill Road and West Lakewood Avenue, 118 acres and 1,336 residents in 2020, with the Lakewood shopping strip on Chapel Hill Road inside or beside it.
Northgate Park
The City's Northgate Park, east of North Duke Street from West Club Boulevard north across Interstate 85 to Murray Avenue, 486 acres and about 2,000 residents in 2020, with Northgate Park and Club Boulevard Elementary inside and Ellerbe Creek through it; about 370 residents live on blocks in its mapped floodplain.
Old East Durham
The City's Old East Durham, between Holloway Street and East Pettigrew Street from Plum Street east to Briggs Avenue, around Driver Street, Angier Avenue and East Main Street, 287 acres and 2,267 residents in 2020, most of them inside the East Durham National Register district (2004).
Old North Durham
The City's Old North Durham, just north of downtown between Washington Street and Avondale Drive, around Trinity Avenue, North Street and North Roxboro Street, 243 acres and 1,922 residents in 2020, with Old North Durham Park and Bay-Hargrove Park inside and part of the North Durham-Duke Park National Register district.
Old West Durham
The City's Old West Durham, north of the Durham Freeway between Broad Street and Hillsborough Road, around Ninth Street and West Main Street up to Englewood Avenue, 412 acres and 3,163 residents in 2020, with the Ninth Street shops and the West Durham National Register district inside and Duke's East and West Campuses about 700 m away.
Photographs: Asbury Temple on South Alston Avenue by Ildar Sagdejev (Specious), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · First Baptist Church by Warren LeMay from Covington, KY, United States, CC0, Wikimedia Commons · Main Street by Warren LeMay from Covington, KY, United States, CC0, Wikimedia Commons · Duke's East Campus by Warren LeMay from Cullowhee, NC, United States, CC0, Wikimedia Commons · The Hayti Heritage Center by Ildar Sagdejev (Specious), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · The Forbus House by Jim Roberts, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Duke Gardens by Sdkb, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Duke Homestead by Melissa Platero, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · A house on North Mangum Street by Maria Miracoli, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Ninth Street by Warren LeMay from Covington, KY, United States, CC0, Wikimedia Commons.
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Showing 1–12 of 20 communities
The five areas at a glance
None of these five is a line the City draws. They split the city on Interstate 85, the Durham Freeway, Duke Street, Avondale Drive and Alston Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and US 15-501, the roads residents already use for north and south, east and west. Where one area stops and the next begins is our judgment rather than a map anybody publishes.
| Area | Neighborhoods | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown and Cleveland-Holloway around City Hall, Old North Durham and Duke Park up to Interstate 85, and Northgate Park across it | Cleveland-Holloway, Downtown Durham, Duke Park, Northgate Park, Old North Durham | Downtown around City Hall and the old neighborhoods east of Duke Street up to Interstate 85, Cleveland-Holloway, Old North Durham and Duke Park, and everything north of the interstate, starting with Northgate Park on Ellerbe Creek. |
| Trinity Park and Walltown beside Duke's East Campus, Old West Durham on Ninth Street, and Watts-Hillandale up to Interstate 85 | Old West Durham, Trinity Park, Walltown, Watts-Hillandale | The old city north of the Durham Freeway and west of Duke Street, the smallest of the five: Trinity Park and Walltown beside Duke's East Campus, Old West Durham on Ninth Street, and Watts-Hillandale up to Interstate 85. |
| Southside and Forest Hills below the Durham Freeway, Lakewood Park and Tuscaloosa-Lakewood off Chapel Hill Road, and Rockwood | Forest Hills, Lakewood Park, Rockwood, Southside and St. Teresa, Tuscaloosa-Lakewood | South of the Durham Freeway between US 15-501 and Alston Avenue, as far as Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, with North Carolina Central and Duke's West Campus inside it: Southside and Forest Hills, Lakewood Park and Tuscaloosa-Lakewood off Chapel Hill Road, and Rockwood. |
| Hope Valley off Hope Valley Road, Woodcroft by Southpoint, and Parkwood beside Research Triangle Park | Hope Valley, Parkwood, Woodcroft | The rest of the city below the freeway and west of NC 55, the largest of the five: Hope Valley on Third Fork Creek, Woodcroft by the Streets at Southpoint, and Parkwood beside Research Triangle Park. |
| Old East Durham off Angier Avenue, and Brightleaf at the Park and Grove Park out toward the Wake County line | Brightleaf at the Park, Grove Park, Old East Durham | The city east of Alston Avenue and NC 55 and south of Interstate 85: Old East Durham off Angier Avenue, then Brightleaf at the Park and Grove Park out toward the Wake County line. |
Where the neighborhoods come from. Durham does draw neighborhoods, but for its own work rather than for the public. The City's Neighborhoods layer sits in the reference map service it runs for its work-order system: 234 named areas with no description, no author and no edit date, from a single apartment complex to the Duke and North Carolina Central campuses, that do not overlap one another. Only 191 of them hold city residents, and together they hold 143,455 of the city's 286,573 inside its current limits, 50.1%. So every guide but one is a neighborhood of that map, clipped to the City limits and named as the map names it, and the guides call it the City's reference map rather than an adopted boundary or an association's territory. Downtown Durham is the exception: the map's own Downtown leaves out the warehouses around Brightleaf Square, Durham Central Park and the American Tobacco Campus, so that guide is the Downtown Tier of the City-County planning map, less the edges of the four neighborhoods it overlaps. Where a guide shares its name with a historic district, the two lines differ, and the guide gives the overlap. Each guide's population is the 2020 census count of the blocks inside both its line and the City's current limits, which hold 3,067 more residents than the 2020 city did, all of them on land annexed since, 2,713 of those in East Durham.
The five areas are ours. The City does not publish a grouping that is a way to choose where to live. Its City Council has three wards, with three more members and the mayor elected at large; its five Partners Against Crime districts follow the police districts and put Trinity Park, Walltown, Watts-Hillandale, Duke Park, Old North Durham and Northgate Park in one; its development tiers are planning categories; and its neighborhood map has 234 areas. So the roads decide, in this order. North of Interstate 85 is Downtown and North Durham; south of it, east of NC 55 on Avondale Drive and Alston Avenue, is East Durham; north of the Durham Freeway, the city east of Duke Street is Downtown and North Durham and the city west of it Trinity Park and West Durham; south of the freeway, north of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and east of US 15-501 is Lakewood, Southside and NCCU; and the rest is South Durham. By those rules, in 2020, Downtown and North Durham held 66,788 residents, Trinity Park and West Durham 13,157, Lakewood, Southside and NCCU 49,340, South Durham 80,376 and East Durham 76,912. The campuses are split: Duke's East Campus, 1,872 residents in 2020, almost all on residence-hall blocks, is in Trinity Park and West Durham; its West Campus, 5,757, and North Carolina Central, 2,463, are in Lakewood, Southside and NCCU; none is in a guide. Every guide falls wholly in its area except four, and each takes the area that holds most of its residents: Downtown Durham, 4,419 in its area, 703 west of Duke Street and 500 south of the freeway around the American Tobacco Campus; Trinity Park, 2,256 west of Duke Street and 787 east of it; Duke Park, 1,428 west of Avondale Drive and 554 east of it; and Tuscaloosa-Lakewood, 1,788 in its area and 16 on one block in South Durham. Which neighborhood lands in which area is our judgment.
What is not here. The twenty neighborhoods this list starts with held 44,801 of the city's 286,573 residents in 2020, 15.6%, because the City's map is made of small pieces, the median one with 405 residents, and covers only half the city. South Durham and East Durham, 157,288 residents between them, have three guides each, and the next additions belong there: Penrith, the largest residential neighborhood on the map with 3,625 residents, Hope Valley Farms and Woodlake in the south, and Carolina Arbors, Ravenstone and Ashton Hall in the east. North of Interstate 85, Bragtown, Old Farm and Treyburn come next, and Burch Avenue and Morehead Hill on the edge of the old city. Duke's and North Carolina Central's campuses are in no guide. Some places with a Durham address are not in the city: Bahama and Rougemont are unincorporated Durham County, Research Triangle Park is a district the city may not annex, and Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Morrisville and Cary, all close by, are towns of their own. A Durham mailing address does not settle which one a house is in: the County's tax record for the parcel does.