WEBB'S WAREHOUSE

Webb's warehouse was built about 1870 on the southeast corner of Churton Street and Margaret Lane on property which had been owned by the Webb family since the 1840s and 1850s; it was a wooden building measuring 125 feet by 40 feet. On January 30, 1872, it opened for business, and was advertised as the "largest and best in North Carolina and the only warehouse in Hillsboro' with Sky-Lights!"

 

By the 1880s it was the lone survivor of three tobacco warehouses built in Hillsborough between 1869 and 1870. It was originally owned by James C. Webb; by 1871 it was the warehouse for the firm of Webb & Roulhac. Webb was succeeded by J. R. Gattis in 1874 (when Webb & Roulhac moved to Durham), he was succeeded by E. H. Pogue in January 1876, and he was succeeded by C. B. Taylor in 1878 (apparently when Pogue started his own tobacco manufacturing company). By 1894, the warehouse was used for storage.

 

 

View south, 1938

 

View north, circa 1922 (building is circled in red)

 

 

By the 1920s, the former warehouse was being used as a garage. In early 1934 a section of it was renovated by the CWA/NCERA for use as town and county offices, including a new office for the mayor of Hillsboro.

 

February 1943 Sanborn map excerpt

 

 

The site of Webb's Warehouse is occupied by the 1954 Orange County courthouse.