Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Arrowhead Durham, NC

Durham is the county seat of Durham County and was incorporated on April 10, 1869, named for Bartlett S. Durham.

Durham is nicknamed the 'Bull City' and the 'City of Medicine' - the bull name traces to Bull Durham Tobacco, whose maker John Green borrowed the bull from Coleman's Mustard of Durham, England.

The 2020 census counted 283,506 people in Durham, making it the fourth-largest city in North Carolina, and Census Bureau estimates put its population at about 305,561 in 2025.

Durham had 114,726 households in the 2020 census, and Census QuickFacts counts 126,550 households for 2020-2024, with a median household income of $81,619 and an owner-occupied housing rate of 52.3%.

Duke University began as Trinity College, which moved to Durham thanks to Washington Duke's $85,000 gift and Julian Carr's land donation, and it was renamed Duke University in 1924 after James B. Duke's $40 million donation.

Duke University's Durham campus is home to landmarks including Duke Chapel and the Nasher Museum of Art.

James B. Duke formed the American Tobacco Company in Durham in 1890, and the Duke tobacco empire controlled roughly 90% of U.S. cigarette production at its peak.

North Carolina Central University in Durham, founded by Dr. James E. Shepard, was the nation's first publicly supported liberal arts college for African Americans.

In the early 1900s, Durham's Parrish Street was known as 'Black Wall Street' for African American-founded firms such as North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and Mechanics & Farmers Bank.

Bennett Place in Durham is where Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union General William T. Sherman near the end of the Civil War.