Inside the Cobb Building
The Cobb building was built one year after the O'Brien building in 1899, both meant to serve as warehouses for the former W. Duke and Sons Tobacco Company and both were built with an ornate Italiente-style. Over the years, two stories were added to the building.
During the latter half of the 20th century, Cobb and O'Brien were used mainly as as storage for the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, with a carpentry shop on the first floor of the building. Tobacco stems were also processed here.
Today, Cobb is part of the West Village complex in Downtown Durham, housing apartments, retail and office space.
Inside the Cobb Building
Built in 1899, Cobb was built one year after the O'Brien building, both meant to serve as warehouses for the former W. Duke and Sons Tobacco Company and they both were built with an ornate Italiente-style.
During the latter half of the 20th century, Cobb and O'Brien were used mainly as as storage for the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, with a carpentry shop on the first floor of the building. Tobacco stems were also processed here.
After tobacco was opened and received in O’Brien, it was transferred to storage silos to await the drying process. This tobacco silo, located on the second floor of the 1899 Cobb Building, held burley tobacco. The second floor of O'Brien also housed silos.
Built in 1899, Cobb was built one year after the O'Brien building, both meant to serve as warehouses for the former W. Duke and Sons Tobacco Company and they both were built with an ornate Italiente-style.
During the latter half of the 20th century, Cobb and O'Brien were used mainly as as storage for the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, with a carpentry shop on the first floor of the building. Tobacco stems were also processed here.
Another outlying department, located in Cobb, processed the tobacco stems that had been removed from each leaf. The stems were moistened, steamed, finely cut, and separated according to size. All of this was done so that the stems could be combined with the lamina, or leaf, already processed and blended. Here, the conveyor belt delivers stems from the second to the third floor of Cobb.
Built in 1899, Cobb was built one year after the O'Brien building, both meant to serve as warehouses for the former W. Duke and Sons Tobacco Company and they both were built with an ornate Italiente-style.
During the latter half of the 20th century, Cobb and O'Brien were used mainly as as storage for the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, with a carpentry shop on the first floor of the building. Tobacco stems were also processed here.
Pictured here are stem conveyors and storage. This machine on the third floor of Cobb transferred stems during stem processing.
Built in 1899, Cobb was built one year after the O'Brien building, both meant to serve as warehouses for the former W. Duke and Sons Tobacco Company and they both were built with an ornate Italiente-style.
During the latter half of the 20th century, Cobb and O'Brien were used mainly as as storage for the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, with a carpentry shop on the first floor of the building. Tobacco stems were also processed here.
Carpenter Moses Barbour planes a board for building a bookshelf in the carpenter shop on Cobb’s first floor.