Forest Hills was one of the first up-scale neighborhoods in Durham.  There are still reminders of the farms that this land originally held.  There are only two homes, the Carroll House and the Wells House that are from the original 19th Century.  In the 1920's the developer actually created a 9 hole golf course, a swimming pool and a clubhouse.  Today, the fairways have been turned into a lovely park where people walk their dogs along a stream, play Frisbee and play tennis on a few public tennis courts.  This area is surrounded by lovely old oak trees.

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Forest Hills was one of the first up-scale neighborhoods in Durham.  There are still reminders of the farms that this land originally held.  There are only two homes, the Carroll House and the Wells House that are from the original 19th Century.  In the 1920's the developer actually created a 9 hole golf course, a swimming pool and a clubhouse.  Today, the fairways have been turned into a lovely park where people walk their dogs along a stream, play Frisbee and play tennis on a few public tennis courts.  This area is surrounded by lovely old oak trees.

The stock market crash of 1929 hurt this area, but wealthy citizens continued to build homes of a wide variety of styles, including Colonial, Tudor and English Cottage.  Most of the available land had homes on them by the 1970's.

Although very little new construction has taken place in this area since the 1970's, the majestic homes, beautiful trees and winding roads have kept this a popular area for professionals to live.  It is very close to revitalized downtown Durham, to Duke University and a 15 minute drive to Research Triangle Park and the Raleigh-Durham International airport.

Homes in Forest Hills are mostly historic properties with prices ranging from $500,000 to over $1,000,000.

Forest Hills Luxury Homes

Many people consider Forest Hills to be the original luxury home community in Durham.  While Forest Hills has homes in a wide range of prices, the graciousness of the layout, the majestic oaks and landscaping make this community a prestigious one.  These are primarily older homes built in traditional elegant styles and lived-in by the elite citizens of Durham.

Historic Forest Hills Homes

The Forest Hills Historic District, considered Durham’s first automobile suburb, was created in 1923.  The district is approximately 245 acres in size, has some sixty block faces.  It is bounded on the north by Lakewood Avenue, Wells Street, Bivins Street, Shepherd Street, Forest Hills Park, and Overhill Terrace. 

The west side of the American Tobacco Trail, a bicycle/walking path built in the late 1990s, creates the east boundary. The bicycle path now allows riders to start in downtown Durham and ride all the way to Research Triangle Park on reasonably flat, protected bike-ways.  The trail is the site of the railroad tracks built by the American Tobacco Company in the 1930s.

The south boundary runs along Beverly Drive, Forestwood Drive and University Drive. Forest Hills Historic has 244 houses built between 1923 and 1955.  

The old golf clubhouse is the only nonresidential building. Over the years it has been used as a library and meeting hall for the neighborhood.  Other non residential structures are the concrete bridge which takes East Forest Hills Boulevard over Third Fork Creek, the swimming pool and the 4 tennis courts on Pinecrest Road.

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