Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James Buchanan Duke established The Duke Endowment and the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke.
One of the first buildings on the original Durham campus (East Campus), the Washington Duke Building ("Old Main"), was destroyed by a fire in 1911.
James B. Duke established the Duke Endowment, which provides funds to numerous institutions, including Duke University.
The Levine Science Research Center is the largest single-site interdisciplinary research facility of any American university.
Duke Chapel, an icon for the university, can seat nearly 1,600 people and contains a 5,200-pipe organ.
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 census, Durham is the 4th-most populous city in North Carolina, and the 71st-most populous city in the United States. The city is located in the east-central part of the Piedmont region along the Eno River. Durham is the core of the four-county Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 608,879 in 2023. The Office of Management and Budget also includes Durham as a part of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC Combined Statistical Area, commonly known as the Research Triangle, which had an estimated population of 2,368,947 in 2023.
Image: Baldwin Auditorium, East Campus, Duke University, Durham, NC (48961008411)
Image: Duke Memorial United Methodist Church, Durham, NC (49140492242)
Image: Unity at Bennett Place
Image: Carolina Theatre (Durham Auditorium 1924)