Sight of Work Done Under Electric Lights Draws a Crowd in Durham, 1914

“Contractors Never Stop Work on Replacing Fire Swept Section of Durham” from The Review, High Point, N.C., July 30, 1914

Durham—The contractors in charge of the construction of the Geer building have employed a night force, and in the future will use about a hundred hands on the excavation for this building during the day and half that number during the night.

Hundreds watt incandescent have been stretched across the building site, and these make the night about as bright as the day for the laborers. No trouble was experienced in getting negroes to work during the night for they like the cool nights better than the warm days. The construction forces are using two forces of horses and are hauling the dirt from the excavation as fast as the negroes can get it up.

Putting on the night force was made necessary on account of the nature of the soil six feet under the surface. A kind of sand stone was encountered which made the progress of the work so slow that the contractors had to resort to the night work in order to get the building completed on schedule time.

The work of dismantling the First National Bank building is being carried forward rapidly and the contractors announce that as soon as they get the old building out of the way they will use a day and night force to get the excavation dug.

The novel sight of a half hundred Negroes working under the glare of electric lights attracted a great deal of attention. People hearing that a night force was to be worked came up street especially to see the sights.