After the Civil War, Confederate veteran Washington Duke returned to his farm and built an astonishing fortune, astonishingly fast. Tobacco manufacturing operations moved downtown in 1874, so the Duke Homestead, 4 miles north, remains intact. Hourly tours lead through barns and outbuildings, but you're free to wander the farm, after enjoying a museum of tobacco history that barely mentions health issues.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

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1. Museum of Life & Science

1.33 MILES

There’s something to appeal to every child at Durham’s Museum of Life & Science, 3 miles north of downtown. Its main building, stuffed with everything…

2. Sarah P Duke Gardens

2.42 MILES

These heavenly gardens on the Duke University campus include 55 acres of koi ponds, terraced rose gardens and magnolia groves. On warm afternoons, they…

3. Nasher Museum of Art

2.58 MILES

Set amid the Duke University campus woods, this impressive futuristic cube displays art from around the world and across the ages. Only a small portion of…

4. Duke Chapel

2.59 MILES

The major landmark on Duke University’s west campus, and the epitome of its neo-Gothic style, is the 210ft tower of Duke Chapel. Erected in the 1930s, the…

5. Duke University

2.59 MILES

Although it can trace its history back to 1838, Duke University became a university, and took its current name, in 1926, thanks to a major endowment from…

6. American Tobacco Campus

3.08 MILES

The massive former American Tobacco factory has been transformed into a million-square-foot cavalcade of restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. Still…

7. Duke Lemur Center

3.6 MILES

The secret is out – Durham’s coolest attraction has to be this research and conservation center, home to the largest collection of lemurs outside their…

8. Historic Stagville Plantation

7.5 MILES

Exceptional in prioritizing the 1000 or so ‘enslaved persons’ who worked here above the families that claimed their ownership, Stagville Plantation ranks…