Here’s another reason why Durham rocks

When Durham’s new $44 million performing arts center opens at the end of the year, it will be sporting a long, but cool name. City officials announced today that the venue will be named the “Mildred & Dillard Teer Stage.” Your initial reaction may be: “Huh? Isn’t that a mouthful?”

But here’s why this rocks. Durham is known for being completely community oriented. And so rather than have a theater named after something corporate and generic like Progress Energy Center for the Arts (sorry, Raleigh), it will be named after people who are a part of that community.

The Teers are lifelong Durham residents, according to a news release from the city. They’ve been married for more than 60 years (yes, 60) , and they’ve who have been involved in the community for a long time (Dillard sat on the Raleigh Durham Airport Authority for 31 years and served as a county commissioner, while Mildred once sat on the school board and her father was a tobacconist who ran Roycroft’s Warehouse on Rigsbee Avenue). The Teers’ children decided to honor their parents legacy by paying for the naming rights, which cost $1.2 million over 10 years.

The only thing that could taint this good news is a well-researched article revealing something unsavory about the Teer family. I’m not suggesting the Teer family is anything less than perfect, but knowing local Durham reporters and bloggers, I bet someone is doing some research to see if there’s anything less than desirable that could weigh down the theater’s new good name.

Check out construction progress on the live cam (pictured above).