Downtown Durham's 1926 movie palace and civil-rights landmark, where staff still document multiple ghost reports across the projection booth, basement, and Connie Moses Ballroom.
309 W Morgan St, Durham, NC 27701
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticketed performances and film screenings; pricing varies by event. The lobby and box office are publicly accessible during business hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Urban sidewalk; main entry on West Morgan Street.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1926 · Opened February 2, 1926 as the Durham Auditorium; renamed The Carolina in 1929 after film-projection remodel · Operated under segregation for 37 years (1926-1962) with second-balcony seating for Black patrons · Desegregated in July 1962 following NAACP-led 'Round Robin' protests directed by Floyd B. McKissick Sr. · Rescued from decline by a community-led nonprofit renovation in the 1970s
The Carolina Theatre of Durham opened on February 2, 1926 as the Durham Auditorium, originally hosting civic events such as Miss Durham contests and high-school commencements. In 1929 the building was remodeled to accommodate film projection and renamed The Carolina. For more than three decades it stood as one of the largest theatres in downtown Durham, anchored on West Morgan Street alongside the developing civic core.
From its opening in 1926, the theatre admitted Black patrons — uncommon for the era in the segregated South — but enforced strict separation: separate entrances, ticket booths, lounges, and seating restricted to the second balcony. For 37 years the Carolina Theatre operated as a segregated venue, a structural racism documented at length by Durham historians and by the theatre's own institutional history program.
Beginning in 1959, attorney Floyd B. McKissick Sr. directed the youth chapter of the local NAACP in protest of segregation policies at the Carolina and other Durham theatres. In March 1962, organizers launched the 'Round Robin' protests, in which Black patrons repeatedly approached the white ticket window and were turned away, returning to the back of the line. By July 1962 — two months before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech and more than a year before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — the theatre began operating without segregation.
In the 1970s the theatre fell into decline and was rescued by a community-led nonprofit renovation effort that included volunteer Connie Moses, for whom the building's ballroom is now named. Today the Carolina Theatre of Durham operates as a nonprofit performing-arts and cinema complex, hosting concerts, the annual North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and community programming, and the theatre's own staff publishes its institutional history on its website.
Sources
The theatre's official 'Ghosts at the Carolina Theatre' blog post catalogs multiple paranormal reports gathered from staff and stagehands. The most widely circulated story is 'Fred,' a former projectionist said to have died on the job; patrons and crew describe whispered voices and a felt presence in the upstairs projection area. The theatre acknowledges in its blog that the only 'confirmed' ghost is the practical ghost light — the bare electric lamp left burning on stage for safety after the house goes dark.
Stagehands have also reported seeing a young boy in vintage clothing in the second balcony during stage set-up, and staff have heard music emanating from a Victrola record player outside the third-floor donor lounge after the building has been cleared for the night. In the basement, a staff member has reported whistling and footsteps in the hallway outside an office, with no one present when investigating.
The second-floor elevator is documented to open without being called, and staff have heard the emergency phone inside it ringing. In the Connie Moses Ballroom — named for the volunteer who helped restore the theatre in the 1970s — singing has occasionally been heard, which her daughter Mollie and other staff attribute to Connie's continuing presence.
Durham ghost-tour operator Brad Kennedy of Tobacco Road Tours regularly includes the Carolina Theatre on his downtown walking tour, and a guide by the blog Drugstore Divas notes that a similarly-named 'Fred the projectionist' story circulates at the Carolina Theatre in Charlotte as well — lore that may have migrated between the two same-named theatres.
Notable Entities
Attend any of the theatre's hundreds of annual public performances — concerts, indie film screenings, comedy, and community events — and explore the historic lobby, balconies, and Connie Moses Ballroom while there.
Local ghost-walking tour led by Tobacco Road Tours stops outside the theatre to recount its paranormal lore alongside several other downtown Durham sites.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Hutchinson, KS
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Tucson, AZ
The Fox Tucson Theatre opened on April 11, 1930, as a combined vaudeville and movie house. After closing in 1974 and standing vacant for 25 years, the building was purchased in 1999 by the non-profit Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation for $250,000 and reopened in 2006 following a multi-year, multi-million-dollar restoration.
Joliet, IL
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