The house on the hill at the corner of Ottawa and Oakwood avenues is a brilliant blue gem, a deep vibrant shade far from traditional. The front door is an eye-popping apple green.

Home to real estate broker Ken Gasch, his wife, Erin, and their children, the house at 407 Oakwood overlooks a quiet street corner in Cleveland-Holloway, an up and coming East Durham neighborhood that holds its third annual homes tour Saturday.

Workmen in sawdust- and paint-flecked jeans busy themselves at 501 Oakwood, the Clapp Ferguson house, twice slated for the bulldozer and twice saved from demolition. Up at 402 Oakwood, more workmen shuttle in and out of yet another house under renovation.

A few short years ago, the corner opposite Gasch's home was notorious for drug hustling day and night. Prostitutes worked in the house directly behind his property; his own home had been a flophouse unfit for habitation.

"It was a horrible scary place," Gasch said. "It couldn't stay like that."

Down the hill at the intersection of Ottawa and Queen Street, Arthur "Crow" Cromartie Jr., 54, and his brother, Lorenzo Brown, 55, gather in the early evening with friends on the front porch.

This is the house they've called home for 30 years or more, where their parents, Arthur and Connie Cromartie, married 54 years, raised a large extended family. Cromartie proudly shows off photos spanning four generations that collage the walls of his living room and den.

He and his neighbors like the changes taking place in Cleveland-Holloway, an area loosely bounded by Elizabeth, Liberty, Cleveland and Canal streets.

"It was hell," said Cromartie. But, "It's cleaning up."

A welcoming edge

The beautiful old homes here are finding new life as people see opportunity to rebuild and revitalize a troubled and impoverished community

"I got the best neighbors in the world," Cromartie said.

"Neighbors have been doing great things, like fixing up our neighborhood park," said Matthew Dudek, a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill who, with his partner, photographer Jessie Gladin-Kramer, moved into the area in 2008 after looking for a home to fix up.

Trick-or-treating at Halloween used to be unthinkable, but now the neighborhood has an organized event. Considering the derelict past, it's a charming image.

Gasch, a tall, likeable fellow, was taking a break from renovation on the Clapp Ferguson house, built between 1906 and 1913 and future home to Adrian Brown, Durham Chamber of Commerce marketing director, and his partner, Keith Flynn, a schoolteacher. The house is starting point for Saturday's tour.

Brown and Flynn took the neighborhood tour on a whim last year and were instantly charmed. They were attracted to the edgy quality of Cleveland-Holloway as well as by the mystery and potential for creating a home in an historic house.

"I think that there needs to be some pressure to save these old houses," Flynn said. "Ours was sitting in disrepair for years. If things would have gone slightly differently, it would have been torn down and no one would be living there."

Mansion Row no more

Whenever a poor neighborhood begins to transform, there is the question of what will become of the residents who either can't afford to own a home or don't wish to. Flynn said ownership isn't for everyone, but having a good place to live is everyone's right.

"I want Cleveland-Holloway to keep its edge. ... the edge that welcomes all types of people, one that respects each individual, an edge that is Durham," he said.

In the late nineteenth century, the area was home to tobacco merchants and influential Durham residents, with Dillard Street known as "Mansion Row." By the turn of the century, it was home to predominately Greek and Jewish families who had been brought south to work in the factories. The Beth-El Synagogue was on the corner of Queen and Holloway, until moving to Trinity Park. Residents did most of their shopping in Little Five Points at the intersection of Mangum and Cleveland Streets, or at the grocer at 613 Holloway Street.

The area began a steady decline between 1945 and 1965, with most of the Greeks and Jews leaving. Homes were chopped up to create cheap apartments and property owners neglected upkeep.

More than 90 percent of Cleveland-Holloway became rental propery, housing the poor, predominantly African American, and the transient.

Now, houses throughout the neighborhood thrum with activity: hammers swing, paint brushes glide over trim, power saws whine as blades cut through wood.

In the southern end of the neighborhood is the Robert M. Jones house, a two-story Queen Anne that caught the attention of Tiffany Graves and her husband. They recently bought the house, at 523 Holloway Street and already under renovation, from Faye Calhoun.

While Graves is concerned about crime, she was not deterred from making Cleveland-Holloway her home.

"What do I love about the neighborhood?" Graves said. "First off, I love the architecture and history. The homes are beautiful and full of character. When you walk into 523 Hollowayyou can feel the presence of bygone eras. I also love the proximity to downtown; you really can't get any closer."

Wendy Clarke, who created a business center in an abandoned East Durham hosiery mill, recalled the neighborhood's history of pain and hopelessness with an anecdote about one of the neighborhood children. When asked her dream, Clarke said, the little girl responded: To be a prostitute.

"I love the infrastructure of this neighborhood. There is opportunity for hope and beauty," she said. "It has dormant potential."