George W.
Birmingham Jr.
(1921–2008)
Birmingham was born in Durham. He served in the Navy during WWII, building the airstrip in Guam that launched the US nuclear attack on Japan. After the war, he went into the construction business with his father but they parted ways amicably after a while. From then on, Birmingham built dozens of houses in Durham, especially a group of houses on Ashley that would become known as Birmingham Woods. He built homes all over Durham.
During the 1980s, Birmingham exposed incompetence by the City Inspections Department which was subsequently verified and resulted in the resignation of the department head. He led classes for the public on homebuilding and appeared in a 1991 NC Public Television documentary on residential building.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, he was locally famous as a private building inspector. If you were the buyer, you wanted George on your team. He was known for finding hidden problems in houses that were (usually unintentionally) covered up by present or past owners. He served as expert witness in several lawsuits, one winning $930,000 in damages.
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Sources include: Virginia Faust; Steve and Evan Gardner.