Last Monday, the first day of their orientation week, a group of Duke freshmen showed up for a volunteer shift at a community garden near campus, expecting to spend a few hours weeding and cutting back overgrowth.
Instead, they found themselves assuming the frontline of an urgent preservation operation. Next to the garden stood a century-old duplex that had been headed for demolition for a while, and two days prior, a big yellow excavator had appeared on site.
Concerned for the garden, as razing an old house can spray lead into nearby soil, a veteran garden volunteer pinged a Community Affairs staffer at Duke University, which owns 405 Swift Avenue, where the garden grows. Surprised, the staffer set out to confirm whether the demolition was indeed imminent. Finding as much to be true, he guided 30 freshmen—some of whom had already been scheduled for garden work, others of whom were called in as backup—through a rushed triage, with students breaking down trellises and pinning tarps over garden beds with rocks…