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Public buildings and services

Orange County poorhouse (County Home)

The Orange County poorhouse, later called the county home, stood on about 470 acres the wardens of the poor bought in 1823, two and a half miles north of Efland. Its two narrow brick buildings housed the county's poor until 1941, when it closed and the county sold the home and its 241-acre farm at auction.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

People in its history

People named in events about this site, ordered by number of mentions. Each example links to an entry with a source citation.

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Sites linked through the same people

Indexed works

Books, articles, records, and images about Orange County poorhouse. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.

Held at OCPL

Poor house book

North Carolina · 1971

The Orange County poor house book for 1842 to 1868, on 35 mm positive microfilm (reel C.073.90045) from the North Carolina Division of Archives and History, filmed in 1971. County wardens of the poor kept such books to record the people admitted to the almshouse and the money spent supporting paupers outside it, so the volume names some of the county's poorest residents in the decades around the Civil War, people who seldom appear in deeds or wills. Subjects include almshouses, public welfare and Orange County genealogy.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

NC Cardinal OCPL microfilm

Wardens of the Poor

North Carolina · 1971

Microfilm of the Orange County Wardens of the Poor records, kept by the county officials who administered relief and the almshouse before the modern welfare system. Two reels cover 1832 to 1856 and 1856 to 1879, filmed by the Division of Archives and History in 1971 as part of the state's county records series. Topics include paupers, the county poorhouse, genealogy and public welfare in the county.

Included because: Published by or for this institution.

NC Cardinal OCPL microfilm

Elsewhere

Session of November-December 1789: Senate Bills: Bill to Empower Wardens of the Poor for Franklin, Orange, and Surry Counties to Build a House or Houses, and for Amending Wilmington Town Law. November 18

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1789

Poorhouses for Franklin, Orange and Surry counties are the subject of this Senate bill of 18 November 1789, which let the wardens of the poor there put up buildings and also amended the law governing the town of Wilmington. Eleven images.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

NC Digital Collections

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Orange County poorhouse alone: the architectural surveys that cover its town or the county, and maps drawn while it stood. Several of the surveys can be read free online at NC Digital Collections.

History and Architecture of Orange County, North Carolina

Mattson, Richard L. · 1996 · Unpublished manuscript

Richard L. Mattson's manuscript survey of the history and architecture of Orange County, completed in September 1996. Its 78 pages cover the county's historic buildings and structures and end with a bibliography.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Orange County multiple property documentation form: "Historic resources of Orange County."

1993

National Register multiple property documentation form on the historic resources of Orange County, completed in 1993. Kelly Lally and M. Ruth Little led the first phase of the survey, and Jody Carter and Todd Peck the second. It runs 123 pages with a bibliography.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

[Architectural field surveys for Orange County : collected for the Historic and architectural resources of the Tar-Neuse River basin report]

1974 · Survey and Planning Branch, Historic Preservation Section, Division of Archives and History

Historic building survey forms for Orange County gathered in 1974 by the state's Historic Preservation Section for a report on the Tar-Neuse River basin. About 400 pages of forms covering buildings in Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the countryside; a form can carry a description, historical notes, location, a photograph and a floor plan.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal

[Map of Orange County].

1849

Large manuscript map of Orange County on linen, tracing ownership and chains of title for notable tracts with the dates each passed to new owners. Hachures show relief, and it marks principal towns, roads, railroads, mines, creeks, rivers and lakes. The date is uncertain; both 1849 and 1913 have been given for it.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC DigitalNC DPLA

Map of Orange County, N.C.

Tate, George W. · 1891 · George W. Tate

Facsimile, dated 1940, of George W. Tate's 1891 map of Orange County. It shows towns, roads, railroads such as the North Carolina Rail Road and the Chapel Hill line, residences, schools, churches, mills and mines, with portraits and pictures of buildings in the margins.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC DPLA Library of Congress Library of Congress Digital Collections

A map of Orange County, N.C.

Noble, M. C. S. (Marcus Cicero Stephens), 1855-1942 · 1915

Marcus Cicero Stephens Noble drew this 1915 map to show how Orange County's original territory was divided, tracing the formation of Caswell, Person, Alamance, Durham, Chatham, Randolph, Guilford and Rockingham counties out of it. Topics include county boundaries and the history of political divisions in the Piedmont. Surviving as a photocopy on a sheet 31 by 23 centimeters.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC
Show 2 more surveys and maps

Soil map, North Carolina, Orange County sheet

United States · 1918 · United States Government Printing Office

Color soil map of Orange County issued in 1918 by the U.S. Government Printing Office at one inch to the mile, 68 by 46 cm. Besides soil types it marks roads and railroads, the Southern Railway among them, churches, schools, mills, stores, cotton gins, iron mines, cemeteries and the county home, and it names the townships of Bingham, Cedar Grove, Chapel Hill, Cheeks, Eno, Hillsborough and Little River.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

Duke DPLA

Map of Orange County, N.C. : 1939

Stanaland, E. A. · 1939 · E.A. Stanaland

Hand colored map of Orange County drawn by E. A. Stanaland and published at Parrott, Georgia, in 1939. It shows towns and townships, roads and railroads, and marks the schools and churches standing in the county. One sheet, 58 by 36 centimeters.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

Start at OCPL

    Where to look on the shelf

    These books don’t necessarily mention Orange County poorhouse, but they cover where it stands, its kind of building and the land, family and burial records behind it, and they are where a search for a place like this usually goes next. All are at OCPL, most in the Wall Collection.

    Histories of the town and county

    • Foundational · NC 975.656 ORA Orange County--1752-1952 1953

      Hugh Talmage Lefler and Paul W. Wager's history of Orange County across its first two centuries, 1752 to 1952, prepared for the county's bicentennial. It covers government and politics, biography and the county's families, and doubles as a genealogical reference. Published in Chapel Hill by the Orange Printshop in 1953, 389 pages with illustrations and an index; this copy is a later reprint.

    Buildings and surveys

    • Foundational · NC 720.975 BIS A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina Bishir, Catherine W. · 2003

      Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern's field guide to the historic buildings of the North Carolina Piedmont, arranged county by county from Wake and Franklin in the east to Mecklenburg and Gaston in the west. The Orange County section takes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the rural county, with entries on individual buildings and maps for finding them. Published 2003, 596 pages with illustrations and maps.

    • Foundational · NC 917.56 ORANGE An Inventory Of Sites Of Cultural, Historic, Recreational, Biological, And Geological Significance In The Unincorporated Portions Of Orange County Orange County (N.C.) · 1986

      County planning department survey of significant sites in the unincorporated parts of Orange County, published in 1988, 95 pages with maps. The survey covers cemeteries, church buildings and archaeological sites on the cultural side, and plants, animals, endangered species, wildlife refuges, geology and recreation areas on the natural side. Useful for local historians, genealogists tracing burial grounds and land planners alike.

    • Foundational · NC 363.69 HIS Historic Preservation Element: Orange County Comprehensive Plan ; Orange County, North Carolina Orange County (N.C.) · 1996

      The historic preservation element of Orange County's comprehensive plan, prepared for the county Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Department by the Jaeger Company of Gainesville, Georgia, and adopted on 1 April 1996. Partly financed by National Park Service funds through the state Division of Archives and History, it sets county policy on historic buildings and sites and their conservation. 59 pages plus 50 unnumbered, with illustrations and maps, some folded and in color.

    In the chronology

    1. The Assembly lets Orange County's wardens of the poor build a poorhouse A bill passed in December 1789 gave the wardens of the poor of Orange, Franklin and Surry counties power to put up poorhouses. The book cannot say whether Orange built one then or only in the 1820s. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 186
    2. The wardens of the poor buy 470 acres for a county poorhouse Enoch Thompson deeded about 470 acres to the Wardens of the Poor of Orange County for $800, for a poorhouse and the support of paupers there. The poorhouse on this land stayed in use until 1941. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 186
    3. Orange petitioners ask the legislature for a state lunatic asylum A petition to the General Assembly for a state lunatic asylum circulated in Orange on the unanimous recommendation of the county justices at the August court, telling of three insane people kept at the poorhouse, two of whom the wardens of the poor had lately moved from the common jail into rooms prepared for them. Hillsborough Recorder, October 11, 1838, p. 3
    4. The wardens of the poor publish three years of poorhouse accounts The Orange County wardens of the poor reported that the county poorhouse had spent $3,440 between March 1838 and March 1841, about $1,150 a year, on thirty to thirty-five paupers, thirty-one at the time, under steward William Gattis and Mrs. Gattis. Two hired Black men worked the poorhouse farm and a Black woman washed and cooked, and the board had $1,053 on hand. People: James Webb, Cadwallader Jones Hillsborough Recorder, May 6, 1841, p. 3
    5. John U. Kirkland is elected a Warden of the Poor for Orange County At an election in April 1844 Orange County chose Cadwallader Jones, Dr. James Webb, Green Jordan, Nathaniel Bain, James Faucett, John U. Kirkland and Samuel N. Tate as Wardens of the Poor. People: Cadwallader Jones, James Webb Hillsborough Recorder, April 11, 1844
    6. William Gattis, superintendent of the county poorhouse, dies William Gattis, for many years superintendent of the Orange County poorhouse and an elder of the Presbyterian church, died in his seventy-first year. Two days later the Court of Wardens met in Hillsborough, recorded that he had served the public with the utmost fidelity and sent its sympathy to his widow. People: Nathaniel D. Bain Hillsborough Recorder, May 23, 1844, p. 3
    7. Orange Wardens of the Poor require written applications for relief The Court of Wardens of the Poor ordered that every application for county relief be made in writing and signed by a justice of the peace and at least two other respectable persons. People: Nathaniel D. Bain Hillsborough Recorder, September 11, 1845, p. 3
    8. The court binds Andrew Jackson, a boy of color raised at the poorhouse, to Charles Cox In November 1846 the court rescinded an order binding Andrew Jackson, a boy of color, to the wardens of the poor and bound him to Charles Cox. At the February 1847 term it bound him to Cox again as seventeen, on certificates that he had first been entered as a pauper at the poorhouse on October 1, 1833, when a woman living there thought him two or three, and that he was no older than seventeen. In November 1849 the court moved him to Bedford Hurdle to learn wagonmaking. People: Nathaniel D. Bain Mark Chilton, Freedom Bound: Apprenticeship, Racism & Liberation in Orange County, North Carolina 1777 to 1868 (Wandering through the NC Piedmont)
    9. Duncan Cameron gives Thomas D. Bennehan's charity bequest to the Orange County wardens of the poor The Court of Wardens of the Poor for Orange County accepted from Duncan Cameron a gift for the county's poor, made under the clause of Thomas D. Bennehan's will that left Cameron $1,000 for Christian and benevolent purposes at his discretion, entered it in their minutes and sent him their thanks. Hillsborough Recorder, March 29, 1848, p. 3
    10. The poorhouse account book records a $5 bastardy payment from Mary White The Orange County Poor House account book recorded $5 from Mary White as a bastardy payment. The same book records payments from other women through the 1850s, among them Mary Ellen Smith (1851), Margaret Strayhorn (1851), Eliza Ann McCallum (1853), Edna B. Scoggins (1856), Amelia Scoggins (1857) and Ellen Neal (1859). Mark Chilton, Natural Child: Legitimacy, Sexuality and Shame in the Court Records of Orange County, North Carolina 1777 to 1868 (Wandering through the NC Piedmont)
    11. Mary Holly pays the county $5 after declining to name a father On 21 October 1850 the county poor house account book recorded a $5 bastardy payment from Mary Holly, who in March, while pregnant, had declined to name the father of her child. In 1848 she had named Ilai W. Nunn as the father of an earlier child. Mark Chilton, Natural Child: Legitimacy, Sexuality and Shame in the Court Records of Orange County, North Carolina 1777 to 1868 (Wandering through the NC Piedmont)
    12. Elizabeth Brown refuses to name her child's father and pays a bastardy fine to the county Elizabeth Brown would not name the father of her child, born 29 July 1853, and on 1 July the county poor house account book entered a $5 bastardy payment from her. Mark Chilton, Natural Child: Legitimacy, Sexuality and Shame in the Court Records of Orange County, North Carolina 1777 to 1868 (Wandering through the NC Piedmont)
    Show all 42 dated events
    1. The wardens of the poor elect Dr. Benjamin F. Mebane physician to the poorhouse At the same April 1857 meeting the Court of Wardens told its treasurer to hand over the rest of the 1856 poor taxes so the superintendent could pay the oldest orders first. People: Benjamin Franklin Mebane Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 187
    2. The wardens of the poor order poorhouse repairs and a $1,000 loan After a called meeting on May 11, 1857 about the state of the poorhouse building, the wardens asked the county court on May 25 to summon the magistrates on the condition of the poor. They named a committee to repair the west building and let the superintendent borrow $1,000. People: John U. Kirkland, Pride Jones, James C. Turrentine Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 187
    3. Sheriff H. B. Guthrie announces that the county treasury is empty His notice to taxpayers said no county tax had been levied or collected for 1865, the treasury held not a dollar and the wardens of the poor were deep in debt. He set fifteen collection days in July. People: Hugh B. Guthrie Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 190
    4. The Bureau office warns that Orange County provides only for its white poor Asked what suffering to expect in the coming winter, Lieutenant Isaac Porter replied on October 15, 1866, that helpless Black people in Orange would lack food and clothing because the county provided only for white paupers. The chairman of the wardens of the poor told him the November county court would take up provision for the Black poor, and Porter added that no one would suffer for want of protection while the government kept a Bureau officer there. Freedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Letters Received, May 1866–Dec. 1868, Part 1, transcription p. 79
    5. The wardens' yearly count finds 21 people in the poorhouse The count listed three adult men, thirteen adult women and five children of color, three of whom had white mothers. In October the wardens kept James M. Bain as superintendent at $150 a year, with $25 for his wife. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 188
    6. Lt. Thomas H. Hay finds about 150 people in Orange County in need of relief After talking with white and Black residents from all parts of the county, Hay reported little destitution bordering on starvation, but some old, feeble and sick people of both races, and a few widows of Confederate soldiers with families, who needed help; he put the number at no more than 150. With the wardens of the poor giving outdoor relief besides keeping 24 inmates at the poorhouse, and their chairman agreeing to take cases he referred, Hay asked that 4,000 rations be kept at Hillsborough for emergencies until the early crops came in. Freedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Letters Sent, Vol. 130, July 1867–Dec. 1868, transcription p. 112
    7. The Court of Wardens of the Poor holds its last meeting The seven-member wardens' court, which had run poor relief and the county poorhouse, met for the last time before the new board of county commissioners took over its work. People: Lemuel Lynch, John Wesley Carr, James C. Turrentine, Nelson Parrish Hall Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 188
    8. Orange County reports on its poorhouse to the new Board of Public Charities Orange County's report to the state Board of Public Charities described two one-story brick buildings of six rooms each on a 400-acre tract five miles from Hillsborough. The poorhouse held 41 people, ten able to do light work, with ten deaths since July 1868. People: Edmund Strudwick Documenting the American South: First Annual Report of the Board of Public Charities of North Carolina (1870), pp. 122-123
    9. Disguised men whip residents of the county poorhouse Men in disguise entered the poorhouse at night and whipped several of the men and women living there. On March 10 the commissioners offered a $200 reward for the attackers, over the written protest of commissioner W. N. Patterson, who defended the raiders' motives. People: William N. Patterson Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 195
    10. The poorhouse count records ten deaths in a single year The enumeration listed six white men, eight white women, four Black men and six Black women living at the poorhouse. Over the previous year ten residents had died, two children had been born, twelve people had come in and four had left. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 196
    11. Fairfield School is allowed to draw water from the county poorhouse spring The board let the Fairfield school in District 21 use the spring at the county poorhouse for its water. DigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 (1983), p. 30
    12. County commissioners stop aid to paupers outside the poorhouse The Orange County commissioners resolved to give no more aid to paupers living outside the county poorhouse except in extreme cases. Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), February 9, 1889, p. 3
    13. County commissioners decide to send the destitute to the poor house instead of granting outside aid At their January meeting the county commissioners settled the accounts of the clerk, sheriff and treasurer and, facing requests for help for the outside poor, resolved to be sparing and to offer the destitute a place in the county poor house instead. Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), January 11, 1890, p. 3
    14. The county commissioners re-elect A. V. Jordan superintendent of the poor Meeting at the county poorhouse, the commissioners re-elected A. V. Jordan to run it for another term, and the paper said he had given entire satisfaction. Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), September 6, 1890, p. 3
    15. Grippe kills four aged inmates of the Orange County Home On their quarterly visit to the County Home for the Aged and Infirm on April 3, the county commissioners found a grippe epidemic there that had killed four very old inmates within ten days. Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), April 12, 1900, p. 3
    16. County commissioners pay for smallpox cases and for disinfecting the county home Among the accounts the Orange County commissioners allowed at their January meeting were bills for supplies for smallpox cases, a doctor's services for smallpox cases and disinfecting the county home. The News (Chapel Hill), January 30, 1908, p. 1
    17. County commissioners re-elect Robert D. Bain superintendent of the County Home and raise his pay The new Orange County board of commissioners re-elected Robert D. Bain superintendent of the County Home and raised his salary from $350 to $400 a year. It also re-elected S. M. Gattis county attorney. People: Samuel Mallett Gattis Orange County Observer (Hillsborough): Commissioners' actions, December 17, 1908, p. 3
    18. County commissioners re-elect H. D. Smith superintendent of the County Home Meeting on September 4, 1916, the county commissioners re-elected H. D. Smith superintendent of the County Home and paid accounts for road work and the poor. The News (Chapel Hill), September 7, 1916, p. 1
    19. The new county commissioners order the county home superintendent to show cause why he should not be removed At their first meeting of the year the county commissioners ordered H. D. Smith to appear on January 15 and show cause why he should not be removed as superintendent of the county home. The News reported that the new Republican board had already asked two Democrats to give up their offices. The News (Chapel Hill), January 11, 1917, p. 4
    20. H. D. Smith resigns as superintendent of the county home H. D. Smith, superintendent of the Orange County home, gave his resignation to the county commissioners at their July meeting; they accepted it, to take effect in October 1917. The News (Chapel Hill), July 12, 1917, p. 5
    21. H. D. Brown becomes superintendent of the Orange County Home The county commissioners elected H. D. Brown to fill the unexpired term of H. D. Smith as superintendent of the County Home for the aged and infirm, at the salary Smith had been paid. The News (Chapel Hill), September 13, 1917, p. 1
    22. The grand jury urges a new county home near Hillsborough and a secure jail Reporting at the August term of Orange Superior Court, the grand jury found the convict road camp and the county home in good order and noted a new barn at the home. Because the home was far from the county seat, it urged the commissioners to sell the home and farm and build a modern home on the highway nearer Hillsboro, and it asked that the jail be made secure or replaced with a new one. The News (Chapel Hill), September 4, 1924, p. 1
    23. Orange County operates under a budget for the first time After 175 years without a budget or central accounts, the county adopted its first budget for fiscal 1927-1928 under the new County Fiscal Control Act. That year it spent $3,363.21 on the county home and farm and $730.50 on outside poor relief. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 212 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, August 5, 1927, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 10, 1928, p. 1
    24. Orange County grand jury condemns the county home buildings as unfit The grand jury of the August 1928 term, reporting to Judge W. A. Devin, found the county offices, road camps and jail in good order and praised recent courthouse improvements, but condemned the worn-out county home buildings as unfit for human habitation. It urged the commissioners to build a modern home on a highway within reach of a doctor. People: Lueco Lloyd The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 24, 1928, p. 6
    25. Orange County welfare board takes up the county home's condition At its September meeting in Hillsboro the county board of public welfare discussed the dilapidated county home and recommended a study of whether a hospital would serve better than an ordinary home, possibly built jointly with neighboring counties. The board also reviewed plans submitted by the new county welfare superintendent and set its meetings for the second Thursday of each month. People: George H. Lawrence, Annie Sutton Cameron The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 28, 1928, p. 6
    26. George Lawrence describes the county home near Efland in the Chapel Hill Weekly George Lawrence described the county home two and a half miles north of Efland: two narrow brick buildings, probably of 1824, heated by fireplaces and lit by kerosene, with no plumbing. It held 19 residents and two prisoners, and white and Black residents ate in separate rooms. People: George H. Lawrence The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 26, 1928, p. 5
    27. Grand jury reports on the county home, road camp and jail The March term grand jury found the county home clean but its burying ground in bad repair, and reported that the jail held prisoners said to have syphilis with others and had too few cells. Judge N. A. Sinclair inspected the jail the next day, found six cells and good conditions, and ordered that every prisoner be examined by a doctor within 48 hours of commitment. The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 29, 1929, p. 2
    28. Commissioners name J. G. McAdams superintendent of the county home The Orange County commissioners chose J. G. McAdams of Carr township as superintendent of the county home, succeeding W. C. Warren, who had resigned. McAdams was to take charge on October 1, 1934, at a salary of $75 a month. The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 7, 1934, p. 2
    29. The county home closes The poorhouse on the land bought in 1823 closed in 1941, since most of its residents now qualified for old age assistance and could live in boarding homes. The Weekly reported that the welfare superintendent, W. T. Mattox, placed the ten people living there on September 1 in private homes, some of them on old age assistance, and that the home and its farm were sold at auction on October 4, 1941 to Garl Forrest. People: William T. Mattox Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 213 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, September 19, 1941, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, October 17, 1941, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 20, 1942, p. 4
    30. Orange County sells the county home and its farm at auction The county auctioned the old county home, its 241-acre farm, buildings, stock and tools, and a Forrest was the high bidder. Its last residents had been boarded with relatives and friends at county expense, which the welfare superintendent said cost less than half as much. People: William T. Mattox The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 17, 1941, p. 1 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, September 19, 1941, p. 3

    Open these in the chronology →

    Deeds

    A deed from the county’s deed books that bear on this site, from Mark Chilton’s published abstracts. The note under each says why: the site’s survey file or National Register nomination cites it, it names the site, or it passes the site’s land along the chain of title the survey traces. Each deed’s page links to its deed-book page at the Register of Deeds.

    Search every historic deed →

    Research sources

    Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Investigate a school or community institution.

    Background

    Historic sites, markers, and maps

    Records of the time 28

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    Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
    Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026