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Schools and academies

Murphey School

Murphey School is the brick consolidated school for white children on the Durham-Hillsboro road near Hillsborough, built in 1923 and named for Archibald D. Murphey, with a WPA auditorium wing added in 1936. It closed in 1959, later ran as a nightclub, and was being restored from 2008 when it was listed in the National Register in 2009.

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.

Indexed works

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

About the site

Contract documents for school construction and appurtenant work : Aycock School (white), Carrboro School (white), Chapel Hill school (Negro), Hillsboro School (Negro), Murphey School (white), Orange Grove School (white), St. Mary's School (white)

Atwood and Weeks, Inc., architects and engineers, H.D. Carter, associate · 1935 · Orange County Board of Education

Contract documents prepared in 1935 by the architects and engineers Atwood and Weeks, with H. D. Carter, for a Public Works Administration school-building program in Orange County, PWA project NC 1005, issued by the county Board of Education in Hillsboro. The title lists seven schools, five for white pupils, Aycock, Carrboro, Murphey, Orange Grove and St. Mary's, and two for Black pupils, at Chapel Hill and Hillsboro, in the period's own labels. 49 leaves plus 20 unnumbered.

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

UNC

Plumbing : contract documents for school construction and appurtenant work : Aycock School (white), Carrboro School (white), Chapel Hill school (Negro), Hillsboro School (Negro), Murphey School (white), Orange Grove School (white), St. Mary's School (white)

Atwood and Weeks, Inc., architects and engineers, H.D. Carter, associate · 1935 · Orange County Board of Education

Plumbing contract documents for a 1935 school construction program of the Orange County Board of Education, a Public Works Administration project numbered NC 1005, covering seven schools: Aycock, Carrboro, Murphey, Orange Grove and St. Mary's, designated for white pupils, and the Chapel Hill and Hillsboro schools, designated for Black pupils. Prepared by Atwood and Weeks, architects and engineers, with H. D. Carter, 39 leaves.

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

UNC

Our State

2013

November 2013 issue of Our State (volume 81, number 6). Orange County pieces take in the restoration of the Murphey School and a local radio show; elsewhere are Seabreeze Beach, Durham bakeries, Farmville barbecue, the Andrews Sisters and dogs in combat.

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 Murphey School 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

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

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
Show 1 more surveys and maps

School map, Orange County, North Carolina.

1922

School map of Orange County from about 1922, a blue line print marking townships, towns, churches and the separate schools for white and Black children under segregation. Communities shown include Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Efland and Mebane.

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

UNC DPLA

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 Murphey School, 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.

    • Start here · NC 371.097 PENDER A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 Pender, Irene Oliver · 1983

      Irene Oliver Pender's history of the public schools of Orange County from 1752 to 1983, covering more than two centuries of schooling in Hillsborough, Efland, Cedar Grove and the rural districts of the county. Published in 1983, 186 pages with illustrations.

    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.

    Land, family and burial records

    • Start here · NC 333.16 CHILTON The Land Grant Atlas of Old Orange County Chilton, Mark · 2012

      Mark Chilton's oversized atlas plotting eighteenth-century land grants across the original Orange County, which stretched well beyond today's boundaries into what became Alamance and Durham counties. Published in Carrboro by Hand Made Books beginning in 2012, the set was planned in four volumes: Henry McCulloh's great tract number 11 and the land north of it; the Saxapahaw old fields (volume 2); Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the Johnston Tract; and Durham, Rougemont and McCulloh's tract number 12. Maps and color illustrations, 41 cm.

    In the chronology

    1. Murphey School is built in brick on the Durham-Hillsboro road Murphey School, a hip-roofed brick consolidated school for white children named for Archibald D. Murphey, was built in 1923 on the Durham-Hillsboro road (Old NC 10). H. C. Linthicum drew the plans and W. H. Woods of Durham built it for $8,995. The school closed in 1959; the road nearby is spelled Murphy School Road. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School National Register nomination (2009), sec. 7 p. 1 and sec. 8 pp. 12-13 · Also: NC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 16, 1926, p. 1
    2. The county school board builds a teachers' home at Murphey School from the unfinished Mount Hope School Instead of finishing a new Mount Hope School that was to be merged into Murphey, the county board had the partly built schoolhouse taken apart and its materials carried to the Murphey site for a seven-room teachers' home. W. H. Woods built it for $800 in labor, paid with money from the sale of the old University School; the frame bungalow is the only teacherage left standing in Orange County. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 17
    3. The county board approves H. F. Pickett as principal of Murphey School The Orange County board approved H. F. Pickett as principal of Murphey School, which taught grades one through seven with three or four teachers, one of them doubling as principal. He is the first principal the record names. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 18
    4. Murphey School enrolls 182 pupils In the 1934-35 school year Murphey School had 182 pupils. It was one of nine county schools, with Hillsboro, Orange Grove, St. Mary's, Caldwell, Efland, Aycock, Carrboro and White Cross, apart from the Chapel Hill city schools. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 18
    5. A PWA-aided auditorium wing is added to Murphey School A 30-by-80-foot brick auditorium with a Doric portico was built onto the west end of the school, together with a water tank, a new sewer and plumbing system, and repairs to the teacherage, for $16,365. It was one of the county school projects on Public Works Administration docket 1005, with a federal PWA grant paying 45 percent of the cost and county bonds the rest. George W. Kane was the general contractor, and the county board inspected and accepted the auditorium on June 1, 1936. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 19 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, October 18, 1935, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, January 3, 1936, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 22, 1936, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 12, 1937, p. 6
    6. Principal J. M. Harris refits the Murphey School lunchroom Mrs. J. M. Harris, principal and teacher of the fifth and sixth grades, reported new chairs, tables, curtains and cooking equipment for the lunchroom in 1946. Her teachers were Myrtle Walker, Erna Link, Mrs. Chas F. Hudson and Florence Roat, and the school had a 4-H club, a chorus and a parent-teacher association. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 20
    7. The county school board returns the seventh grade to Murphey School The Orange County board of education decided to return the seventh grade to Murphey School, keeping a promise made to its patrons three years earlier that the grade would come back if attendance fell below the level that kept three teachers there. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 7, 1947, p. 1
    8. The county board moves Murphey School's seventh grade to Hillsboro Many Murphey-district families had been sending children to Hillsboro, some riding the bus against the rules, and in 1947 the board agreed to keep the seventh grade at Murphey only until numbers justified a move. In 1948, with about seventy pupils left, it sent the seventh grade to the Hillsboro school. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 20
    9. The county school board refuses Murphey School parents' request to send their children to Hillsboro Parents in the Murphey School district had petitioned for their children to attend Hillsboro School, saying the Murphey facilities were inferior. The Board of Education refused, saying Hillsboro had no room for more pupils in 1953-54, and promised to work with the Murphey community on the most feasible solution. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 9, 1953, p. 1
    10. Murphey School parents seek transfers while others fight to keep the school Parents asked the county school board to let 19 children leave Murphey School for the new Cameron Park School, and some were keeping their children out or sending them to Durham. Other parents of the district held a mass meeting and hired a Durham lawyer to keep Murphey open; the board said it had no plan to close the school and put off the transfers until May. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 12, 1956, p. 1
    11. Mount Herman Baptist Church leases the closed Murphey School Once the school closed, the county board leased the empty building to Mt. Herman Baptist Church for one year at $25 a month. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 20
    12. Murphey School closes and its pupils go to Hillsborough After years of falling attendance the county Board of Education voted on June 1, 1959 to close Murphey School, then a 79-pupil elementary school, at the end of the year and send its pupils and teachers to the new wing of Cameron Park School in Hillsborough. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 20 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 4, 1959, p. 1
    Show all 18 dated events
    1. The county school board decides to go ahead with selling the closed Murphey School Prompted by an inquiry from a woman who wanted the building for a rest home, the Board of Education voted to proceed with the sale of the abandoned Murphey School it had agreed to months before. The same meeting laid out changes coming with Orange High's opening, including buses for Hillsboro pupils and the probable closing of Caldwell School and of Aycock's junior and senior high grades. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 4, 1962, p. 10
    2. The Underwood family buys Murphey School at public auction The county Board of Education, which had offered the closed school for sale, confirmed on August 5, 1963 the sale of the Murphey School property for $11,000 to the highest bidder, P. L. Underwood of Durham, Route One. Bidding over several months had raised the price from $7,500. The National Register nomination says the property was sold at public auction to the Underwood family. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 20 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 8, 1963, p. 4; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 11, 1963, p. 5
    3. The former Murphey School becomes a nightclub From some time in the early 1970s until the mid-1980s the old school was run as a nightclub. It stood empty from 1986. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 20
    4. The state adds ten Chapel Hill Township farms and buildings to the Study List Ruth Little, co-principal investigator for the first phase of the Orange County survey, presented ten properties from Chapel Hill Township on July 8, 1992, and the National Register Advisory Committee approved all of them. They ran from the Smith-Cole House and the two Couch farms to Bethel Baptist Church and Murphy School. NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register Advisory Committee agendas, minutes and approved lists, p. 518
    5. Jay Miller buys the empty Murphey School and begins restoring it Jay Miller bought the school, vacant since 1986, in March 2008 and began restoring it with the State Historic Preservation Office for use as a retreat center for nonprofit groups and a rental site for events. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 20
    6. Murphey School is listed in the National Register On August 20, 2009 the National Park Service listed Murphey School near Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places. NC State Historic Preservation Office: North Carolina Listings in the National Register of Historic Places, Orange County · Also: NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467)

    Open these in the chronology →

    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

    National Register files

    Historic sites, markers, and maps

    Records of the time 5

    Collections and databases

    Local help 5

    Nearby

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