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Schools and academies

St. Mary's School

St. Mary's School was the Colonial Revival brick county school near Murphey School that J. H. Liner built in 1930-31 after a fire, on the site of an 1840s log schoolhouse beside St. Mary's Chapel. It closed in a 1943 consolidation with the Hillsborough schools and reopened in 1970 as a private college preparatory school.

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 St. Mary's 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

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about St. Mary's 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

Architectural survey and National Register evaluation of St. Mary's road (S.R. 1002), Orange County, North Carolina

Henry, Geoffrey B. · 1999

Geoffrey B. Henry of GAI Consultants surveyed the historic buildings along St. Mary's Road (S.R. 1002) near Hillsborough in August 1999 and evaluated them for the National Register, for the Orange County Department of Planning. A 53-page report with maps.

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.

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 3 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

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 St. Mary's 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. A one-room log schoolhouse is built for the St. Mary's school district About 1880 a one-room log schoolhouse was built for the St. Mary's district on land given by John P. and Caroline Lockhart, about three-quarters of a mile northeast of St. Mary's Chapel; a frame school replaced it in 1904. The school moved onto chapel land only in 1917. Hugh Conway Browning, Information Related to St. Mary's Chapel (1996), scan pp. 51-61 · Also: NC Historic Preservation Office: Geoffrey B. Henry
    2. A frame schoolhouse replaces the log St. Mary's School The district built a new frame school beside its log schoolhouse, about three-quarters of a mile northeast of St. Mary's Chapel, and sold the log building to Amos Wilson, who took it apart and moved it to his farm on St. Mary's Road. Hugh Conway Browning, Information Related to St. Mary's Chapel (1996), scan p. 59 · Also: Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), April 14, 1904, p. 2
    3. The county builds a one-room St. Mary's School on the chapel grounds The board of education put up a one-room frame school on the new lot, and the district's white pupils moved into it for the 1917-1918 term. A second room was added in 1919 and a third in 1921. Hugh Conway Browning, Information Related to St. Mary's Chapel (1996), scan p. 59
    4. St. Mary's School burns and the county builds a new one Fire destroyed St. Mary's School on November 3, 1930. With $2,500 from the county commissioners on top of $1,800 already set aside, the board let J. H. Liner of Cedar Grove build a new school for 84 children for $4,638.30 and received it on January 5, 1931. DigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 (1983), p. 77
    5. St. Mary's School gets a PWA-aided brick auditorium St. Mary's School, a Colonial Revival brick school built in 1931 near Murphey School to replace a log schoolhouse, received a Neoclassical brick auditorium in 1936 through the county's school building program, aided by a Public Works Administration grant, plainer than the one at Murphey. The contract, which also covered a water supply, sewage disposal, plumbing and steam heat, came to about $16,800, and the work was expected to be done by early summer. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 22 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 3, 1936, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 22, 1936, p. 1
    6. St. Mary's School closes as its pupils are merged into the Hillsborough schools Consolidation with the Hillsborough schools closed St. Mary's School in 1943. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 22
    7. The county school board leases the old St. Mary's School to St. Mary's Grange The Orange County Board of Education agreed to lease the old St. Mary's School to St. Mary's Grange for ten years as a Grange hall. The Grange agreed to keep up the building, and the board agreed to repay a share of any heating plant cost if it ended the lease early. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 5, 1951, p. 1
    8. The school board deeds the St. Mary's School lot back to the Episcopal Diocese With the St. Mary's school long merged into Hillsborough's and its buildings used as the St. Mary's Grange meeting place, the Orange County Board of Education returned the two acres and the buildings to the diocesan trustees. Hugh Conway Browning, Information Related to St. Mary's Chapel (1996), scan p. 61
    9. The old St. Mary's School reopens as a private college preparatory school The St. Mary's School building, closed since 1943, reopened in 1970 as a private college preparatory school. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Murphey School, National Register nomination (OR0467), p. 22
    10. A Durham school group buys the old St. Mary's School Educational Opportunities of Durham, Inc., which had rented the buildings from the diocese for Saint Mary's Country Day School since the summer of 1970, bought the two-acre tract and buildings, enlarged them and by November 1971 had more than 150 students. Hugh Conway Browning, Information Related to St. Mary's Chapel (1996), scan p. 61

    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.

    National Register files

    Historic sites, markers, and maps

    Records of the time 5

    Collections and databases

    Local help

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