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23 <br />NPS Form 10-900-a OAAB No. 1024-OQi8 <br />(8-86) <br />United Sates Department of the Interior <br />National Park Service <br />NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES <br />CONTINUATION SHEET <br />Section 8 Page 12 ~ Murphey School <br />name of property <br />Orange County, NC <br />county and state <br />Originally, the Orange County School Board planned to construc# a new University School, but <br />then decided to consolidate University with Mount Hope and other surrounding schools, thus <br />creating what would become Murphey School. The only additional school in the district that was <br />not consolidated to make up Murphey at the time was St. Ntary's School. The board selected and <br />purchased a new site rather than rebuilding on the site of the old University School, naming the <br />new school after the famous educational scholar, Archibald D. Murphey. Architect H..C. Linthicum <br />designed the plans for Murphey School and the contracting was awarded to W. H. Woods of <br />Durham for $8,995. A heating plant was installed for $1,275. The building plans specified wood <br />frame and brick veneer construction for the school's primary material, but only after a <br />recommendation by Linthicum (the original plans called for hollow file construction}. Apparently, <br />Mr. Woods had not satisfied the school board with his masonry skills, and a seftlement was made <br />between him and the Orange County School Board. This agreement cal{ed for Mr. Woods to <br />"deduct $25 from the contract price on account of a look of cement in the mortar."13 Mr Woods <br />also constructed the teacherage for an extra cost of $800 for labor. According to the Orange <br />County School Board minutes, constnaction had already begun on the new Mt. Hope School that <br />was to be consolidated with Murphey School; therefore, the board elected to tear dawn what had. <br />been built so far of the Mt. Hope School and transport its materials to the Murphey School site to <br />be used as a seven-room "Teacher's Home:" The board applied the $800 earned from the sale of <br />the old University School towards the Teacherage.~a <br />Architect Henri Colvin Linthicum of Durham, was hired by the Orange County School Board to <br />draw plans for many new school buildings and designed Murphey Schooi. Henri Linthicum was <br />born in 1886 and spent part of his childhood in~Henderson, North Carolina. His father, Hill C. <br />Linthicum, came to North Carolina in 1880 from Virginia and became one of Durham's teading <br />architects, specializing in educational buildings. Henri C. Linthicum followed. his father's profession <br />when he chose to practice architecture, establishing a business.in Raleigh. He remained in <br />Raleigh until his death in 1952, The architectural firm of Linthicum and Linthicum designed <br />schools often in a "T" plan that-could be, adapted to prle-, ~rnro-, or three-story buildings with <br />adherence to the state code for heating, lighting, ventilation and fre exits. Henri Linthicum's father, <br />Hill C. Linthicum, eventually went on to 6e instrumental in establishing the North Carotins Chapter <br />of the American Institute of Architects and serving as the chapter's firs# President from 1915 to <br />1919, the year of his death. is Murphey School opened in 1923. It contained three classrooms plus <br />~s Orange County Board of Education Minutes, 1872-1962, microftlm (Raleigh: State Archives Research Room, <br />c. 073. 94002), June 15, 1923. <br />~a lbid, p. 30-95, p. 535-548. <br />is Bishir, Catherine, Charlotte V. Brown, Carf R. Lounsbury and Ernest H. Wood I11, Architects and Builders in <br />North Carolina: A History of the Practice of Building (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1990), <br />