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27 <br />NPS Form 10-900-a ~ OMB No. 1024-OOi8 <br />(~6) <br />United States Department of the Interior <br />National Park Service <br />NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES <br />CONTINUATION SHEET <br />Section 8 Page 16 Mumhey School <br />name of property <br />. Orange County, NC <br />county and state <br />Architecture Context <br />Murphey School is one of two early consolidated elementary schools surviving in Orange County. <br />In his manuscript for the Orange County survey publication, architectural.historian Richard <br />Matksan states of Murphey School, "...Murphy School clearly illustrates how the construction of <br />centralized rural schools and better roads went hand in hand after World War i."is <br />Early schools in Orange County, including those constructed during the antebellum era through <br />the late nineteenth century, typically were one or two room log or frame buildings. Wth <br />consolidation came new standards for school buildings including materials that were durable and <br />permanent, steam heat, indoor plumbing, and standardized plans and designs. Generally, <br />consolidated schools were much larger in size with a more diverse range of facilities beyond <br />general classroom space such as an auditorium, gymnasium, cafeteria space, library, and <br />lavatories. Murphey School reflects these statewide trends for school buildings within the greater <br />consolidation movement.26 <br />Common to consolidated school buildings during the 1920s, Murphey School contains Spanish <br />Revival- and Classical Reviva!-style elements with its symmetrical fagade and striking <br />Neoclassical-style auditorium (1936} with a Doric portico. VNide bands of windows dominate the <br />facade and brick pilasters flank the corners of the main building. Murphey School is constructed of <br />a brick veneer over a wood frame structure, with an unusual hipped roof of metal shingles <br />designed to imitate terra cotta tiles. Murphey School reflects influences of the Spanish Revival <br />style popular during the 1920s through its metal terra cotta-imitation roof as well as its wrought <br />iron hardware and central arched windows. The Classical Revival style grew prevalent during the <br />1920s and particularly during the Great Depression, when the nation embraced a return to former <br />period styles iconic of solidari#y and stability. Architectural historian and.author Catherine Bishir <br />notes a connection between the support of these styles and the national political scene: "!n North <br />Garolina and throughout the South, this emphasis an efficient~arid orderly planning and on <br />classical and colonial styles meshed conveniently with white Democrats' triumphant return to the <br />old political order." 27 ~ ~ . <br />2s Mattson, Richard I_. "History and Architecture of Orange County, N.C.," {Raleigh: State Historic Preservation <br />Office, 1996), p. 61-62. <br />zs Orange County Survey Reports, "Historic Resources of Orange County," Orange County Multiple Property <br />Documentation Form, (Raleigh: State Historic Preservation Office, 1993), p. 21-22, 39-43, 79. Handbook for <br />Elementary and Secondary Schools, 1938. publication no. 206. Raleigh: State Superintendent of Public <br />Instruction, Prepared by Division of Instructional Service, .p. 13-25. <br />27 Bishir, Catherine. North Carolina Architecture. (Chapel HIIt:.University of North Carolina Press, 1990), p. 430, <br />457-470. <br />