Orange County NC Website
29 <br />NPS Form 10-900-a ~ OMB No. 10240018 <br />(~~ <br />United States Department of the lnterlor <br />National Park Service <br />NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES <br />CONTINUATION SHEET <br />Section 8 Page 18 Murphey School <br />• name of properly <br />Orange County, NG <br />county and state <br />School, Chapel Hill Negro School, and Hillsboro School. Out of these ten' WPA school projects, <br />Murphey School and St. Mary's School are the only extant identified schools. 29 <br />A frame bungalow constructed as a teacherage to fhe south of the school stands as the only <br />survival in Orange County of its kind. The nearest known surviving teacherages are the (former) <br />Knightdale School Teacherage, Leesville School Teacherage, and Fuquay Springs Teacherage in <br />Wake County. Constructed in 1940, the largetwo-story Knightdale School Teacherage possesses <br />a hip roof, brick veneer construction, a pair of dormer windows and Colonial Revival-style. <br />elements. The Leesville School Teacherage is another notable example built c. 1906 as a two- <br />story, frame, double-pile house with atriple-A roof. The Fuquay Springs brick Craftsman-style <br />teacherage constructed c. 1925 with a 1947 addition is another survivor, and along with the <br />Knightdale and Leesville school teacherages was constructed specifically for the purpose of <br />housing teachers. According to author Julius Arp, North Carolina had constructed five <br />teacherages for public consolidated schools as of 1920.30 Occasionally erected in. rural areas, <br />teacherages served the purpose of providing boarding as well as companionship for teachers in <br />locations with few options for housing. Bungalows became very popular in Orange County during <br />the 1910s and 1920s, embodying concepts such as simplicity and efficiency. Their quick <br />construction and affordability also enhanced theirattractiveness to families hoping to purchase a <br />home of their own. Bishir states of the housing type, "Bungalows suited North Carolina's needs <br />and habits."31 Bungalows often possessed a broad roof, Craftsman-style elements such as shed <br />dormers, wide overhanging eaves but no brackets, and exposed rafter ends, and ari open, <br />informal floor plan. The Murphey Schoo! Teacherage contains acentral-hall plan, and typical <br />Craftsman-style bungalow form with a shed dormer but no other overt stylistic features on the <br />ex#erior. The large multi-tight windows and symmetry are reminiscent of the Colonial Revival style <br />as are the simple post and lintel mantels on the interior. <br />is Davis, Anita~Price. North Carolina During the Great Depression: A Documentary Portrait of a Decade <br />(Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. publishers, 20.03), 130132. "Orange County's New Schools," <br />chapel Hill Weekly, May 22, 1936, p.1. <br />Arp, Julius Bernhard. Rural Education and the Consolidated School, (New York; World Book Company, <br />1920), p. 151-155. <br />31 Bishir, Catherine. North Carolina Architecture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990, p. 500. <br />