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28 <br />NPs Form 10 -900 -a OMB No. 1024 -0018 <br />("W <br />United States 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 construct 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. Mary'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 the construction). Apparently, <br />Mr. Woods had not satisfied the school board with his masonry skills, and a settlement was made <br />between him and the Orange County School Board. This agreement called 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, construction had already begun on the new Mt. Hope School that <br />was to be consolidated with Murphey School, therefore, the board elected to tear down 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.t4 <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 School. Henri Linthicum was <br />born in 1886 and spent part of his chitdhood in Henderson, North Carolina. His father, Hill C. <br />Linthicum, Carne to North Carolina in 1880 from Virginia and became one of Durham's leading <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 one -, two -, or three -story buildings with <br />adherence to the state code for heating, lighting, ventilation and fire exits. Henri Linthicum's father, <br />Hill C. Linthicum, eventually went on to be instrumental in establishing the North Carolina Chapter <br />of the American Institute of Architects and serving as the chapter's first President from 1915 to <br />1919, the year of his death. Is Murphey School opened in 1923. It contained three classrooms plus <br />13 orange County Board of Education Minutes, 1872 -1962, microfilm (Raleigh: State Archives Research Room, <br />c. 073.94002), .tune 15, 1923. <br />t4 lbid, p. 30.95, p. 535 -548. <br />Is Bisbir, Catherine, Charlotte V Brown, Carl R. Lounsbury and Ernest H. Wood ill, Arc hffects and Bur7ders in <br />North Carolina: A History ofthe Practice of StAfingg (Chapel Hill: The university of North Carolina Press, 1990), <br />