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NPSS Form 10 -900 -a (} United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET ftxm Section 7 Page 1 Murphey School name of property Orange County. NC ^county and state Materials (cont.): Foundation stone OMB No. 1024 -0018 7. Narrative Description: Located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Old NC 10 and Murphy School Road in the Chapel Hill Township in rural Orange County, Murphey School occupies a roughly 7.03 acre parcel near the Durham County line. The property has a Durham mailing address but it is in the Hillsborough vicinity, standing approximately 6.7 miles from that town. Old NC 10 is a lightly traveled corridor connecting Durham and Hillsborough. The one - story, brick rectangular main building was designed by Henri C. Linthicum of the architectural firm Linthicum and Linthicum. The building is joined at a right angle to a rectangular auditorium addition and sits in its original location far back from and facing Old NC 10 with a generous flat grass- covered lot in front and to the west of the property. To the north of the property across Old NC 10 are a handful of residences and a few exist to the southeast behind the property and across Murphy School Road. To the south of the school but on the same parcel sits a well house, water tower, maintenance trailer and frame bungalow that served as a teacherage. Pieces of original playground equipment also dot the south portion of the lot, providing yet another link to its past days as an operating elementary school. A gravel drive at the east of the lot serves as the primary access route to the property, secured from the street by a metal gate. It runs through the school yard to the south and around the front of the teacherage to the west. A second metal gated entrance is located to the northeast of the school, and a gravel drive runs parallel to the east elevation of the property and then merges with the primary entrance. In the front school yard a large oak tree shades the lawn and a handful of oak trees are located to the rear (south) and east of the school. Trees also line the southern and western boundaries of the parcel. A border of low stone wails, now deteriorating, encapsulates the school complex property, running along the east and north of the lot. The physical surroundings of the property are generally rural and wooded in nature, with the Norfolk Southern railroad running approximately 750 feet to the north of the property and Old NC 10. Sometime after 1960, the "e" in Murphey was dropped so that the school was commonly referred to as the "Murphy School," Thus, the spelling of "Murphy School Road" differs from the historic name. Murphey School 1923, 1936, Contributing Building Exterior of Main Building: With Spanish Revival- and Classical Revival -style elements, Murphey School is a well- preserved brick consolidated school built in 1923 with an auditorium added in 1936 to the west of the school 36