Agenda 02-03-2026; 8-i - National Register Recommendation for Moorefields

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20 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service/National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB Control No.1024-0018 Moorefields (Additional Documentation) Orange County, N.C. Name of Property County and State Excavations in this area identified a total of three cultural features, two of which are remnants of a stone structural foundation (Feature 6) and a flat stone floor/path (Feature 4) at the location roughly corresponding to the former structure referred to as"slave quarters"in the 1966 measured drawing set's title sheet (see Figure 8). Cultural materials recovered from fill soils around these features largely date from the 18th through the 20th centuries, with a heavy emphasis on the late 18th through 19th centuries, especially in lower fill strata adjacent to Feature 6. However, the soil matrices from which these cultural materials were heavily disturbed and were therefore determined by RGA to be of little interpretive value. Further investigation of these features may allow for a more confident determination of the nature of this structure(s) relationship to the site. A third feature (Feature 5) was identified 25m to the southeast of the house, south of the modern driveway. The feature consists of a dense concentration of brick rubble extending from a depth of 19cm to at least 73cm, although probing suggests the feature continues below this depth. Based on the cultural materials recovered from this feature, RGA concluded it may have been associated with a cellar or an outbuilding structure built between the late 18th to early 19th centuries and was demolished at some point in the 19th century, potentially within the lifetime of Alfred Moore (1755-1810) or his son, Alfred Moore, Jr. (1782-1837). Feature 5, therefore, represents a previously unknown structure potentially contributing to the historical significance of Moorefields, although further investigation is required to make a more precise determination of the structure's purpose and exact period of occupation. South Lawn: 1 Non-contributing site (Ca. 1784-1978, after 1982) The south lawn extends southward from the house's fagade. It is framed by the elliptical drive but also flanks the driveway as far south as the present-day fence line. According to Moorefields lore, Alfred Moore planted 50 white oak trees around the house when it was built to provide shade and additional cooling. Over time, Moore's white oaks died and other trees (red oaks and crepe myrtles)and paths were introduced to the lawn.The last survivor of Moore's white oaks fell during Hurricane Fran in 1996.24 As the present character of the South Lawn dates after the period of significance (i.e., after 1982), it is a non-contributing resource to the proposed historic district. Draper-Savage Gardens: 1 Contributing site (ca. 1949-1978, after 1982) Between 1949,when he first purchased the property,and his death in 1978,Draper-Savage created Beaux-Arts-style gardens, expressive of the then-popular Colonial Revival idiom in landscape design, on three sides of the house. This nomination considers the gardens to be one continuous site that contributes to the proposed Moorefields Historic District, but this description divides the garden site into four components: the west parterre garden, the kitchen (east) garden, the north parterre garden, and the Cedar of Lebanon allee. West Parterre Garden The earliest garden, on the ground by 1955, is the formal parterre garden immediately west of the house (see Figure 1). An aerial photograph from that year shows a rectangular garden defined and Section 7 page 18