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

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27 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 Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph (Provide a summary paragraph that includes level of significance, applicable criteria, justification for the period of significance, and any applicable criteria considerations.) Moorefields is a former plantation and the seasonal home of Alfred Moore (1755-1810), one of only two North Carolinians to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court and an early benefactor of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The house, built circa 1784-1805, is an atypical example of a tripartite-plan, wood-frame, Federal-period house in the North Carolina Piedmont. The estate's last private owner was Edward Thayer Draper-Savage,who restored the house, added several formal gardens to the grounds, and listed the property on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972,making Moorefields one of the earliest sites in the state to receive such designation. The first period of significance begins in 1784, with Alfred Moore's purchase of the former Grayfields estate, and ends with Alfred Moore, Jr.'s death in 1837, establishing the family cemetery. The second period of significance encompasses Draper-Savage's ownership and renovations of Moorefields, starting with his purchase of the estate in 1949 and ending with his death in 1978,after which the estate became a historic house museum.Moorefields holds statewide significance as the only surviving building directly associated with Alfred Moore, an influential attorney, politician, and advocate for the creation of the University of North Carolina. As such, it is eligible for the National Register at the statewide level of significance under Criterion B for that association. It is also eligible for listing under Criterion C for architecture, as a locally significant representative of a type and period, and for landscape architecture. Furthermore, it is applicable under Criterion D for its locally significant potential to yield additional information and its cultural affiliations with enslaved African Americans as well as early Euro-Americans. Narrative Statement of Significance (Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.) The following discussion is additional documentation added to the original nomination. It covers information, history, and people that the previous document did not. Grayfields: The Site's Colonial History Prior to 1784 North Carolina's backcountry was sparsely settled by Europeans in the 1730s, but its population boomed in the 1740s and 1750s as settlers from the coastal plain as well as northern states were tempted by the abundance of arable and cheap land in the Piedmont. In March 1752, John Gray II (1734-1775), purchased 500 acres "lying on the south side of Seven Mile Creek" from the Earl of Granville.28 Gray named his estate Grayfields, and it was here that the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of the newly-formed Orange County was held on September 9, 1752.29 Within four years, the first county courthouse was built in what would become the county seat, Hillsborough.30 The town was sited where the Eno River crossed the Great Trading Path, only 4 miles northeast of Grayfields. The provision of a new courthouse fostered commercial and population growth in the backcountry.31 Through the second half of the 18th century, only 20% of landowners in Orange County owned more than 500 acres. Gray, who owned two parcels totaling 860 acres by 1756, was a member of Section 8 page 25