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35 <br /> United States Department of the Interior <br /> National Park Service/National Register of Historic Places Registration Form <br /> NPS Form 10-900 OMB Control No.1024-0018 <br /> Moorefields (Additional Documentation) Orange County, N.C. <br /> Name of Property County and State <br /> Sarah's death, the family lost its direct connection to the two Alfred Moores who had built <br /> Moorefields. <br /> By 1900,Frank,Jr. had moved his small family to Asheville, leaving his youngest brother, Guion, <br /> as the sole occupant(and owner)of Moorefields. Without children of his own or other relatives to <br /> rely on, Guion hired farmhands to help him manage the old farm. Within his household in 1900 <br /> were Julia Watson, aged 49, the housekeeper; Alice Watson, aged 21; James Watson, aged 19; <br /> John J. Crabtree, aged 52; and David W. Crabtree, aged 15. The three men were listed as farm <br /> laborers. By the 1910 decennial census, Guion had joined his older brother's household in <br /> Asheville, where he died the following year at the age of 71. Given Alfred Moore Waddell's <br /> statement in his 1907 memoir that Moorefields was by that time "greatly reduced and much <br /> decayed,"it is fair to speculate that the estate was in an advanced state of deterioration and possibly <br /> abandoned for several years prior to Guion's death.76 <br /> Following the death of Guion, descendants of the Moore family entered a lengthy litigation battle <br /> over the ownership of Moorefields. The Superior Court of Orange County ordered the public sale <br /> of the estate at the Hillsborough Courthouse on August 26, 1913, so that the proceeds may be <br /> equally divided among the heirs of Elizabeth Davis Moore Waddell.77 The advertisement described <br /> the parcel as containing 155 acres minus a quarter-acre graveyard plot. At public auction, <br /> Moorefields was sold to the highest bidder—Thomas H. Webb of Harnett County, North <br /> Carolina—who offered $2,200. Webb held the property for only six years, selling it at a profit to <br /> June Wilson and Ada Ray in November 1919 for $5,750.78 <br /> Restoration of Moorefields under Draper-Savage (1949-1978) <br /> Other than its electrification in 1939, Moorefields remained largely as it had for the past century <br /> through the Great Depression: a large farm in a rural setting.79 An aerial photograph taken by the <br /> U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1938 provides a historic snapshot of the landscape frozen in <br /> time (Figure 14). In the image, the house sits surrounded by several cultivated, agricultural fields, <br /> which in turn are surrounded by dense woodlands. The surrounding landscape is largely <br /> undeveloped, but two roads branch from Dimmocks Mill Road and approach the house from its <br /> north side as well as its south side. The curtilage around the house is thickly planted with large <br /> canopy trees,but what appears to be a small allee or orchard is distinct, lying a little removed from <br /> and north of the house.Notably,the parcel with the cemetery southwest of the house is also thickly <br /> treed, but agricultural fields surround it on all sides. Very few (and thin) tree lines or hedgerows <br /> separate the agricultural fields,which are stark and cleared. <br /> Section 8 page 33 <br />