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

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37 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 photograph of the house and grounds (see Figure 1), Draper-Savage converted the barn into his artist's studio.But Moorefields itself quickly became the focus of Draper-Savage's artistic energy. Draper-Savage set about `restoring' Moorefields house as a livable home rather than a facsimile of an 18th century manor. Regardless,for his"extraordinary job of restoring Moorefields,"Draper- Savage received a Canon Award "for excellence in historical restoration and preservation at the meeting of the N.C. Society for the Preservation of Antiquities in Raleigh"on December 2, 1960.84 Draper-Savage also significantly altered the Moorefields landscape in the 1950s and 1960s. Per the 1966 measured drawings made by Harold Ogburn, there were at least two ancillary structures in to the southeast of the house that Ogburn referred to as the detached kitchen and possible slave quarters(see Figure 8). Draper-Savage considered these derelict(likely wooden)structures an eye- sore and demolished them along with most of the outlying farm buildings then extant. But Draper- Savage's effect on the Moorefields landscape was not limited to alterations and demolitions. During his tenure, Draper-Savage "laid out formal gardens in the French style [that included] a quarter-mile of privet hedges interspersed with junipers and flower beds" as well as delineated walks and lawns.85 By 1963,when Draper-Savage opened Moorefields to the public for an annual garden tour known as the "Spring Pilgrimage," several articles in various regional newspapers described Draper-Savage's parterre gardens lying to the north and west of the house and that featured clipped cedars,junipers, irises and pink roses. The north parterre had "a long sweeping view of the north park," a picturesque, woodlands ramble that Draper-Savage created as a counterpoint to his formal, axial, Renaissance-style gardens.86 For the remainder of his life at Moorefields, Draper-Savage remained a steward of the historic property and invested in preserving it. In 1966, he granted Ogburn access to the property so that he could make 16 measured drawings of the house and its architectural features.87 In 1968, five large-format photographs of the house and a data sheet were submitted to the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), the nation's first federal historic preservation program (founded in 1933). Then, in April 1972, Draper-Savage had Moorefields listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an example of Federal-period architecture in the Piedmont. Between the house's designation on the federal register in 1972 and Draper-Savage's death in February 1978, no significant, additional work was undertaken in the house or grounds. In those six years, Draper-Savage—then in his 80sbecame a recluse. Draper-Savage's nephew was buried in the west parterre garden,where Draper-Savage had buried his beloved cats.When Draper- Savage succumbed himself,he was also laid to rest there. As his legacy, "the house and remaining acreage were conveyed to the Effie Draper Savage-Nellie Draper Dick Foundation for the Preservation of Moorefields," a trust established by Draper-Savage in honor of his mother and maternal aunt. In his will Draper-Savage designated the entire property as a wildlife refuge. The trust was created to maintain the estate in perpetuity. By then,the property had been reduced to its present size of 76 acres, including four acres of lawn, woodlands, and 40 acres of pasture.88 The Trust Department of the Central Carolina Bank took control of the property upon Draper- Savage's death and eventually turned its management over to the Friends of Moorefields, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that currently administers and maintains the property. In 1982, under the Section 8 page 35