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

Browse Search

46 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 These precedents, so common and popular through the mid-18th century,also would have informed Moorefields' form either directly or indirectly. The Revolutionary War put a halt to construction throughout the American colonies. The dearth of labor as men went to war, shortages in building materials which were requisitioned for the war effort, and economic inflation all resulted in a decline in commercial and residential construction. This slump persisted several years after the war's end, as "economic and political uncertainties...likewise slowed building. In the late 1780s, however, and especially in the 1790s, a resurgence of building began through the state and the nation."134 In North Carolina, Palladianism retained its prewar popularity and continued to develop.13' Federal-period architecture in the upland South, however, tended to be modest on the exterior, almost sparingly severe. What ornament was used was reserved for interiors. As Bishir notes in her comprehensive survey of North Carolinian architecture, In most rural areas, even the richest planters built along conservative lines. They continued to use a range of traditional house forms and an approach to ornament established before the Revolution. One-and-a-half-story gable-roofed houses were built for large planters in the 1780s and the 1790s. Generally, houses like this presented little external display of ornament and fashion. They communicated their owner's status through their size and the familiar landscape of good materials and craftsmanship,which they shared with more elaborate buildings.The exterior trim seldom exceeded a simple molded cornice, occasionally enriched with dentils or modillions, molded and tapered porch posts, and a touch of carved trim or a fanlight at the door. The principal evidence of changing styles was reserved for those who entered the house. A Georgian influence in paneling, stairs, mantels, and door and window treatment continued as late as 1810 or 1815 in some areas, while in others, beginning around 1800, some artisans adopted Adamesque themes, often blending elements of old and new.136 Bishir could have been explicitly describing Moorefields house in the above analysis. The house's tripartite-plan follows pre-Revolutionary War architectural trends that were observed in the coastal region of North Carolina if not the Piedmont. Although Moorefields' house is two full stories, the shallow pitch of the second-story's side-gable roof makes the upper story appear squat. While the dwelling is small by today's standards, in an era when planters were still erecting "a good frame house with one main room"—such as the 1775 Lane-Bennett House [WA0004] in nearby Wake County—Moorefields house's side-passage and parlor flanked by four additional rooms on the ground floor and bedchambers on the second floor must have been grand in scale for its time.137 Furthermore, the weatherboard-clad exterior is not only modest, but austere, punctuated only by double-hung windows without ornate surrounds or sills. The original exterior entrances on the rear elevation and fagade only have simple, multi-light, rectangular transoms. Like the Lane-Bennett House,the ornament at Moorefields is reserved for the interior,which features plastered walls and paneling,floor-to-ceiling fireplace walls with notable reeded overmantels,and an intricate Chinese lattice stair railing. Architectural Historians have assessed Moorefields house as "handsomely Section 8 page 44