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Town Center Plan
January 2007
Appendix 2
The Civil War touched Morrisville in 1861, when many of its sons
enlisted to fight for the Confederacy. The railroad took many men off
to war and four years later brought war itself to Morrisville. Union
and Confederate soldiers skirmished along the rail line to Morrisville
and clashed over a train filled with supplies.
After the war, Morrisvillians again looked to the railroad and its
promise of prosperity. The next decades saw more homes, churches,
and businesses built around the crossroads community transforming
it into a town. Textiles played a role in Morrisville’s history typical of
many other towns in North Carolina. In 1910, Samuel Horne built
a two-storey frame mill for knitting socks, and at least nine small
houses for his workers. The mill lasted only about twenty years, but
a number of the houses still remain in varying condition.
During the Twentieth Century the influence of the railroad was
replaced by new forms of travel. A new wave of building began in
the 1920s capitalizing on the increasing automobile traffic between
Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham. In 1939, the General Assembly
laid plans for what would become the Raleigh-Durham Airport
and work soon began on another influential factor on Morrisville’s
future.
This guide points out some of the
houses and structures associated with
Morrisville’s history.
Visit each of them to better understand
the Town’s beginnings
2
Photo by Ernest Dollar
Detail
from the Page-
Ferrell House