Murphy on the route

Motoring through the Mountains - 1930s: Murphy

Cherokee County
Altitude: 1,634 feet

After a fire destroyed the Cherokee County Courthouse in 1926, construction began on a new Courthouse that would incorporate locally produced Regal blue marble throughout the building. The impressive cupola rose dramatically above the county seat of Murphy. The new structure was dedicated on November 12, 1927, as seen in this front page announcement in the Cherokee Scout newspaper from its November 18 issue.

A summation of Murphy’s location appeared in the Asheville Citizen, in its December 15, 1933, edition in an article entitled “Murphy – The End of Main Street.” The article’s title referred to what was then known as North Carolina Highway 10, a major highway running across the length of the state from the coast to the mountains. N.C. Highway 10 was known as North Carolina’s “Main Street.” The article also featured prominently a picture of the new Cherokee County Courthouse.

Click on the newspaper to read the article.

Murphy in the 1890s  |  Murphy in the 1910s
 
directions

To the East: Regal

Return to the Map for the 1930s


Sources & Readings

  • Bishir, Catherine W., Michael T. Southern, and Jennifer F. Martin. A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
  • Cherokee County Historical Museum. A Pictorial History of Cherokee County. Murphy, N.C.: Cherokee County Historical Museum, 1995.
  • “Formally Open Cherokee’s New Courthouse: Spacious Building of Native Stone One of Finest of Kind in State.” Cherokee Scout (Murphy, N.C.). November 18, 1927.
  • Freel, Margaret Walker. Our Heritage, The People of Cherokee County, North Carolina, 1540 – 1955. Asheville, N.C.: Miller Print. Co., 1956 [c1957].
  • “Murphy – The End of Main Street.” Asheville Citizen (Asheville, N.C.), December 15, 1933.
  • White, Alice, D., ed., and White, Nell A., associate ed. The Heritage of Cherokee County, North Carolina. Winston-Salem, N.C.: Cherokee County Historical Museum in cooperation with the History Division of Hunter Pub. Co., 1987.
  • Williams, Michael Ann, essay, inventory, and photography; Dockery, Carl, ed. Marble & Log: The History & Architecture of Cherokee County, North Carolina. Murphy, N.C.: Cherokee County Historical Museum Council, Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1984.