The Orton Plantation is a historic plantation house in the Smithville Township of Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States. Located beside the Cape Fear River between Wilmington and Southport, Orton Plantation is considered to be a near-perfect example of Southern antebellum architecture. Built in 1735 by the co-founder of Brunswick Town, Colonel Maurice Moore, the Orton Plantation house is one of the oldest structures in Brunswick County. During its history Orton Plantation has been attacked by Native Americans, used as a military hospital, and been home to lawyers, physicians, military leaders, and a Colonial governor.
On April 11, 1973, the Orton Plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Orton Plantation Gardens and family-owned chapel were open to the public until 2010, when the plantation was sold to Louis Moore Bacon, a direct decedent of the original builder.
History
In 1725, Roger Moore, son of Governor James Moore and grandson of Irish nobleman Sir Rory Moore, and his family moved from the South Carolina to an area of land known as Orton in southeastern North Carolina. Orton was owned by Roger's brother, Colonel Maurice Moore, father of General James Moore and Maurice Moore Jr., author of a famous essay denouncing the Stamp Act of 1765. The elder Maurice was also the grandfather of Supreme Court Associate Justice Alfred Moore. Maurice sold the land to his brother when Roger moved to the area and together they founded Brunswick Town one mile (1.6 km) south of Orton.
The first home Roger built in 1725 was destroyed by local Native Americans. Roger constructed the current Orton Plantation home in 1735 and developed his land into a leading rice plantation with the unpaid labor of hundreds of slaves. Orton remained in the Moore family until it was purchased by Benjamin Smith, who eventually lost ownership and was forced to auction off the home and surrounding . The property was purchased by a physician, Frederick Jones Hill, in 1826. According to a reward advertisement for runaway slaves in the June 17, 1861 edition of the Fayetteville Semi-Weekly Observer (Fayeteville, North Carolina), the plantation was owned by Thomas C. Miller during 1861. He had apparently purchased the plantation and the slaves thereon from Dr. Hill. Following the Confederate defeat at Fort Fisher, Union soldiers confiscated Orton Plantation and used the home as a military hospital, thus sparing it from destruction. Orton Plantation was abandoned after the War and the house sat empty for 19 years.
In 1884, Orton Plantation was purchased by a former Confederate military officer, Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison. Murchison restored the plantation to its original appearance and made it his winter home. When Murchison died in 1904, Orton Plantation was purchased by his son-in-law and daughter, James and Luola Sprunt. James, a lawyer, encouraged his wife to remodel the home and in 1910 he and Luola began the development of a flower garden and expansion of the house. The Sprunts constructed a family chapel in 1915, and when his wife died the following year from scarlet fever, James renamed the building to Luola's Chapel in her honor. At approximately the same time, their son, James Laurence Sprunt, lost his first wife, Amoret Cameron Price giving birth to their first son, James Laurence Sprunt Jr.
In the 1930s, James Laurence Sprunt and his second wife Annie enlarged the garden to its current size of , with some of the landscape design done by Robert Sturtevant. After a relative was involved in an automobile accident, the Sprunts opened their garden to the public in hopes of raising money for medical expenses. Charging 25 cents for an entrance fee, the family raised $1,000 in a week. From that point on, the Sprunts decided to keep the garden open to the public. In 1954, the Sprunt family donated of the Orton Plantation to establish the Brunswick Town State Historic Site. Four years later, James Laurence Sprunt wrote a book about the history of Orton Plantation entitled The Story of Orton Plantation. After the death of Laurence Sprunt in 1973 and Annie Gray Sprunt in 1978, the ownership was shared by their four sons: James Laurence Sprunt Jr., Kenneth Murchison, Samuel Nash, and Laurence Gray Sprunt. Kenneth succeeded Bragaw as manager of the gardens after World War II until 2006 when Laurence bought the gardens from his brothers and continued the management. Ownership of the Orton Plantation was passed down to each generation of the Sprunt family for 126 years.