Orton Gardens, North Carolina
Orton Plantation is situated about halfway between Wilmington and Southport, North Carolina, on the west bank of the Cape Fear River. The area was settled in the early 1700's. The land known as Orton was first owned by Colonel Maurice Moore, but he sold it to his brother Roger. It was Roger Moore who developed it into perhaps the most famous of the lower Cape Fear plantations.Orton was a leading rice plantation, its "reserve" is over 5 miles in length and averages about a quarter mile in width. While the quantity of Cape Fear rice was not as high as the volume of other areas, its quality was of such high grade that it was used largely as seed by the more Southern planters. The culture of rice along the eastern seaboard of America lasted until the end of the nineteenth century.
The first house built on the site by Roger Moore was destroyed by local Indians. "King" Roger obliterated the tribe and then built again at Orton around 1735, settling his family there.
The plantation later passed into the hands of Benjamin Smith, whose financial misfortunes cost him the ownership of Orton. In 1824, the plantation's 4975 acres was put up for auction.
Doctor Frederick Jones Hill became the owner of Orton in 1826. Around 1840 he adding another floor and attic and installed four fluted Doric columns.
In 1854 Dr. Hill sold Orton to Mr. Thomas Calezance Miller, who had married, at Orton, Mrs. Hill's niece, Annie Davis. The plantation period flourished up to the end of the War Between the States. When the Northern troops overran the Lower Cape Fear at the fall of fort Fisher, they used the house as a hospital. Following the end of the war, the house was abandoned for a period of fifteen to twenty years. It was rehabilitated in the early 1880's.
In 1872 Orton was advertised for sale at public auction, and sold in 1876 to a young Englishman named Currer Richardson Roundel. Unfortunately, the gentleman committed suicide soon thereafter. In the late eighteen seventies, Mr. Roundel's heirs sold the plantation to Major C. M. Stedman and Captain D. R. Murchison. Colonel K. M. Murchison bought the property about 1880. Murchison was able to restore Orton to its former state. Trees were growing in parts of the house and the whole plantation was in a sad state of decay.
After the death of Murchison, Orton was purchased by James Sprunt LLD and presented to his wife Luola, daughter of the deceased Murchison. In 1910 Mrs. Sprunt had wings added to Orton house, and with encouragement of her husband, began to design and plant gardens.
Sprunt built Sunnyside for his daughter in the 1890s. After the death of Luola in 1916, Dr. Sprunt had the Orton Chapel built as a memorial to her.
Dr. Sprunt died in 1924 and his son James Laurence Sprunt became the owner of the plantation. He opened the old Colonial road to Wilmington, which eventually became today's N.C. 133. Prior to that, the plantation had only been accessible by water. Around 1934, he extended the area of his mother's garden. James Laurence Sprunt died in 1973, and his wife Annie Gray Sprunt died in 1978. Orton is still owned by descendents. Today, while the grounds and gardens are open to the public, the house itself remains a private residence.
Source: www.ortongardens.com
