{"id":2397,"date":"2021-11-23T13:01:49","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T17:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/?p=2397"},"modified":"2026-04-03T10:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:50:40","slug":"murphy-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/murphy-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Murphy Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John H. Murphy<\/strong>
Afro-American newspaper<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Murphy Hall on the Academic Oval<\/a><\/strong>holds uniquely historic and strategic roles in the evolution of modern-day University of Maryland Eastern Shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dormitory is named in honor of John Henry Murphy Sr., founding publisher of the Baltimore-based Afro-American newspaper. A former slave and Civil War veteran who died in 1922, Murphy was a respected civic leader who crusaded for equal treatment of blacks in receiving a public education. The reasoning behind the decision to name the building for him, however, has been lost in the fog of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murphy Hall\u2019s construction was triggered by a fire in late March 1941 that killed five people and destroyed a wood-frame classroom building where workers had been receiving instruction in mattress-making as part of President Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal economic recovery program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maryland lawmakers, so the story goes, thought the old wood-frame “Mechanical Arts Building” had been a residence hall and appropriated $100,000 to replace the lost structure as World War II raged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction of a brick residence hall represented a triumph of sorts for Harry C. \u201cCurley\u201d Byrd, president of the University of Maryland (1936-1954). A Crisfield native, Byrd quietly lobbied legislators to provide money for the university\u2019s branch campus to the state’s two land-grant institutions in College Park and Princess Anne segregated.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Murphy
Postcard image circa mid-1950s.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Byrd spoke at the dedication of the Colonial Revival-inspired edifice<\/a><\/strong>in June 1943, where he commended the late journalist as a role model and for his life’s achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murphy Hall is an important structure because it helps define the Academic Oval as the heart of the original (1886) campus — and contributed in September 2005 to a 23.8-acre area receiving designation on the National Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the university’s 125th anniversary, Murphy Hall (and an annex added in the early 1960s) is UMES’ lone dormitory facing the grassy, tree-lined quadrangle also known affectionately as “the Yard.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Murphy Hall on the Academic Ovalholds uniquely historic and strategic roles in the evolution of modern-day University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The dormitory is named in honor of John Henry Murphy Sr., founding publisher of the Baltimore-based Afro-American newspaper. A former slave and Civil War veteran who died in 1922, Murphy was a respected civic leader who…Read more Murphy Hall<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2397"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=2397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}