Old NC10

Filpus Roadgeek - Old NC 10 - Orange County

Old NC 10 - US 70 (Durham County) to NC 86 (Orange County)

This section of NC-10 crossed the mainline Durham to Hillsborough railroad twice. By 1925, NC-10 had been moved north of the railroad to the current US-70 to Bus US-70 through Hillsborough.

Old NC 10Detailed Topo Map

Old NC 10
Old NC 10

East End - US 70 near NC 751

Old NC 10 branches off of US 70 just west of where NC 751 ends. It obviously was once aligned with US 70, but now makes a turn to make a T intersection with US 70, which curves off to the northwest.
Old NC 10

Norfolk Southern Railroad

Old NC 10 gradually approaches and crosses the main Amtrak railline from Durham to Hillsborough. The road bridge for the main line is a treacherous S-curve.

Old NC 10

Old Murphy School

Now a private residence. Listed on the National Register Study List Sites in Orange County in 1992.
Old NC 10

Buffalo

At the intersection of Cornwallis Road and Old Murphy School Road is an old farm that is now the home of a family of buffalo. This is about a quarter mile south of the old Murphy School on Old NC 10.

Old NC 10

Mount Herman Baptist Church

Established 1848
Old NC 10

University Station

Back when students came to the University of North Carolina by train, they changed from the main line to a train to campus at University Station. The bridge under the spur line is not nearly as bad as the bridge for the main line. The spur line is used for coal trains to the university power plant.
Old NC 10

Norfolk Southern Railroad

The road recrosses the railroad, again at a sharp S curve. The relocation of the highway north to current US 70 removes these curves from the through highway.

Old NC 10

Cement Plant

As the road approaches Hillsborough, it becomes more commercial.
Old NC 10
Old NC 10

West End - NC 86

The road appears to merge with NC 86, which is a newer road. Old NC 10 has to stop, but it has dual stop signs, including one on an island, which is unusual.

West Ten Road - Orange/Alamance County

From downtown Hillsborough, NC-10 went west out West King Street. After crossing the railroad tracks, it turned onto current Ben Johnson Road at a crossroads just west of current Dimmock Mill road. This was part of the old Trading Path. From Ben Johnson it connected to current Dewey Road, which becomes West Ten, which carried NC-10 west to Mebane. After NC-10 was replaced with US-70, this section was the main route US-70. The current US-70 was Alt US-70 from Hillsborough to Haw River. Later, other changes eliminated the crossing of the railroad in the west side of Hillsborough and the widening of I-85/I-40 severed Dewey and West Ten from Ben Johnson Road.


Old NC10
Old NC10
Old NC10

East End

West Ten Road starts with a name change at the end of a connector road from US-70 to I-85/I-40, which goes under I-85/I-40 and ends at West Ten/Dewey. The old NC-10 route was on Dewey and West Ten. A half a mile east on Dewey, the road used to go under I-85/I-40, but the bridge was removed by the widening of I-85/I-40 during the 1990's.
Old NC 10
Old NC 10

Rural Road

West Ten is very rural. There is little there but farms. Perhaps the only building surviving from the highway days is this tobacco barn. On period maps, Cheeks Crossroads, due south of Efland, was shown as a major town. Now, there is little there. Orange County is planning to build a school complex on West Ten, which will bring some traffic to this old road.
Old NC-10 Historic West End

At this point, the old NC-10/US-70 routing veers left on Bowman Road. At the Alamance County Line, the road changes name to Old Hillsborough Road, which goes into the small historic community of Hawfields. West Ten Road continues right and curves north.
Old NC 10
Old NC 10

West End

The road crosses I-85/I-40 into an industrial park. At the Mebane city limits, it changes names. The old road went into Mebane and joined the route of current US-70.




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Interstate, US and State Shields thanks to Barry Camp.
Other US and other State Shields thanks to Shields Up
Topographic maps from topozone.com and Topo!Mac

©2007 Dave Filpus, all rights reserved. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.