Built as a flour mill in the mid 1870s and converted to a residence in the mid-1960s, the three-story house at 7923 Morrow Mill Road in Orange County has a warmth in the wood that only time can provide.

The house is set on 19 acres with views of Cane Creek. A 200-year-old stack stone dam on the creek backs up water into a pond that is the perfect place to swim, canoe and fish.

Like many old southern properties, this one is dotted with outbuildings. Climb the millrace to a writer’s cabin that is way more than a room with a bare table. This cabin has a living room, kitchenette, bedroom, bath and a deck with treetop views of the property to inspire your muse.

Need a studio to record music, another one for painting, still another for woodworking? There is a 3,777-square-foot, three-story building with all of that plus a large exercise room. There are decks off both the main and second floors of this building, which has a bath on the second floor as well as additional conference room space.

As if the writer’s cabin and workshop/studio weren’t enough, there is a separate 1,022-square-foot guest house on the property that has a living room/sunroom with wood stove, kitchen, bath and two guest rooms or offices if you prefer to work at home but have a space away from family life. Did I mention this guest house has a screened porch and a stone patio?

There is also another 14-by-14-foot studio space and a 320-square-foot efficiency with entry space for boots and umbrellas and a bedroom and bath.

But enough about the outbuildings. What you really need to know about is the main house and how your family will enter from a screened porch off the long circular driveway leading up to it. The waters of the mill actually used to run under this screened porch.

Now the porch opens into an eat-in kitchen with brick floors. The formal dining room/family room is off to the left and the formal front entry is off to the right of this spacious kitchen. The dining room/family room and entry both open to a large living room with fireplace. An old grist mill wheel is inlaid above the fireplace mantel. Post and beam construction is exposed in the ceilings of this beautiful room. There are built-in display cabinets between the formal dining room/family room and the living room.

A stone patio expands entertainment space in the balmy Piedmont weather. Large, many-paned windows throughout the house bring in the light and showcase the paneled walls and ceilings.

Steps from the living room lead to the second floor where a large landing/sitting area is a cozy spot to read a book. This floor has a large master bedroom with fireplace and large master bath. Also on this floor are two additional bedrooms, a nice-sized bath and another small bedroom or nursery. On the third floor is a teen getaway (a long narrow bedroom and closet).

This 3,210-square-foot house is accented on the outside with terraced gardens and a covered front entry. There is also a vegetable garden area, open fields, trails for horses or jogging and a tack shed. Yet, with all of this, when you come to visit, your favorite spot is bound to be that stack stone dam and fresh water pond. The dam is reported to be 200 years old and to have served several mills on this site.

The road leading to this wonderful property is named for the Morrow family, which ran a mill on Cane Creek. The Morrows, who came to North Carolina from Ireland with a stop in Pennsylvania, did not build this mill, nor did they build the first mill on this site. But they got the road named for them, according to Don Basnight, a real estate agent with Weaver Street Realty, who finds street and road names a “quirky” part of southern culture.

“Apple Mill Road had a mill, but no fruit,” Basnight said. “It was named for the Apple family who ran the mill on Cane Creek. Manns Chapel Church is the namesake of Manns Chapel Road, but the 175-year-old church is on Lamont Norwood Road. Carrboro has two Main Streets while Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Pittsboro have not one.”

Basnight says he finds it interesting that the same blacktop highway runs from Durham to Bynum, “without turning right or left you can be on 15-501, Franklin Street, Main Street, Jones Ferry Road, and Hamlets Chapel Road,” he said.

Basnight is offering the Morrow Mill Roadproperty at $990,000. For more information, Basnight can be reached at 270-3247.