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22 NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0016 (8-86) United Slates Department of the Interior • National Park Service • NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Section 8 Page 11 Murphey School name of property • Orange County, NC county and s#a#e The standardization of the design and furnishing of new school buildings during the 1920s and 1930s became increasingly more common. Chief considerations in determining the general plan were orientation, nafural fight and ventilation, flexibility for future additions, aesthe#ic fitness, and economy. Other new standards for buildings recommended statewide were steam heat, indoor plumbing, drinking fountains, and an auditorium that could double as a gymnasium and also host community gatherings.l0 These standards of the new rural school would make it successful and help to unify rural areas. • In addition to novel standards for consolidated school buildings, North Carolina educational leaders called for higher standards for teachers, preferring those with some kind of professional training. As of 1925, in Orange County approximately half of aq teachers only held elementary certificates.11 Proponents of consolidation claimed that with multiple schools combined together, a surplus of teachers would be created, with only the best trained chosen for positions in the new consolidated school. In 1938 North Carolina required at least one teacher per grade with a "Class A" certification in order for a school to be accredited. Educators also believed that teachers in rural consolidated schools needed to integrate more into the community, and with few options in the country for boarding, many school districts constructed teachers' homes or "teacherages" for the purpose of housing rural teachers. Educational scholars claimed that not only would the teacherage allow for teachers to develop relationships with community members, but it would also provide social fellowship for single female teachers by living with their co-workers; the teacherage becoming, "a self-evident necessity and a good investment for the district"~2 The superintendent of Orange County schools at the time of the construction of Murphey School was Robert Claytor, •who served a total of thirty years in the position and led the consolida#ion of schools in the county. Orange County applied for $50,000 of the $5,000,000 of the State School Fund for the purpose of erecting new schoolhouses during the early 1920s. Half the cost of each new school was to be paid for by local tax districts in Orange County. The county also hired the Henri C. Linthicum, of the architectural firm Linthicum and Linthicum of Durham, to draw plans for new school buildings throughout Orange County. This father and son team, led by Nill C. Linthicum until his death in.1919, promoted their firm as specializing in the design of educational facilities. ~~ Handbook for Elementary and Secondary Schvo/s, 1938, pubiica#ion no. 206 (Raleigh: State Superintendent of Public {nstruction, Prepared by Division of Instructional Service), p. 13-25. 1 ~ Andrews, Nita. "A Study of the Public Schools of Orange County," Masters Thesis, (Chapel HiA: University of __ North Carolina, 1925), p. 70 ~z Arp, Julius Bernhard. Rural Education and the Consolidated School, (New York: World Book Company, 1920), p. 151-155.