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25 NPS Form 1"00 -a OMB No. 1024 -0018 (om) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Section 8 Page 9 Murohev School name of property Oranae County. NC county and state recommended a publicly financed system of education. However, it would take much longer for North Carolina's elected officials to act upon his visionary proposalS.2 While North Carolina boasted a good school system during the antebellum era, after the Civil War the state's schools either remained stagnant or declined until the State Constitution of 1888. During the Reconstruction era and up until the turn of the twentieth century, few educational opportunities existed for the majority of North Carolinians. in 1839, seven years after Murphey's death, with the passing of a legislative act that created school districts throughout the state, those districts were allowed to tax in order to fund the construction of schoolhouses. The now state constitution created a public education system free for all children and allowed for the establishment of the office of Superintendent of Public instruction.3 By the turn of the twentieth century public education made greater strides in North Carolina with increased state and federal tax funds for schools. In 1913 the Compulsory Attendance Act passed requiring children between the ages of eight and twelve to attend school four months out of the year. Prior to this act, only about half of North Carolina's school -age children attended on a regular basis.4 Another impetus behind the enhanced education system was Governor Charles B. Aycock, who pledged to improve public education and encouraged the frenzy of new school construction that provided larger, improved facilities. Cane -room frame schoolhouses were soon replaced with larger permanent brick or stone buildings and children were grouped into classes by age and grade level. According to historian Jim Sumner, around 3,400 public schools were constructed between 1900 and 1915. This trend is known as the consolidation movement, and it would soon spread and proliferate throughout North Carolina as it had nationwide.s' With consolidation, many leading educators believed that students could receive a higher- quality of education with large classes, better trained teachers and upgraded facilities that could also act as community centers. From 1918 to 1920, Dr. Edgar W. Knight, a noted scholar of education in North Carolina, authored a series of informational leaflets on the benefits of consolidation, especially for rural schools. Knight claimed that North Carolina had experienced great progress in education after World War I and that the state's rural schools had not kept pace with those in 2 Caswell County Historical Association, Archibald Debow Murphey., Biographical Sketch, 2007, wvvw.reotsvveb. ancestry. coml- ncchalbio ra hieslarchibaldmur hv.htmi, accessed September 2008. Martin, Jennifer and Sarah Woodard, Edwards- Pitman Environmental, Inc., "Survey of Wake County Public Schools/Final Report," (Raleigh: State Historic Preservation Office, 2002), p. 1-6. 4 Sumner, Jim. `A Brief History of North Carolina's Early Twentieth Century Public School System," North Carolina Historic Preservation Office Newsletter (Spring 1990), p. 2 5 Ibid, p. 6-16.