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26 NP3 Form 10 -900 -e OMB No. 1024 -0018 (8-8$) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Section L Page 10 Muighev School name of property Orange County. NC county and state towns and cities. With eighty percent of North Carolina's population living in rural areas, the majority of people were not receiving an adequate education. Knight pressed that consolidation was the answer to improving the rural school problem, stating, nit means more comfortable, convenient, and attractive and better equipped school buildings. In such buildings the health and the morals of the children are safeguarded to a greater degree than is possible in the smaller one - room school.» Included in the plan of consolidation endorsed by Knight was a teacherage, a feature constructed on the Murphey School property.6 For consolidation to fulfill its purpose, Knight also admitted that the state must first embrace a policy of road building in order to transport rural students to the newly consolidated schools that possibly were not located within walking distance. Without the "Good Roads" movement during the 1920s, consolidation would not have been successful. Knight encouraged each consolidated school to purchase wagons or buses and to hire dependable drivers. in 1525 Orange County operated five school trucks costing $1680.70 for oil, gas and repairs and $783 for drivers.7 Knight explained that though the new consolidated school would be more expensive than its older counterpart, the costs to the taxable district would be offset by state funding available through programs such as the State Special Building Fund, established to provide funding to each county for the erection of public school houses. Another aid to local school districts was the Division of Schoolhouse Planning, created in 1920 by an appropriation from the legislature to assist the State Board of Education in providing sufficient buildings for public instruction. The Division of Schoolhouse Planning set now design .standards for, educational facilities and helped to organize their construction. a Even with the great solution of consolidation, many rural newly consolidated schools sat in strong contrast to their sister schools in the city. Often small rural schools like Murphey School were inadequately staffed and short on materials and equipment. Rural schools, including elementary and high schools, emphasized more of an agricultural education due to the number of students who would choose professions such as farming and domestic life. In Orange County there were forty -seven rural schools in 1925 with ninety teachers. Orange County public schools' agricultural departments not only focused on farming methods in the community, but also instructed adult farmers and organized county fairs. s Knight, Edgar W. -The Consolidation of Rural Schools,' 2n' ed., University QtNorth Carolina Extension Leaflets, vol. 3, no. 8, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1920), p. 5 -18. 7 Andrews, Nita. "A study of the Public Schools of Orange County,' Masters Thesis, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1925), p. 65. 8 Knight, Edgar W., p. 5-18. 9 Andrews, Nita. p. 64-66.