Agenda 10-03-23; 4-b - National Register Recommendation for Ridge Road School

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13 NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No.1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 7 Ridge Road School Orange County, NC Public schools were more uniformly operated after North Carolina legislators established standards for county boards of education in 1885. The Orange County school district boundaries were regularly redrawn and district quantity fluctuated. Students received instruction in small, log or frame, purpose- built,publicly owned schools as well as in churches, homes, and other buildings on private property. Funding was apportioned based upon census data rather than enrollment, an important distinction in rural areas where enrollment was low and attendance sporadic, particularly during planting and harvest seasons when children worked longer hours on family farms. In 1886, 1,290 African American children attended thirty-two Orange County schools and 1,505 white youth studied at thirty-seven schools. Black enrollment represented around seventy-one percent of the school-age population, while white enrollment was about fifty percent. During the 1889-1890 term, 1,048 African American children studied in seventeen frame and seven log buildings. Thirteen frame and thirty log buildings served 1,425 white children. Some of the aforementioned buildings were churches. Ten years later, thirty public and two private schools served Black youth, while white children attended thirty-five public and nine private schools.9 Although George W. Tate's 1891 map of Orange County delineates the approximate sites of some public and private schools, precise locations of most are unknown. When state subsidies for public education became available in 1897, legislators did not apportion funds to Black schools,but local taxes and citizen contributions continued to make school operation possible. Small austere buildings served most Orange County students. During the 1899-1900 term, 667 African American youth received instruction in twenty log and fourteen frame schools, while 1,506 white youth studied at forty-five schools, almost equally split between log and frame construction. The term length averaged fifteen to sixteen weeks. There were no schools in some districts, forcing students to travel long distances to attend classes. In Hillsboro Township, for example, African American youth residing in the Ridge Meeting House district were assigned to the Rail Road district school. In 1910, African American children studied at twenty-five rural primary schools, all but one with a single teacher. Eight were log; the rest were frame. White youth attended two high schools in Hillsboro and Chapel Hill and forty-two rural primary schools, twenty-four of which had only one teacher.10 More state funding became available in the early 1910s when the general assembly designated capital for extensive improvements to all public schools. Municipal and county boards of education implemented more stringent teacher qualification standards,undertook building renovation and construction, and consolidated smaller schools. Between 1910 and 1912, rural North Carolina communities erected 132 African American and 574 white schools, many using plans distributed by the Department of Public Instruction. In 1912, the state enumerated 2,226 rural and 105 urban Black schools and 5,265 rural and 181 urban white schools. Private schools including Palmer Memorial Institute in Guilford County, 9 The New School Law,"Carolina Watchman(Salisbury),March 19, 1885,p.2;OCBE minutes,January 9, 1886,and annual report for the year ending June 30, 1890;Levi Branson,Branson's North Carolina Business Directory 1896(Raleigh: Levi Branson, 1896),470. 10 Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 140;OCBE meeting minutes,January 1899,July 2, 1900,June 30, 1910.