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<br /> NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No.1024-0018
<br /> (8-86)
<br /> United States Department of the Interior
<br /> National Park Service
<br /> National Register of Historic Places
<br /> Continuation Sheet
<br /> Section number 8 Page 11 Ridge Road School
<br /> Orange County, NC
<br /> replacing J. A. Page. In 1935, he designed new buildings and additions funded by the federal Public
<br /> Works Administration for nine of Orange County's African American and white schools.18
<br /> Planning for Orange County public school construction and maintenance was deferred during World War
<br /> II due to material and labor shortages. When the OCBE's school consolidation and improvement
<br /> program resumed in the early 1950s, an ambitious plan to enlarge and remodel eight white schools, build
<br /> two new white schools, enlarge Central High School for African American youth, and to build Cedar
<br /> Grove and Efland-Cheeks schools to serve African American children was executed. Ridge Road and
<br /> other small rural schools were gradually closed and sold. Cedar Grove School, designed by Durham
<br /> architect Archie R. Davis, opened in November 1951. Davis also rendered plans for the Efland-Cheeks
<br /> School erected by general contractors Cole and Crumpler that was finished in fall 1952. The construction
<br /> of Cedar Grove and Efland-Cheeks schools allowed for consolidation of students from fourteen schools.
<br /> Facility improvements subsidized by the state and municipal bonds were undertaken throughout the
<br /> county during the 1950s and 1960s.19
<br /> Ridge Road School History
<br /> Ridge Road School was erected on land owned by farmers Walter and Maggie Torian, whose residence
<br /> and outbuildings were south of the school. The building replaced an earlier school with the same name,
<br /> likely built during the 1910s, which stood nearby.20 Two teachers provided first-through seventh-grade-
<br /> level instruction to African American youth from the surrounding area for most of the school's nineteen-
<br /> year operation. Durham County native Ruth M. Stanfield(1911-1989), who taught younger children(first
<br /> through fourth grade), was an alumna of Winston-Salem Teachers College and New York University.
<br /> She married Walter and Maggie Torian's son Charlie William Torian in Durham on February 23, 1944
<br /> while he was on a brief furlough from U. S. Army service during World War II.21 Johnston County native
<br /> 18 J. S.Kirk,Walter A.Cutter and Thomas W.Morse,eds.Emergency Relief in North Carolina:A Record of the
<br /> Development and Activities of the North Carolina Emergency ReliefAdministration, 1932-1935(Raleigh:North Carolina
<br /> Emergency Relief Administration, 1936),504;"Carter Supervisor of Federal Projects,"News and Observer(Raleigh),August
<br /> 20, 1934,p. 14; "School Buildings,"and"Applications to P.W.A.,"Chapel Hill Weekly,July 5, 1935,pp. 1 and 4;"Notice to
<br /> Building Contractors,"Chapel Hill Weekly,October 18, 1935,p.4;OCBE meeting minutes,November 8, 1935,December 5,
<br /> 1935,December 18, 1935.
<br /> 19 OCBE meeting minutes,April 1, 1946,March 1, 1948,April 3, 1950,May 1, 1950,June 5, 1950,June 4, 1951,
<br /> September 4, 1951,October 1, 1951,August 4, 1952,January 5, 1953,February 2, 1953,March 20, 1956;News of Orange,
<br /> August 23, 1951;"Orange Grand Jury Reports Bad Conditions in Schools,"Durham Morning Herald,December 11, 1952,p. 5;
<br /> "Schools in Orange,"Durham Morning Herald,April 22, 1955,Section I,p.6.
<br /> 20 The location of the 1910s Ridge Road School has not been determined. The 1922"School Map of Orange County,
<br /> N. C."illustrates its approximate location. The 1927 deed conveying the lot to the north to Jones Grove Missionary Baptist
<br /> Church references Ridge Road School parcel's property line. Orange County Deed Book 101,p.24.
<br /> 21 Charlie Torian attended Kitrell College for two years before enlisting in the U. S.Army on February 17, 1943. Five
<br /> of his brothers-Earnest,Andrew,Lewis,Monroe,and Robert-also served in the U. S.Army during World War II. After his
<br /> return home in February 1946,Charlie worked as a North Carolina Mutual insurance agent. OCBE meeting minutes,May 6,
<br />
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