Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
7 <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 7 Page 1 Ridge Road School <br /> Orange County, NC <br /> Setting <br /> Ridge Road School is located in rural north-central Orange County one-quarter mile south of the <br /> intersection of NC Highway 86 and Coleman Loop Road, which was unpaved and known as Ridge Road <br /> during the school's operation. Since the primary access to the school was from NC Highway 86, the <br /> building faces east rather than west toward Coleman Loop Road. Hillsborough's commercial center is <br /> approximately three miles to the southeast. Neighboring crossroads communities include Schley about <br /> three miles to the northeast and Cedar Grove around four miles to the northwest. The area's gently rolling <br /> topography, rich soil, and proximity to the Little and Eno rivers and their tributaries are conducive to <br /> farming. Black and white farmers in the Ridge Road community grew tobacco, corn, wheat, oats, hay, <br /> cotton, sorghum, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, berries, home gardens, and fruit trees, and tended dairy <br /> and beef cows, hogs, and chickens.' Although fields,pastures, and wooded areas remain, many <br /> agricultural tracts have been gradually subdivided to facilitate residential development. <br /> The one-story, side-gable-roofed, German-sided, two-classroom Ridge Road School is situated south of <br /> Jones Grove Church Road, an unpaved drive that leads east from Coleman Loop Road. Jones Grove <br /> Missionary Baptist Church stands on the drive's north side. The front-gable-roofed concrete-block 1961 <br /> sanctuary was built to replace the congregation's original front-gable-roofed weatherboarded 1928 <br /> church, which stood to the west and was demolished upon the 1961 building's completion. The <br /> sanctuary, enlarged with a rear addition in the mid-1970s and a fellowship hall in 1991, continues to serve <br /> the congregation, which owns Ridge Road School. The gravel lot in the northeast portion of the school <br /> parcel provides church parking. A gravel drive extends southeast from the parking area to the residential <br /> tract at 2618 NC Highway 86 that contains a two-story 1990 residence owned by Luther K. and Kimberly <br /> M. Brooks until February 2023. Reverend Luther Brooks is the grandson of Joe B. Brooks, the first <br /> pastor of Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church, and was an associate pastor of the congregation. The <br /> gravel drive intersects an asphalt-paved driveway that extends to the highway. The abandoned Cedar <br /> Grove Road bed straddles the north property line. The one-story, side-gable-roofed, 1985 dwelling to the <br /> north at 2702 NC Highway 86 occupies the parcel directly east of the school.2 <br /> The school was built in 1932 on land owned by Black farmers Walter and Maggie Torian, whose <br /> residence, outbuildings including tobacco and livestock barns, and sorghum mill stood to the south. Area <br /> farmers brought their mules and sorghum cane to make syrup they stored in barrels for use throughout the <br /> 1 Louis K.Watkins,telephone conversation with Heather Fearnbach,February 25,2023. Watkins was a student for <br /> four years beginning in 1942 when he entered first grade. Many of his nine siblings were also students. His family's 159-acre <br /> farm was located about one mile south of the school off Ridge Road. <br /> 2 Cedar Grove Road(SR 1380)spanned the distance between NC Highway 86 and Coleman Loop Road. USDA <br /> Historical Aerial Photographs, 1938(AJV-8-154), 1955(AJV-6P-145), 1975(37135-176-95),University of North Carolina at <br /> Chapel Hill University Libraries;Deed Book 6808,page 1746;Orange County property record cards. <br />