Orange Grove School (Orange Grove Academy)

In the chronology

1. June 1897 Cane Creek Baptist Church gives part of its lot for an academy Under pastor J. F. MacDuffie the church voted to set aside church land for an academy and school, called Rock Spring in the motion. MacDuffie bought a house nearby and the school opened as Orange Grove Academy. Cane Creek Baptist Church Historical Research Committee, A Cane Creek Tapestry: A Picture History of Cane Creek Baptist Church and the Orange Grove Community (2003), scan p. 40
2. 1898 The name Orange Grove first appears with the Cane Creek church school Through the 1800s the Hillsborough Recorder called the neighborhood around Cane Creek Church Rock Spring. The earliest use of the name Orange Grove the church historians found is the renaming of the church's academy as Orange Grove Academy. Cane Creek Baptist Church Historical Research Committee, A Cane Creek Tapestry: A Picture History of Cane Creek Baptist Church and the Orange Grove Community (2003), scan p. 74
3. by August 23, 1906 A new Orange Grove school building goes up at Cane Creek Work was moving fast on the new Orange Grove school building, with five large rooms and offices downstairs and an auditorium and music rooms upstairs. Principal Walter Crawford planned music and business departments; neighbors near Efland were hauling logs to the sawmill to help with the building. The News (Chapel Hill), August 23, 1906, p. 4
4. 1907 Cane Creek Baptist Church votes a larger school building and sells the first one to the county The church voted to put up a much larger building for its Orange Grove School, south of the church, and to sell the original academy building to Orange County for use as a public school. Cane Creek Baptist Church Historical Research Committee, A Cane Creek Tapestry: A Picture History of Cane Creek Baptist Church and the Orange Grove Community (2003), scan p. 104
5. 1908 Orange Grove Academy's commencement program reports its music classes and ball team The academy's 1908 commencement program counted 86 enrollments in music under Prof. C. E. Redmon, among them 18 in the band and 12 in the orchestra, and told of a baseball team that played Wake Forest, Trinity Park, Elon and Bingham School. Cane Creek Baptist Church Historical Research Committee, A Cane Creek Tapestry: A Picture History of Cane Creek Baptist Church and the Orange Grove Community (2003), scan p. 102
6. by May 22, 1936 Orange Grove School gets new toilets, water, sewage disposal and steam heat By May 22, 1936 work was under way at Orange Grove School on new toilet rooms, a water supply system, sewage disposal and a steam-heating plant, contract price $5,921, with completion expected in about a month, as part of the county's PWA school program. People: H. D. Carter The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 22, 1936, p. 6
7. December 1942 Fire destroys Orange Grove School Fire destroyed Orange Grove School in December 1942. On December 6, 1943 the county board sought a $16,000 insurance settlement, and at the Orange Grove committee's request classes went on in the old Orange Grove building rather than moving to Hillsboro. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 7, 1944, p. 2 · Also: DigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983
8. May 1, 1944 The county school board lets Orange Grove pupils stay in their old school building On Monday, May 1, 1944, the Orange County Board of Education granted the request of Orange Grove school patrons, who had met on April 28, that their children keep attending school in the old Orange Grove building, built in 1900, rather than be sent to schools elsewhere in the county. The board also told Superintendent R. H. Claytor to prepare the next year's school budget. People: R. H. Claytor, John W. Umstead Jr. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 11, 1944, p. 1
9. May 6, 1946 The county board closes Orange Grove School and sends its pupils to Hillsboro The board discontinued Orange Grove School and first planned to split its children between Hillsboro and White Cross. Parents objected strongly to White Cross, so the board voted to send them all to Hillsboro; the school site went to Cane Creek Baptist Church for $50 in 1947. DigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 (1983), p. 81
10. July 7, 1947 The county school board sells the closed Orange Grove and Flat Rock school properties The Orange County board of education approved the sale of the Orange Grove school site to the trustees of Cane Creek Baptist Church and of the Flat Rock school building and grounds to a private buyer, and rejected the bid on the former Wardsville school for Black children. The board also adopted a resolution honoring R. H. Claytor's thirty years as superintendent. People: R. H. Claytor The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 10, 1947, p. 1
11. 1949 The old Orange Grove Academy building is torn down After Orange Grove School closed, Cane Creek Church took over its 1907 building, holding Sunday school downstairs while the Grange met in the upstairs hall. The building was demolished in 1949. Cane Creek Baptist Church Historical Research Committee, A Cane Creek Tapestry: A Picture History of Cane Creek Baptist Church and the Orange Grove Community (2003), scan p. 104

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