Ridge Road School

In the chronology

1. 1932 Ridge Road School is built for Black children north of Hillsborough In 1932 the county board had a two-room frame school for Black children built on Walter and Maggie Torian's land off Ridge Road (now Coleman Loop Road), just west of NC 86 north of Hillsborough. R. J. Forrest built it with lumber from the community. It replaced an earlier Ridge Road school and was not a Rosenwald school, though the 1993 survey had taken it for one. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School National Register nomination (2023), sec. 7 p. 1 and sec. 8 pp. 5, 10, 11, 16 · Also: NC Digital Collections: Historic Resources of Orange County, National Register multiple property documentation form
2. June 6, 1932 The county board agrees to pay for five new or enlarged schools for Black children Despite the Depression, the Orange County board agreed to fund buildings or additions at Merritts, Ridge Road, Sunnyside, White Oak Grove and Sartin, schools of one to three rooms for Black children. Each community had to supply its own lumber; Ridge Road was first allotted $500. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 15
3. 1934-35 school year Ridge Road School counts 80 pupils enrolled and 51 attending In the 1934-35 term Ridge Road School, a two-room school for Black children north of Hillsboro, had 80 pupils on its roll, 51 of whom attended regularly. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 18
4. 1935 Alethea Burt moves to Hillsboro and takes charge of Ridge Road School's upper grades Alethea Arrington Burt, a Hampton Institute graduate, came from Currituck County to Hillsboro in 1935, the year her husband Moses became the county's Black farm agent. She taught fifth through seventh grades and served as principal of the two-room school until it closed in 1951. People: Alethea Anne Arrington Burt NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 17
5. 1948-49 school year Ridge Road School reports 75 pupils and a 149-book library The principal's report for 1948-49 counted 75 children enrolled, 57 in average attendance, with the sixth and seventh grades the largest group at 40. The school's equipment was a globe, a flag, word cards, art supplies and a library of 149 books. People: Alethea Anne Arrington Burt NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 18
6. January 5, 1948 The county board approves electric wiring for five rural schools for Black children The Orange County board voted to electrify five rural schools for Black children, asking each community to pay half the cost. Ridge Road School had two electric lights in each room by the late 1940s, but when it was wired is not known. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 18
7. 1949-50 school year Alethea Burt starts a junior 4-H club at Ridge Road School Principal Alethea Burt organized a junior 4-H club at Ridge Road School in the 1949-50 term, when 64 children were enrolled. She and her husband, farm agent Moses Burt, helped form 4-H clubs among Black youth in the county. People: Alethea Anne Arrington Burt NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 18
8. May 1949 The county board names A. J. Breeze, James Clark and Otho Thompson to the Ridge Road school committee The Orange County board appointed three local men as the Ridge Road district's advisory committee; they served until April 1951, the school's last spring. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 18 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 12, 1949, p. 1
9. April 18, 1951 The News of Orange prints a photograph of a Ridge Road School classroom An article on newer classroom methods in the county's Black schools ran a picture of Ridge Road pupils adding to a bulletin board, a few months before the school closed. It is the only historic photograph of the interior that has been found. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 8
10. February 1963 The Torian family deeds a lot beside Ridge Road School to Emma Torian Jones and Rev. Walter Jones Maggie Torian and her children conveyed 0.79 acre west of the school, on Coleman Loop Road, to her daughter Emma and Emma's husband, Rev. Walter Warren Jones, who built a frame house there. Walter and Maggie Torian, Black farmers, had owned the land the school stood on and supplied its water. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 7
11. 2001 Emma Torian Jones gives her home lot beside Ridge Road School to Jones Grove Church Emma Torian Jones donated the lot west of the school, where she and her husband had lived since the 1960s, to Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church; the house was later torn down, returning the ground to woods. The Torian heirs had also deeded the school parcel to the church. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 7
12. December 12, 2023 Ridge Road School is listed in the National Register On December 12, 2023 the National Park Service listed Ridge Road School near Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places. NC State Historic Preservation Office: North Carolina Listings in the National Register of Historic Places, Orange County · Also: NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104)

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