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Schley Grange Hall

Schley Grange Hall is the one-story brick Colonial Revival hall of Schley Grange No. 710, chartered in 1931 by thirty residents of the Schley farming community north of Hillsborough. The Sears-Roebuck Foundation built it after the Grange won a 1948 national contest for bringing telephone lines to 51 families, and it was dedicated in December 1949.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

People in its history

People named in events about this site, ordered by number of mentions. Each example links to an entry with a source citation.

Sites linked through the same people

Indexed works

Books, articles, records, and images about Schley Grange Hall. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.

About the site

Grange formula for better living

Bailey, Fred · 1949 · Curtis Pub. Co.

Fred Bailey's magazine piece on the Grange and its program for farm life, detached from Country Gentleman for July 1949. It concerns farms in Schley, Orange County, along with the National Grange and the North Carolina State Grange. A short look at organized farm life in the county after the war.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

UNC

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Schley Grange Hall alone: the architectural surveys that cover its town or the county, and maps drawn while it stood. Several of the surveys can be read free online at NC Digital Collections.

History and Architecture of Orange County, North Carolina

Mattson, Richard L. · 1996 · Unpublished manuscript

Richard L. Mattson's manuscript survey of the history and architecture of Orange County, completed in September 1996. Its 78 pages cover the county's historic buildings and structures and end with a bibliography.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Orange County multiple property documentation form: "Historic resources of Orange County."

1993

National Register multiple property documentation form on the historic resources of Orange County, completed in 1993. Kelly Lally and M. Ruth Little led the first phase of the survey, and Jody Carter and Todd Peck the second. It runs 123 pages with a bibliography.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

[Architectural field surveys for Orange County : collected for the Historic and architectural resources of the Tar-Neuse River basin report]

1974 · Survey and Planning Branch, Historic Preservation Section, Division of Archives and History

Historic building survey forms for Orange County gathered in 1974 by the state's Historic Preservation Section for a report on the Tar-Neuse River basin. About 400 pages of forms covering buildings in Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the countryside; a form can carry a description, historical notes, location, a photograph and a floor plan.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

A map of Orange County, N.C.

Noble, M. C. S. (Marcus Cicero Stephens), 1855-1942 · 1915

Marcus Cicero Stephens Noble drew this 1915 map to show how Orange County's original territory was divided, tracing the formation of Caswell, Person, Alamance, Durham, Chatham, Randolph, Guilford and Rockingham counties out of it. Topics include county boundaries and the history of political divisions in the Piedmont. Surviving as a photocopy on a sheet 31 by 23 centimeters.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC

Soil map, North Carolina, Orange County sheet

United States · 1918 · United States Government Printing Office

Color soil map of Orange County issued in 1918 by the U.S. Government Printing Office at one inch to the mile, 68 by 46 cm. Besides soil types it marks roads and railroads, the Southern Railway among them, churches, schools, mills, stores, cotton gins, iron mines, cemeteries and the county home, and it names the townships of Bingham, Cedar Grove, Chapel Hill, Cheeks, Eno, Hillsborough and Little River.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

Map of Orange County, N.C. : 1939

Stanaland, E. A. · 1939 · E.A. Stanaland

Hand colored map of Orange County drawn by E. A. Stanaland and published at Parrott, Georgia, in 1939. It shows towns and townships, roads and railroads, and marks the schools and churches standing in the county. One sheet, 58 by 36 centimeters.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

Start at OCPL

    Where to look on the shelf

    These books don’t necessarily mention Schley Grange Hall, but they cover where it stands, its kind of building and the land, family and burial records behind it, and they are where a search for a place like this usually goes next. All are at OCPL, most in the Wall Collection.

    Histories of the town and county

    • Foundational · NC 975.656 ORA Orange County--1752-1952 1953

      Hugh Talmage Lefler and Paul W. Wager's history of Orange County across its first two centuries, 1752 to 1952, prepared for the county's bicentennial. It covers government and politics, biography and the county's families, and doubles as a genealogical reference. Published in Chapel Hill by the Orange Printshop in 1953, 389 pages with illustrations and an index; this copy is a later reprint.

    Buildings and surveys

    • Foundational · NC 720.975 BIS A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina Bishir, Catherine W. · 2003

      Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern's field guide to the historic buildings of the North Carolina Piedmont, arranged county by county from Wake and Franklin in the east to Mecklenburg and Gaston in the west. The Orange County section takes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the rural county, with entries on individual buildings and maps for finding them. Published 2003, 596 pages with illustrations and maps.

    • Foundational · NC 917.56 ORANGE An Inventory Of Sites Of Cultural, Historic, Recreational, Biological, And Geological Significance In The Unincorporated Portions Of Orange County Orange County (N.C.) · 1986

      County planning department survey of significant sites in the unincorporated parts of Orange County, published in 1988, 95 pages with maps. The survey covers cemeteries, church buildings and archaeological sites on the cultural side, and plants, animals, endangered species, wildlife refuges, geology and recreation areas on the natural side. Useful for local historians, genealogists tracing burial grounds and land planners alike.

    • Foundational · NC 363.69 HIS Historic Preservation Element: Orange County Comprehensive Plan ; Orange County, North Carolina Orange County (N.C.) · 1996

      The historic preservation element of Orange County's comprehensive plan, prepared for the county Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Department by the Jaeger Company of Gainesville, Georgia, and adopted on 1 April 1996. Partly financed by National Park Service funds through the state Division of Archives and History, it sets county policy on historic buildings and sites and their conservation. 59 pages plus 50 unnumbered, with illustrations and maps, some folded and in color.

    In the chronology

    Storyline about this site, with a page of its own:

    1. Schley Grange No. 710 is chartered Thirty residents of the Schley farming community north of Hillsborough chartered Schley Grange No. 710, one of five Orange County Granges formed in the state Grange revival of 1929 to 1931. The county board had merged Schley School into the Hillsboro school that June, and on November 2 it sold the Schley School building for $122 to Charles Wilson, who bought it for the Grange. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Schley Grange Hall National Register nomination (OR3148) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 25, 1931, p. 1
    2. Thousands watch a one-day conservation makeover of the Milton Latta farm near Schley Schley Grange No. 710 staged what was billed as North Carolina's first soil conservation field day on Milton Latta's 195-acre farm northeast of Hillsboro, where about 250 volunteers with 25 to 30 tractors, bulldozers and earth movers built terraces, a fish pond, pastures, strip crops and wildlife borders that would take an ordinary farmer three to five years. Estimates of the crowd ran from three thousand to ten thousand. People: Don S. Matheson, Robert L. Mohler, Henry S. Hogan The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 1, 1948, p. 1
    3. Schley Grange brings telephones to fifty-one families and wins a national community award For a National Grange and Sears-Roebuck Foundation contest, Schley Grange members cleared right-of-way, cut cedar poles and strung three miles of wire so the telephone company could give service to 51 families; they also held a soil conservation workshop with the extension service. Schley won the national prize in November 1948, and the new brick Grange hall it paid for was dedicated on December 6, 1949 before about five hundred people. People: W. Kerr Scott, Don S. Matheson NC State Historic Preservation Office: Schley Grange Hall National Register nomination (OR3148)
    4. Schley Grange lets the contract for the hall it won in a national contest The Durham firm of Cole and Crumpacker won the general contract for the $40,000 Schley Grange Hall, the prize from the national community service contest, and began clearing the site, where a well had already been drilled. Plans called for an assembly hall, dining room, kitchen, lobby and heating plant. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 9, 1949, p. 1
    5. Schley Grange dedicates the hall it won in a national contest On Tuesday, December 6, 1949, National Grange master Albert S. Goss gave the dedication address for the new $50,000 Schley Grange Hall, and E. J. Condon of the Sears-Roebuck Foundation spoke. The foundation built and furnished the hall after the Grange won the 1948 national community service contest. People: W. Kerr Scott The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 1, 1949, p. 1 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 25, 1948, p. 1; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 8, 1949, p. 1
    6. The State Grange Youth Conference meets at the new Schley Grange Hall The eleventh annual State Grange Youth Conference brought about 100 representatives of Grange youth from a number of counties to the recently dedicated Schley Grange Hall for a two-day meeting. It closed on Sunday, January 1, with the election of new youth officers and a talk by E. B. Garrett, state coordinator of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 5, 1950, p. 1
    7. Schley Grange celebrates its 25th anniversary About 150 members and guests attended the silver anniversary ceremonies, where Mrs. J. E. Latta, the first lecturer, traced the Grange from its start in the old schoolhouse to its national award and community building, and State Master Harry B. Caldwell honored the past masters. She said Schley, formally organized September 19, 1931, was among the first 125 Granges in the state's revival. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 4, 1956, p. 1
    8. Schley Grange members finish a volunteer pine-thinning project and turn the pulpwood into community funds Schley Grange members with chain saws and axes thinned young pine stands on four farms, as marked by Extension foresters, and sold the pulpwood the owners had donated; on April 22 the community service committee handed the Grange a check for $383.72 for future projects. County Agent Don Matheson called the project the first of its kind in North Carolina. People: Don S. Matheson The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 24, 1958, p. 1
    9. Schley Grange Hall near Hurdle Mills joins the Study List Staff proposed the grange hall as eligible for its place in the social history of the area. With no questions from members or the audience, the committee approved it by a 7-0 roll call vote on October 11, 2018. NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register Advisory Committee agendas, minutes and approved lists, p. 1453
    10. The Schley Grange Hall is listed in the National Register On April 23, 2020 the National Park Service listed the Schley Grange Hall near Schley 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: National Register file OR3148

    Open these in the chronology →

    Research sources

    Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Investigate a school or community institution.

    Background

    National Register files

    Historic sites, markers, and maps

    Records of the time 7

    Show all 7

    Collections and databases

    Local help

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    Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
    Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026