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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 02-04-20 4-a - National Register Approval for Cedar Grove School and the Schley Grange Hall 1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: February 4, 2020 Action Agenda Item No. 4-a SUBJECT: National Register Approval for Cedar Grove School and the Schley Grange Hall DEPARTMENT: Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation (DEAPR) ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: 1) Cedar Grove School — Excerpt from Peter Sandbeck, 245-2517 National Register Report 2) Schley Grange Hall — Excerpt from National Register Report 3) Elected Official Comment Letters PURPOSE: To consider the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) recommendation that the historic properties known as the Cedar Grove School and the Schley Grange Hall be approved and forwarded to the State Historic Preservation Office for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. BACKGROUND: The federal process for listing a property in the National Register of Historic Places includes a provision giving the BOCC the opportunity to offer a recommendation supporting or opposing the listing of historic properties within its jurisdiction. The HPC fully supports the nomination of these properties to the National Register. As required, the HPC held a public hearing and received public comment about these proposed National Register listings at its regular meeting on January 22, 2020. DEAPR contracted with consultants to prepare the National Register Reports to promote recognition for properties of special historical, architectural or cultural significance to Orange County. This is an ongoing HPC program to protect and preserve historic resources. Funding was provided through the County's Lands Legacy Program, which includes as one of its priorities the protection of "lands of historic, cultural, or archaeological significance." The National Register is an honorary designation that carries no local regulatory burden, but does provide a federal and state process for protection in the case of projects receiving federal or state funding, or projects that require some form of federal or state permit or license. The attached excerpts from the National Register Reports provide brief statements on the significance and describe how the properties meet the applicable National Register criteria (Attachments 1 and 2). The full research reports for each property can be viewed via these links: Cedar Grove School: http://www.orangecountync.gov/DocumentCenter/View/9484/Cedar- Grove-School-National-Register-Report?bid I d= 2 Schley Grange Hall: http://www.orangecountync.gov/DocumentCenter/View/9485/Schley- Grange-Hall-National-Register-Report?bid Id= FINANCIAL IMPACT: The National Register Reports were funded in part from the Lands Legacy Program budget for FY 2018-19. The Cedar Grove School cost was $3,500 (less than usual cost due to DEAPR staff providing much of the research). The Schley Grange Hall cost totaled $2,750 in County funds, plus $2,750 in matching funds provided by the Schley Grange. SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT: There is no Orange County Social Justice Impact associated with this item. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: There is no Orange County Environmental Responsibility Goal impact associated with this item. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board endorse the National Register Nominations of the Cedar Grove School and Schley Grange Hall and authorize the Chair to sign the Elected Official Comment Letters (Attachment 3) to indicate the Board's recommendation for listing both properties in the National Register. 3 OMB Approval No.1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 10 Cedar Grove School Orange County,North Carolina Summary Cedar Grove School in rural Orange County was completed in 1951 with additions in 1953, 1958, and 1960. From the time the Orange County Board of Education purchased the land for its construction in 1946 until 1954,the school was referred to as Cedar Grove Negro School. After 1954,the school board and local newspapers called it Cedar Grove School or Cedar Grove Elementary School. Cedar Grove School holds significance on the local level for the period 1951,the year of construction,to 1969,when county schools integrated and the county school board closed Cedar Grove School. Cedar Grove School meets National Register of Historic Places Criterion A in the areas of education and black ethnic heritage as a facility providing early education to African American students in northern rural Orange County from 1951 to 1969. The school's history chronicles the advancement of African American education in rural Orange County in the mid-twentieth century in the context of a segregated school system. Cedar Grove School, as an important pre-integration elementary school, evokes the period in Orange County when African American students,parents,teachers, and administrators struggled for their schools to receive funding,materials, and buildings comparable to white schools. The school dates to the period when Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka(1954) found separate schools for whites and African Americans unconstitutional, a landmark case that signaled the beginning of a long period of defiance by white school boards across the South. Brown and the Civil Rights Act of 1964,which outlawed segregation, required school systems to integrate, something that did not happen in Orange County until 1969. Cedar Grove School is also eligible under Criterion C for architecture as a locally significant example of modernism as applied to a public school building. Designed by architect Archie Royal Davis, Cedar Grove School's low slung, flat-roofed form with copious windows to allow natural light into the classrooms epitomized modernist school design in North Carolina in the 1950s and 1960s. Historical Background In March 1935, a committee of African American residents of the Carr, White Oak, Harmony, Cedar Grove, and Sartin school districts—all in northern Orange County—appeared before the county's board of education to request consolidation of their districts and construction of a new brick building north of Hillsborough. At the time,African American children throughout Orange County attended classes in one of twenty-eight small, often overcrowded and inadequate frame buildings. Ten consolidated schools, only one of them frame, served the county's white students. At Carr School,two teachers instructed eighty-two African American first through seventh graders. The single teacher at Harmony School taught sixty first 4 Attachment 2 : Schley Grange Hall NPS Farm 10-900-a OMB Approval No.1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 8 Schley Grange Hall Orange County,NC Section 8. Statement of Significance Built in 1949,the locally significant Schley Grange Hall meets National Register of Historic Places Criterion A for social history as the Orange County agricultural community of Schley's primary meeting place and recreational center. The building is the only dedicated Grange hall identified in the county's up-to-date comprehensive architectural survey and thus is recognized as the only extant historic example of this resource type retaining integrity to survive in Orange County. Schley Grange No. 710 has been the area's largest fraternal association since its 1931 creation at the height of the North Carolina Grange's twentieth-century revitalization. Subsidized by a$50,000 national community service award from Sears- Roebuck Foundation, Schley Grange Hall replaced the decommissioned frame public school where the group had previously gathered. Grange members successfully executed five initiatives to win the competition, garnering a fully equipped building that quickly became the community's social hub. The Grange hosted educational and recreational events and encouraged the agricultural extension service, healthcare providers, American Legion Post 452,and the community at large to do the same. Facilities including a concession building/cook house, baseball/softball field, and horseshoe pitching pits were added by 1960 and supplemented through the early-twenty-first-century with a picnic shelter,restroom building, and batting cage. The period of significance begins with the Grange hall's 1949 completion and continues through 1970. The building's function after 1970 is not of exceptional significance. Historical Background and Social History Context The small crossroads community three miles north of Hillsborough became known as Schley when the U. S. government initiated postal service in 1898. Residents received and posted mail at Charles Wilson and David S. Miller's general store. Miller was Schley's sole postmaster from August 22, 1898 until postal service was discontinued on June 15, 1907. According to oral tradition,he suggested the post office name to honor Spanish American War hero Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley,whose achievements had recently been celebrated during a national tour. The district's weatherboarded public school, formerly known as McKee School,was renamed Schley School in conjunction with the post office opening. The close-knit community primarily comprised farmers. Neighbors aided each other with farm operation and building construction and gathered for social activities and worship services.1() The Grange(officially the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry), a fraternal organization created in 1867, provided a mechanism for farmers to improve their economic and social position through community-based initiatives and to advocate for agricultural regulation. The association, 10 Schley School stood on Schley Road's east side in what is now the parking lot north of Schley Grange Hall. North Carolina Postal History Society,"Orange County,"postmark and postmaster compilation,April 20,2014,p.62; http://www.ncpostalhistory.com/resources/north-carolina-postmark-catalog-update/(accessed August 2018);"Building Received by Grange,"News and Observer(Raleigh),December 7, 1949,p.2;Natalie Sicuro and George Seymour Maisel, "Schley 1958:the story of a community and its people,"LTNC-Chapel Hill,May 1958. 5 THE CHIEF ELECTED LOCAL OFFICIAL OR THE LOCAL GOVERNING BOARD SHOULD COMPLETE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING COMMENT PARAGRAPHS: C. I, Penny Rich, Chair, or We,the Orange County Board of Commissioners,have reviewed the nomination for the Cedar Grove School and find that the property meets the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as stated in Section 8 of the report. We therefore, recommend that the property be submitted for listing in the Register. Additional Comments: Chief Local Elected Official's signature and date D. I, Penny Rich,Chair,or We, the Orange County Board of Commissioners,have reviewed the nomination for the Cedar Grove School and find that the property does not meet the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as stated in Section 8 of the report. We therefore, do not recommend that the property be submitted for listing in the Register. The reasons for my (or our) findings concerning this nomination are stated below(use additional sheet if necessary). Additional comments: Chief Local Elected Official's signature and date 6 THE CHIEF ELECTED LOCAL OFFICIAL OR THE LOCAL GOVERNING BOARD SHOULD COMPLETE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING COMMENT PARAGRAPHS: C. I,Penny Rich, Chair, or We,the Orange County Board of Commissioners,have reviewed the nomination for the Schley Grange Hall and find that the property meets the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as stated in Section 8 of the report. We therefore, recommend that the property be submitted for listing in the Register. Additional Comments: Chief Local Elected Official's signature and date D. I, Penny Rich, Chair, or We,the Orange County Board of Commissioners,have reviewed the nomination for the Schley Grange Hall and find that the property does not meet the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as stated in Section 8 of the report. We therefore, do not recommend that the property be submitted for listing in the Register. The reasons for my (or our) findings concerning this nomination are stated below(use additional sheet if necessary). Additional comments: Chief Local Elected Official's signature and date