The Orange Street School is a hallmark of Fayetteville's history and stands as an important touchstone of our shared local history.

The Fayetteville History Museum has hit the books with its exhibit on the Orange Street School. Helping to preserve the history, stories and lessons from the Orange Street School's role in our community, the museum welcomes tourists and local residents alike to learn about the historic school's inception, purpose, administration, and preservation. Up & Coming Weekly sat down with museum curator Heidi Bleazey to learn more about the Orange Street School and its exhibit.

"We are presenting the concept of looking at the history as a way to build the future; which is how history should be looked at. We look at our past as a way to create the pathway to the future. We look at Orange Street School as an incredible educational resource for African-American children, a lodestone in the community, that helped build up a community in the Orange Street neighborhood," Bleazey commented on the goal of the exhibit.

Built in 1915 as a school for African-American children and students, Orange Street School stands as a symbol of the right to education in America for everyone.

In 1983, Cumberland County Schools deeded the building to the Orange Street School Restoration and Historical Association. The organization helped play a role in having the Orange Street School officially added to the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places in 1987. It even housed E.E. Smith High School inside its walls at one point in time.

Connecting the past to the present, the exhibit at the Fayetteville History Museum hosts books from Edward Evans Senior, renowned local African-American educator and previous vice principal at Orange Street School.

Plans are currently underway to renovate and refurbish the institute of learning to once again bring education and opportunities to the local youth of Fayetteville.

Bleazey elaborated on this sentiment by saying, "It's a chance for us to learn and grow about this topic. It's allowed to be thrust a bit more in the spotlight, because of new history: a future for these sites."
Relating this to the news regarding a possible new location for E.E. Smith High School and the ongoing renovation efforts to preserve Orange Street School, Bleazey states she looks forward to the future being paved through the restoration efforts and increased interest in the site.

It stands to reason the more people learn about and get involved with historical sites such as Orange Street School, the higher the likelihood that these sites will be preserved and maintained.

"Preserving this history and this historic structure, the story and the structure, is going to lead to new education, new community growth, new youth inside that building and learning. So the effort to preserve is going to lead to a better future," said Bleazey.

The exhibit will be on display throughout 2024 at the Fayetteville History Museum. Admission is free to the public, and they are open from Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. They are located at 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville.

If you have any interesting insights on the history of Fayetteville that you'd like to share, they invite you to call and share it with them at 910- 433-1457. For those interested in seeing the Orange Street School, it still stands at 600 Orange Street and is adjacent to Festival Park.