By the early twentieth century black schoolchildren in Fayetteville had been attending classes in small, usually one-room, schoolhouses for nearly 50 years. A building program in 1911 had financed three all-brick schools for white children. In 1915 the town appropriated funds for a two-story brick structure for black children. "The handsome new building" opened on Orange Street that year. A year later, the school reported 853 pupils enrolled, with more than 500 in daily attendance. The building served in this capacity for 38 years. Professor Edward Evans (1863-1943), whose home is across Orange Street from the school, was associated with the school for its entire existence. The first E.E. Smith High School was located there in 1927. Orange Street School is the oldest existing structure in the city associated with public schooling.