Crisp, North Carolina facts for kids

Crisp is a small community located in Edgecombe County, in eastern North Carolina, United States. It's not a city or town with its own government, but a place where people live and work together. You can find Crisp where two main roads, U.S. Route 258 and North Carolina Highway 124, meet. It's about 11 miles south of a bigger town called Tarboro.

History of Crisp

How Crisp Got Its Name

People started settling in the Crisp area as farmers in the late 1700s. For a long time, the community was known by names like "Eagles' Store" or "Eagles' Crossroads." This was because the Eagles family ran a store there for many generations.

In 1896, the community wanted to get its own post office. At that time, the Eagles family had a business partner named Sellus M. Crisp. When they applied for the post office, they used their business stationery, which said "Eagles & Crisp Mercantile." They asked for the community to be named "Eagles." However, the post office department noticed that many other places in North Carolina already had "Eagles" in their name. So, they suggested calling the community "Crisp" instead. Everyone agreed, and that's how Crisp got its name! The post office stayed in the Eagles' store until the early 1990s.

Churches in Crisp

Two main churches have been important to the Crisp community for a long time.

• Eagles Baptist Church was started in 1891. It was one of the first Missionary Baptist churches in the county and is still the largest church in Crisp today.
• Crisp Chapel Free Will Baptist Church was originally called Eagles Chapel. Historically, Eagles Baptist Church served a white congregation, and Crisp Chapel served an African-American congregation.

Schools in Crisp

Education has also played a big part in Crisp's history.

• Early Schools: For many years, there was a private school called Eagles Academy in Crisp. We don't know exactly when it started, but it was there in the 1800s and early 1900s.
• Public Schools: Later, a public school was built on the same site. This new public school brought together students from several smaller, ungraded schools in the area, like Edgewood School.
• Consolidation: Around 1925, the high school grades (8th to 11th) from Crisp joined with students from Macclesfield and Pinetops to form South Edgecombe High School, which was about two miles away. The elementary grades (1st to 8th) stayed at Crisp Elementary School until around 1960.
• Crisp Elementary School: In the 1950s, Crisp Elementary School was a busy place with seven teachers and eight grades. The school building was next to Eagles Baptist Church, and the church now owns that property.