Crisp is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Edgecombe County in eastern

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, United States. It is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 258 and North Carolina Highway 124, approximately 11 miles south of

Tarboro Tarboro is a town located in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Rocky Mount metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 10,721. It is the county seat of Edgecombe County. The town is o ...

History

Various family records indicate that farmers settled in the area by the late 18th century. The community became known as "Crisp" in 1896, when it acquired a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

. Before that time, the community had been referred to as "Eagles' Store," "Eagles' Crossroads," and other variations after the store run by the Eagles family, now through five generations. In 1896, the Eagles had taken on a business partner, Sellus M. Crisp, and when the business, on behalf of the community, applied for a post office with the request that the community be named "Eagles," it was on Eagles & Crisp Mercantile business stationery. The post office department, noting that several towns throughout the state had the word "Eagles" in the name, suggested that the town be called "Crisp." There was no disagreement and the Post Office had a station in Eagles' store until the early 1990s. Eagles Baptist Church was organized in 1891. At the time it was the second Missionary Baptist church in the county and is still the largest church in Crisp. Crisp Chapel Free Will Baptist Church, formerly Eagles Chapel, is the other church in the community. Historically, Eagles Baptist Church has served a white congregation and Crisp Chapel (formerly, Eagles Chapel) has served an African-American congregation. There was a private academy, Eagles Academy, in Crisp from an unknown time in the 19th century into the 20th century. It was followed by a public school on the same site. The public school was graded and replaced several ungraded schools in the area, including Edgewood School. In around 1925 the high school grades (8-11) consolidated into South Edgecombe High School, about two miles away, being joined with

Macclesfield Macclesfield () is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is sited on the River Bollin and the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east; the town lies south of Ma ...

and Pinetops high school grades. The elementary grades(1-8) did not consolidate until around 1960. During the 1950s, Crisp Elementary School was a seven-teacher, eight-grade school. The school site was east of and adjacent to Eagles Baptist Church and the Church now owns the property.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Edgecombe County, North Carolina Unincorporated communities in North Carolina Rocky Mount metropolitan area