Oak Ridge Public School, built in 1925 at a cost of $30,552, replaced several one- and two-room schools in Oak Ridge township, including a log school about 1/4 mile away and a frame-built school used in the early 1900s. It served grades 1-8 with a capacity of 123 students in six classrooms, had two indoor flush toilets, no cafeteria or gymnasium, and an original center section with a stage and 300-seat auditorium. An office and library were created in 1937, and in 1959 a community public library was located within the school. Original Station 15 of the Oak Ridge Fire Department stood in a separate building on the property from 1954 to 2004. For more than 75 years, the school also hosted community meetings, festivals, the annual Fiddler's Convention, performances in the 1930s-1950s by nationally known traveling musicians including Bill and Charlie Monroe, Stringbean, and Grandpa Jones, and events at a grandstand behind the school tied to baseball games and the annual Oak Ridge Horse Show. In 2006, the old building was incorporated into a $13 million school expansion, renamed the Thomas F. and Carolyn C. Brown Historic Wing, and became home to a small community museum.