New Jersey School Razed
By Elizabeth McNamara | Online Only | July 10, 2009
Central School, Somerville, N.J.
Credit: Thomas Buckingham
Central School in Somerville, N.J., may not have been on anyone's tour of great historic places, but virtually every child that grew up in Somerville walked through its hallways. It consisted of two brick buildings, one erected in 1897, and the other in 1904; and, though some of the bricks dated back to its founding, Central's age alone could not save it from demolition, which began in June and concluded this week. Few residents of the town of 12,000 challenged the Somerville Board of Education's decision to raze Central School.
"Nobody wanted to put their neck on the line," says Thomas Buckingham, a resident of nearby Green Brook who opposed the demolition. "It really wasn't a historic asset as much as a building that could have been used as a gallery or museum or space for a non-profit office."
The loss of Central School is part of a wider trend, with an increasing number of older New Jersey schools—some historic, including Trenton Central High School and Camden High—targeted for demolition. In 1998 the state Supreme Court ruled on Abbott vs. Burke, which allocated $8.6 billion to ensure "equalization" of school facilities, or to provide children from low-income, urban neighborhoods with the same resources as children from wealthy, suburban neighborhoods. The state consequently launched the School Development Agency to oversee construction projects to upgrade older facilities, but the tendency has been to demolish and rebuild rather than to rehabilitate and preserve.
"It became a real challenge to work with districts to save and renovate verses tearing down and building something new," says Adrian Fine, director of the Center for State and Local Policy at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "People feel like they want something new and clean for students because all they see is an old, shabby building."
But Central School was not in one of the 31 low-income, special-needs neighborhoods that receives 100 percent of its funding for facility upgrades from the state as a result of Abbott. The court ruling affects even schools outside of those districts. In fact, places such as Somerville now receive 40 percent of their facility-upgrade funding from the state. After money flooded the school system in July 2008, the Somerville Board of Education closed Central School the following November and announced plans to demolish the building that winter. (Somerville Superintendent Dr. Caroline Leary did not return phone calls from Preservation.)
"We didn't inquire [about demolition plans] while the buildings were still in use because we figured that, so long as they were using it, they weren't going to demolish it," says Belle Mead resident Jessie Havens, who also fought to save Central. "Then they said that we waited until the last minute [to object]."
Fine points out that it takes time to build a case for preservation. "Most people in the community are not plugged-in," Fine says. "By the time the school board proposes closing or demolishing the building, they are so far into the game that [those favoring preservation] are playing catch-up."
When some protested the decision, the Somerville Board of Education cited a 2008 referendum that resulted in a 123-94 vote to close Central. Although that ballot did not specify demolition, no Somerville resident was willing to file a lawsuit to stop the school board.
"That's typical in New Jersey because it's a geographically small state with only 566 municipalities and more than that number of school districts," says Ron Emrich, executive director of Preservation New Jersey. "People are always saying that they can't stand up to their neighbors."
There is a $220,500 project, contracted by DonJon Marine Company Inc., to convert the land into an athletic field for middle school students by this fall. The Board of Education wants to build a monument on the property, using architectural elements salvaged from Central School. According to Ryan Walsh, operations manager at DonJon, based in Staten Island, N.Y., crews removed about 10 ornamental masonry pieces—including columns and a medallion—from the buildings before demolition began.
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Comments
Submitted by wonder at: November 18, 2009
It's great . Very glad to come here .Best wishes !
Submitted by Mike from Somerville at: August 30, 2009
I recognize the value in preserving and reusing assets rather than demolishing and rebuilding. In this case, though, they're not rebuilding new structures in that space; the athletic fields they're putting in are sorely needed. Behind the demolished structures is a middle school with no outdoor recreational areas; having fields for the kids has always been the goal of this project.
Submitted by Brian at: July 11, 2009
I'm just glad it wasn't my elementary school. If I ever find out they have demolished my old school, I would be devastated. Those buildings could have been reused.