School remains safe for safe
Board decides against
disposing of artifact
from district’s early days
MONMOUTH BEACH — What do you do with an antique safe so heavy it takes four men to move, and performs no job more difficult than holding students’ lunch money?
If you’re the Monmouth Beach school system, you get rid of it.
At least you try — and after the dust of battle settles, you decide to keep it around after all.
The Monmouth Beach school system reversed plans to sell an old safe currently housed in the school building.
Schools Superintendent Neil Franken-feld said at the group’s most recent meeting that there was no longer room for the outmoded safe in the newly renovated school building that will open this Sept. 1.
The safe is about 4 feet tall and 3 feet square and dates back to 1903. The interior chamber is considerably smaller due to the width of the metal walls, which are over 3 inches thick. It sits on four cast-iron wheels.
"Once you get it moving, it doesn’t want to stop," said Board of Education member Jay Maney.
When the issue of disposing of the safe was brought up at the end of the last board meeting, however, the idea of junking the safe — which has become something of an icon in the community — didn’t sit well with board members. Board member Dave Baker even offered to buy it to keep it from being discarded.
Principal Janet Clayton said the safe will now remain in the school.
The safe came from the first Monmouth Beach Inn, which burned down in 1929. Maney, a history enthusiast, said that a logo printed on the top of the safe led to this conclusion. The words Monmouth Beach appear twice on the top.
"I really thought that was odd until I really looked at it," said Maney. He said it is apparent that the third word, Inn, was scratched off the first line.
Since the safe was already in the possession of the school when the second Monmouth Beach Inn burned down, the safe must have come from the first one, said Maney.
Since then, it has done light duty as a repository for petty cash, including milk and ice cream money.
"It was more sentimental than functional," said Clayton.
The school’s vital records, which must be secured in a fireproof container, are stored elsewhere. Many schools do house such records in safes, which can be the size of walk-in closets.
Currently, school officials plan to display the antiquated safe with other historical items so that students and visitors can look at them. The school also has the original table used for Board of Education meetings in 1909. The oak table is big enough for only three people, and at that time most of the board members had to sit in the audience. The district also has a trophy case and roll-top desk dating back to that time period, as well as a marble plaque from 1908 dedicating the original school building.
Clayton said that she hopes the case and the table can be restored.
Specifics on where the proposed historical display will be located have yet to be worked out. The plaque, however, will be placed next to the other plaques dedicating the two new additions to the school.
— Robert DeGennaro