Schoolhouse will be moved;

used as information center

By sandi carpello
Staff Writer

Schoolhouse will be moved;


FARRAH MAFFAI This schoolhouse built in the mid-1800s will be moved to Old Church Road to become part of Monroe’s Historic Village and Museum.FARRAH MAFFAI This schoolhouse built in the mid-1800s will be moved to Old Church Road to become part of Monroe’s Historic Village and Museum.

used as information center

By sandi carpello

Staff Writer

MONROE — A schoolhouse that has stood at the corner of Prospect Plains and Applegarth roads for nearly a century and a half will soon be moved and transformed into part of the township’s Historic Village and Museum.

The one-room schoolhouse — which opened in 1856 and later served as the town’s first municipal building — will be relocated to the Charles Dey Homestead, a recently acquired property of almost 2 acres on Old Church Road that was donated by local developer Robert McDaid last year.

The Township Council voted Sept. 4 to authorize Princeton-based architectural firm Holt-Morgan-Russell, who are specialists in historic preservation architecture, to design a site plan and evaluate whether the schoolhouse should be moved intact, or if it should be dismantled first, according to Township Administrator Wayne Hamilton.

Hamilton said the township received a $22,000 grant from the state Historic Preservation Trust Fund to fund the cost of the architects’ work.

The schoolhouse could be moved by the end of this year or early next year, depending on how quickly the architects work, Hamilton said. There is some urgency, however, because a retirement community is being built around the site of the schoolhouse.

Encore Developers, which is building the planned adult community, is expected to aid in the funding of the schoolhouse project in exchange for the land the schoolhouse stands on.

The schoolhouse served as an educational facility until 1936, when it was transformed into the township’s first municipal building, said John Katerba, who is vice chairman of the township’s Historic Preservation Commission and is also the author of a recent book entitled Monroe Township and Jamesburg.

Before the governing body began using the schoolhouse, town meetings were often held in officials’ homes, Katerba said.

Historic Preservation Commission member Marvin Fischer added that the schoolhouse was more recently used for charitable functions such as food drives.

Katerba said he intends to use the schoolhouse, which will be refurbished in 19th-century style, for educational purposes such as an information center, a place to obtain brochures and for children’s tours.

In addition to the schoolhouse, officials intend to preserve and reassemble a 180-year-old barn that was acquired by the township in 1995. The barn, as well as a farmhouse and three out buildings that stand on the Charles Dey property, will be included in the township’s museum complex.

Township historians plan to fill the museum with various agricultural artifacts that have been obtained through the Historical Commission’s extensive research.

Katerba said he has found a great number of artifacts through local farmers and from "interviewing a lot of people."

Katerba, who is expected to be appointed as the official township historian next month, said he has been sharing Monroe’s heritage with young students. Katerba annually visits the third-grade classes at the township’s Mill Lake and Brookside schools and talks to them about their township’s history.

Members of the Historical Commission are also currently working to preserve a Revolutionary War encampment site where General George Washington camped June 27, 1778, the evening before the Battle of Monmouth.

Commission member Frances Bard said she is in the process of obtaining photographs and biographical information on the township’s former mayors. The commission plans to place the photographs in the municipal chambers.

The Historic Preservation Commission’s meetings are open to the public, and are held at the municipal complex the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m.