FREEHOLD — A piece of African- American history in Freehold Borough lives on after 100 years in existence.
The Court Street School Education Community Center, 140 Court St., Freehold, will hold a centennial celebration from Sept. 18-20.
“There is a sense of pride for the whole community to have such a historic site as part of its landscape,” said Lillie Hendry, director of the Court Street School Education Community Center.
An open house will be held from 6-8:30 p.m. Sept. 18 and will include a historical review of the school; an artistic impression with Margaret Davis Tarr, a 1947 Court Street School alumna; and a literary presentation with Walter David Greason, a professor at Monmouth University, West Long Branch.
A dinner and dance will be held from 7:30 p.m. to midnight Sept. 19 at the Battleground Country Club, Manalapan.
A concluding gathering will take place from 2-4 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Court Street School Education Community Center.
“There is a sense of accomplishment for the community in having an interest in and supporting the preservation of the school,” Hendry said.
The Court Street School was organized by the Freehold Board of Education in 1915 exclusively for the education of the community’s black children. The one-room wooden building was constructed in two phases: one in 1920 and one in 1926.
All black children in Freehold were educated at the Court Street School from kindergarten through eighth grade until World War II, when the school was used as an air raid shelter and a ration station.
Under pressure from war veterans, a court order integrated the school and it reopened for kindergarten through third grade in 1949. The school closed in 1974.
In 1990, Court Street School Education Inc. was formed as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization to restore the school for use as an education community center and to preserve it as a landmark of the black community in Freehold.
The group received more than $800,000 from the New Jersey Historic Trust and the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders to restore the facility.
In 1995 the building became an official historic site in New Jersey and was placed on the National Register of Historic Sites. The school now operates as a community education and historical center.
Hendry said she is hopeful the preservation of the former school will continue into the future, especially for young people of the community.
— Christine Barcia