CLOSTER, N.J.—This week we take a look back at the Closter School—later Village Middle School—which will soon get a new life as affordable housing.
The Closter Public School at Durie Avenue and High Street first opened in 1900, containing three classrooms and an assembly room with enough space for grades kindergarten through eight.
Back then Closter was still a village within Harrington Township—meaning the school predates the borough itself. The population in 1900 was about 1,000 people (it’s more than 8,500 today).
In those days of rural Closter, far fewer people extended their children’s education beyond eighth grade. Those that did had to send their kids to Hackensack High School at their own expense, and many could not afford it.
In 1912, an addition allowed Closter School to be opened up to high school students. The school drew kids not just from Closter, but from all over the Northern Valley.
All school grades were housed in one building until 1929, when the Tenakill Grammar School was built for the younger kids. From that time, the Durie Avenue building became a junior and senior high school.
The setup changed once again in the 1950s with the coming of Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest. With high school grades transferred to that new facility, the 1900 building was renamed Village School. It housed the sixth, seventh and eighth grades until it closed in 1996, by that time nearly 100 years old. The building has been vacant ever since.
In 2017 the borough bought the property for $2.75 million, and now the next phase of the building’s life is on the horizon. Under the new name Village Knoll, the facade and Romanesque architecture of the 120-year-old schoolhouse will be preserved, while the interior will be converted into 35 affordable housing units. The plan, a partnership between the borough and Bergen County Housing Authority, aims to preserve a historic landmark while also fulfilling the borough’s state-mandated obligation to build affordable housing.
Did you know?
According to the Closter Historic Preservation Commission, the name “Village School” was chosen after a naming contest in the 1950s. Vicki Mall was the winning student, but the name had been suggested by her grandmother, Mrs. Beatrice Maude Browne, wife of a former mayor (1922–1930), William R. Browne. Mrs. Browne said that the old-timers called the downtown “the village.”