TENAFLY—Can you imagine a scene like this taking place today? Kids are all over Tenafly’s first public school—and no safety nets in sight!—in this photograph taken around 1890.
In keeping with gender norms of the time, the girls are primly posed at ground level, while the boys have climbed out a top window and turned the school facade into a jungle gym.
The red brick school, built in 1872, stood at Tenafly Road and West Clinton Avenue. Originally 40 feet by 60 feet, two stories in height, with a mansard roof and a basement, it cost $11,000 to build, about $275,000 in today’s money. It was modern for the time, heated by a furnace as opposed to a wood stove, and well ventilated. Later the school was enlarged to make more classrooms.
The class photo shown above dates to 1883. We can only wonder what the teacher (back row, right) is pointing at. The school budget for that year was $1,500.
In the following decade, according to school records, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” and Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” were pulled from the library shelves due to objectionable content.
The old brick school was torn down in 1920 to make way for Tenafly High School (which, in turn, has now become The Browning House condominiums).
More photos: See this feature in the September 2023 Northern Valley Press via searchable PDF