WESTWOOD—The pupils in this early 20th century photograph are posing on the front steps of Westwood’s Lincoln School. All of the borough’s children through grade eight attended classes here starting in 1900. The building stood near the corner of Mill Street and Third Avenue.
The story of the Lincoln School began in the 1890s when the voters of Westwood approved the purchase of a strip of land 317 feet long on Third Avenue stretching back towards Fourth Avenue. On this site the Lincoln School was constructed. The two-story frame building made to house the borough’s elementary grades was erected at a cost of $9,000.
The school was dedicated on Lincoln’s birthday in the year 1900. It was a large event that saw a crowd of Westwood residents don their furs and overcoats for a frigid outdoor ceremony. The school opened for classes the following Sept. 10.
At the time, the total enrollment was fewer than 185 kids for all grades, from kindergarten through eight. This included children not just from Westwood, but from surrounding towns as well (rules about school districts were a bit more lax back then). A $5 tuition fee was charged each quarter for out-of-town students.
In 1913 a new two-story brick structure took shape behind the Lincoln School, and classes were extended through grade 12. Westwood now had a high school in town for the first time. The borough’s first high school class graduated in 1915. There were only 11 young men and women in that class, as many still believed an elementary education to be sufficient.
As the high school expanded, Lincoln School had to be moved. The old wooden schoolhouse was transferred to a new foundation on Fourth Avenue in 1922. It was demolished in 1970.
The high school at Third and Mill became solely a middle school when the new regional high school opened up on Ridgewood Road in the Township of Washington in 1964. Eventually the junior high school followed suit and moved to the township location as well. The final class graduated from the middle school at Third and Mill in 1988. The structure was demolished in 1994 and the Enclave condominium complex was constructed at the site.
— Kristin Beuscher is president of Pascack Historical Society