WOODCLIFF LAKE—On Woodcliff Avenue surrounded by a modern middle school campus, Woodcliff Lake’s little stone schoolhouse offers a lesson in longevity. It’s the oldest continually operating school building in Bergen County, having opened on Sept. 9, 1895—130 years ago this week.
After Woodcliff broke off from Washington Township and was incorporated as a borough in 1894, the first local board of education meeting soon followed. As a modern municipality standing on its own for the first time, a schoolhouse would be an important symbol of this new community.
The building’s design came courtesy of Samuel Burrage Reed, a nationally known architect who had recently been elected the borough’s first mayor. Reed’s own home on Woodcliff Avenue served as the venue for the early borough meetings.
With offices based in New York City, Reed was the architect behind prominent buildings in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut—including the Passaic County Courthouse, Middle Collegiate Church on Second Avenue in New York City, and more. Born in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1834 and trained as a carpenter in his teen years, Reed went to New York City at 21 to take up the profession of architect. He had a successful career for more than 40 years.
Reed’s family moved from the city about 1890 and purchased a quiet countryside estate at Woodcliff. He became deeply involved in local affairs, serving as mayor, justice of the peace, commissioner of deeds, commissioner of appeals, president of the board of health, and president of the board of education.
The architect mayor also loaned his skill for Pascack Valley works. He designed both the schoolhouse in Woodcliff and St. Paul’s (Old Stone) Church on Grand Avenue in neighboring Montvale. Each opened in 1895, these buildings were designed in a similar fashion: quaint, one-room fieldstone structures that were practical for the rural Pascack Valley of the time. Today both are still standing as charming relics within a modern suburban landscape.
The Woodcliff schoolhouse cost less than $2,500 to build—equivalent to about $96,000 today. It had one classroom that contained 26 student desks, three chairs, and a desk for the teacher, Miss Fannie M. Casine, who received an annual salary of $60. The total operating costs in the school’s first year came to $750.
The New York Sun wrote on Sept. 30, 1895, “The building…is built of stones gathered from surrounding farms by the farmers’ sons. The structure is unique in exterior appearance and has the latest improvements inside. It is, in all respects, the finest country school in the state.”
During the 1898–1899 year the school was able to raise $24 from local families and $20 through a state grant that enabled the purchase of a bookcase and some books—the school’s first library. In 1900 there were 329 people living in Woodcliff, including 83 school-age children. Still, only approximately 40 kids attended school on any given day. It was a time before compulsory attendance laws, when during certain seasons chores around the farm took precedence over the three Rs.
When the school had its centennial, former student Harriet Van Riper Tice (1901–1999) recalled her school days there starting in 1907. Her classes consisted of geography, civics, grammar, history, spelling, arithmetic, hygiene, and penmanship. The girls wore dresses with long stockings, and the boys wore knickers with their shirts neatly tucked in.
Tice recalled walking 2.5 miles to school from the family farm on Chestnut Ridge Road. The schoolhouse did not have a toilet, only an outhouse. She said the start of the school year felt like a vacation—a break from her chores on the farm.