FRENCHTOWN HIGH SCHOOL – Less than a month after the Hillside Academy burned down on March 20, 1923, the school board voted to rebuild on the ashes.
But an adverse community reaction caused the board to rescind their decision at its next meeting. That acre, although centrally located, would be too small to accommodate additional rooms and a playground, too. Whether the new school should go all the way up through grade 12 was also debated. (Hillside Academy only had two years of high school; the ambitious could get two more years of high school in Lambertville.)
In May a special committee recommended building the new school between Eighth and Tenth streets. The lots in question were later purchased from Francelia Warford Opdycke, her daughter Nellie Gray, William Gaskill and Paul Cronce.
It took the school board until April 4, 1924, to ask the voters for $89,850 to build an elementary and full high school between Upper Eighth and Tenth streets. That amount would be augmented by $16,000 from fire insurance. Voters approved the plan.
But the bids came in high, and on Nov. 28 the board asked voters to approve another $20,000. That request was defeated 237-127.
The architect said he would cut the cost by revising the plan – eliminating five rooms and a gymnasium, making it a nine-room school with an auditorium. Meanwhile a campaign was launched to soften voter resistance to approving the additional money.
On Dec. 31 the Star, which did not normally publish letters to the editor, ran a Page 1 appeal by hatchery owner William F. Hillpot, who urged, “We have to put up a school. The State will compel us to. While we are doing it, let's do it right and put in the school that will do us the most good and cost us the least money to maintain. The advantages far excel the little additional tax it will cost us.”
In the new year, Hillpot wrote that Frenchtown had 37 high school students, but there would be more “if our school was at home” (instead of in Lambertville). With the nearest high school 12 miles away, he predicted an enrollment of at least 80 because of tuition-paying students from the neighboring area in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He also cited an estimate that the additional lifetime earnings of a high school graduate average $22,000.
“A high school is an inducement for people to locate in our beautiful village,” he wrote. Furthermore, “It will bring in the country folk and they will be glad to come to our town for the community center. It spells business for our community and the revenue derived from pupils attending our school from outside districts would greatly help maintain our high school.”
This last argument was also being put forward by Frenchtown school board president William Hoffman.
Theater operator Fred Sipes wrote to the Star, too. He drew an analogy. A farmer's 50-cow dairy barn burns down, and because there's a market for more milk, he wants to borrow to replace it with a 100-cow barn. “After looking the matter over thoroughly,” he wrote, “I believe a high school is the best investment we can make in our town and am willing to pay my share of taxes toward same.”
A petition signed by about 200 residents asked the school board to try again for the extra money – $19,900. On Feb. 15, 1925, the voters said yes.
As the school went up, a metal box was placed in the cornerstone. It contained: a Cressman's Counsellor cigar, a Chesterfield cigarette, four coins, a postcard photo of the Hillside Academy and a photo of its student body in 1922, an issue of the Frenchtown Star, an issue of the Hunterdon Independent, 1925 tax bills, a newspaper clipping of the 1923 fire, blueprints of the new school and an account of the building program. (The box was opened and these items were inventoried on the occasion of the 1964 mortgage burning.)
The new school opened Sept. 2, 1926. It was owned by Frenchtown, but also served students from Milford and the townships of Alexandria, Holland and Kingwood, plus the Pennsylvania townships of Tinicum (Uhlertown and Erwinna) and Bridgeton (Upper Black Eddy). The high school students were upstairs and the elementary students were on the ground floor. The supervising principal was Leigh M. Lott.
Its first graduating class, consisting of 22 scholars, got their diplomas in 1928. In 1932, 31 graduated. The Class of 1952 had 52 members.
Bertram M. Light succeeded Lott as supervising principal in 1931, and he'd remain for the duration.
Two wings were added with federal WPA money in 1939. The additions included a cafeteria, a library and an industrial arts shop.
In September of 1947, the school newspaper, the Blue & Gold, gave the school's entire enrollment as 317. The school's first yearbook was published in 1946. It was called “The Terrier.”
The school's auditorium has been used for a variety of shows, but the most famous performer was probably Dick Foran (1910-1979), who grew up in Flemington and went to Hollywood to act in almost 200 movies, some of them as a singing cowboy.
The gymnasium extends back from the auditorium stage, so the auditorium seats serve as bleachers for spectators watching basketball players run back and forth. The auditorium is not quite wide enough for a regulation-size court, so it's a little short. When varsity games were held – starting in 1933 – a net was stretched across the front of the stage so balls and players wouldn't fall onto the auditorium floor.
In 1948 football replaced soccer as its fall varsity sport. Fielding a junior varsity team to start, the Terrier gridders were winless until their first game of the '49 season when they trounced the Phillipsburg JV team 26-6.
The athletic fields were rented from the adjacent porcelain factory for $1 per month. (Note the baseball grandstand in the distance.)
Frenchtown was a high school town, the way Princeton is a college town, Bridge Street merchant Terry Heater told me. That notion is supported by a front-page item in the Oct. 16, 1953, News:
Things Pop In
Frenchtown After
A Football Game
...It's really remarkable how a football game can liven up a town like Frenchtown. Since the Terriers came into being a few years back, the town has pepped up considerably. As someone said last Saturday, 'Well, things are just a-popping, aren't they?'
Around 4 o'clock every Saturday the townspeople look forward to seeing the merry youngsters as they parade down Harrison street and up to Bridge, led by the colorful band and majorettes and fully decorated with blue and gold streamers. The car horns compete with the band and other students to see which can out-noise the other.
Of course, if the Terriers don't win, things are rather quiet after the game, but for the past two weeks they have been the victors and there has been plenty of excitement and fun around town between 4 and 5 o'clock.
Last Saturday, they won over Belvidere with a score of 27-0, and as a reward the team and band personnel were guests of Mabel and Wilbur Johnson at the Coffee Shop. After the treat, the band gave an impromptu concert between the Coffee Shop and the Candy Kitchen. Bob Hoffman, co-captain and star player, was carried out of the shop on the shoulders of two students. Even the small fry joined in the fun by tripping the light fantastic in front of Eddy's.
More power to our high school football team and band. Our country, and all countries, need clean sports to combat juvenile delinquency.
But it wasn't all pageantry; there were livings to be made and careers to choose. Margaret Carpenter became the school's first guidance counselor in 1949. Freed of some of her teaching duties, she advised students on their vocational choices.
In 1956, even though the Pennsylvanians had their own high school – Palisades opened in '53 – FHS was more than full.
By standards of the day, the existing school building could accommodate 500 students, but it had 359 high school students and 195 Frenchtown elementary students. Kids in the younger grades had been displaced and were being taught in Borough Hall and the churches. Something had to be done.
Next: Frenchtown's options. SPOILER ALERT: Delaware Valley Regional High school.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"