VILLAS — For most of us, our experience with one-room schoolhouses comes from watching “Little House on the Prairie” or Miss Crabtree’s class in the “Our Gang” films.
Lower Township still has a one-room schoolhouse, the Fishing Creek School, built in 1888. It still has a bell in the belfry, its original floors and even a chalkboard in the front room.
The non-profit Friends of the Fishing Creek School was formed to restore the historic schoolhouse and develop it as a community center for the benefit of residents and its visitors.
The land for the school that was donated from the Matthews Family farm. Many of those who aided in the construction of the one room schoolhouse were veterans of the Civil War. The Fishing Creek School served as the only school in the area until 1921 when some students were sent to the Cold Spring Academy.
In the 1920s, there were as many as eight, one-room schoolhouses in the Lower Cape May region. With the advent of school buses, the one-room schoolhouses became obsolete, and schools were “consolidated” into buildings with multiple classrooms.
In 1926, the Fishing Creek School was sold at public auction and subsequently purchased by the Leckey Family.
The school is in surprisingly good condition. The Leckey Family used the school as a summer home for many years without disturbing the original character of the building.
The school was placed on the National and State Historic Registers in 1980, and the Leckey Family sought to ensure that the school be spared demolition.
In 1998, members of the community began efforts to save the Fishing Creek School, and in 2002, the school was purchased by the State Green Acres Program, and subsequently leased to Lower Township for 20 years.
Fishing Creek School Committee Chairman Norris Clark, said the purpose of the organization is raise funds preserve and maintain the school. Needed repairs to the building include the removal of a chimney from one side of the building because it is pulling away from the building and a new roof for the schoolhouse.
Partitions need to be removed to open up the school to one large room.
An old news clipping and photo were found offering an account of a resident who remembered an osprey nest atop the belfry.
Clark said the public would be invited to become members of the organization for a $10 donation.
“We would attempt to match any funds the township would put into the school,” he said.
The organization will also undertake fund raising events.The plan is to use the school for educational and cultural events include concerts on the broad lawn, weddings and perhaps as a welcome/history center. Clark said a gazebo would fit well on the property. The committee is also seeking memories, artifacts and photos of the school.
Lower Township Mayor Michael Beck said he envisions the school as a part of revitalization of Bayshore Road with a CVS Store soon to be constructed on the former Villas Lumber site, retirement apartments at Townbank and Bayshore roads and demolition of some derelict homes. He said the Fishing Creek School is at the center of the township.
Beck said the school could provide meeting space for groups of 25 to 40 persons.
A web site has been established: www.fishingcreekschool.org
Donations can be sent to Friends of the Fishing Creek School, 2600 Bayshore Rd., Villas, NJ, 08251.
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