WOODBINE – The borough recently received a $1 million federal grant to rehabilitate four contaminated properties, including one often referred to as the “old school site.”
What is not commonly known is that the site was the location of Woodbine High School, at Franklin Street and Monroe Avenue. The high school, which had 15 graduates in 1939, was closed in 1943, according to Jane Stark, director of the Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine Heritage.
Stark said that because so many boys were leaving due to World War II, the Board of Education met in 1942 and decided to close the high school.
“Boys either went in or lied about their ages, joining the war effort,” she said.
The problem left to the board was where Woodbine students would go to high school. Both Millville and Middle Township were considered, and in 1943 the decision was made to go with Millville. It was thought that, in the future, students would have an easier time getting hired in the more industrial Millville area after graduation, Stark said.
Woodbine would continue to send its high school students to Millville until 2015, when the school board switched to Middle Township, where they attend today.
The old school would come down between 1970 and 1984; the exact date it was demolished is something of a mystery in town.
The museum’s website says the high school was built before 1912. A reference in a 1922 student anthology named “The Owl” refers to it as having started in 1914. It described the enrollment on Sept. 5., 1922, as having 85 students, “the most the school has ever had.”
Several copies of “The Owl” over the years are housed at the museum,; one dated November 1922, another from June 1922, the “Commencements edition,” a third from February 1925.
In November 1922, the editor-in-chief was Zelda Rabinowitz, class of ’23, with associate editors Estelle Abramson (’23) and Chester Rabinowitz (’24). The editors describe the election of Literary Society officers and invite the “townspeople” to attend their meetings.
This is followed by a notice of the Debate Club, which was taking part in interscholastic debates sponsored by Rutgers. The debate topic was whether the United States should cancel the war debt of its allies.
The Athletic Association expressed wishes for victorious basketball and baseball seasons, adding, “Unfortunately, our boys are not able to play football on account of a ruling of the Board of Education, but the basketball practice is in full swing.”
“Many thanks to Mr. H. Goldinger for the use of his garage for (basketball) practice,” it reads.
In the June 1922 “Commencement” edition, Sadie Zuchovitz was listed as the valedictorian for the Class of ’22. In her address, she quoted the Arab Prophet Muhammad saying, “If I had two loaves of bread, I would sell one and buy a hyacinth to feed my soul.” Zuchovitz said the outward development of a state is an expression of its inner spirit; she applied this to American culture in 1922, which seemed to be wrought with materialism.
“The verdict rendered against American civilization is that it lacks the deeper life. In it, the critics tell us, materialism has conquered,” she wrote. She goes on to say that schools that teach higher ideals are a solution to the problem.
Reba Joffe, the salutatorian, spoke about the need for “stick-to-it-iveness,” as well as honesty and good sportsmanship. She used a sports analogy to express the notion of not giving up when times were hard, citing the example of the 1-5 baseball team: “Honor the game thou playest,” she quoted from an unnamed source, “for he who playeth the game straight and hard, wins even when he loses.”
Editor-in-chief Jacob Rabinowitz, who apparently took over from Zelda Rabinowitz, said, “Let us not leave with the impression that we are never to return to this school, and that once we are without its walls, the doors are closed behind us.
“Those doors of our school, no matter how far away we are from them, are always and must always remain open,” he wrote five years after World War I ended and 21 years before the school closed while the country was engaged in World War II.
Hyman Sussman wrote a brief history of the Class of ’22, which he said consisted of 24 students when they entered Woodbine High School in September 1918. Four years later, 11 would graduate.
In “The Owl”,” dated February 1925, it was noted that basketball was introduced in 1922 but abandoned before the year was over. It had been reintroduced in 1925 and was doing well under coach Lew Levenson.
Marjorie Rosenfeld (’23) opined on the expression “a dog’s life,” saying many people would enjoy being treated like a dog, being “patted and loved by all.”
A short essay titled “A Child’s Adventure” was penned by Anna Zoss (’25). Associate editor Estelle Abramson also submitted an essay – or a portion of an essay, titled “When the Orange Blossoms Bloom in Normandy.” Abramson’s story contained no references to orange blossoms or Normandy.
These writings were followed by more creative writing, including poetry and a segment of a play, and notes about friends for the Class of 1922, saying where they were attending college and who had gotten married (Ethel Cutler and Morris Rabinowitz), along with a reference to Rueben Bear, who was employed at the M.R.D. Hat Co., whose site is another of the four to be cleaned up.
Quite a few Woodbine businesses, such as the hat company, advertised in “The Owl,” including S. Nappen, a coal supplier, and several references to people named Corson. Nappen and Corson are the family names of the current deputy mayor and mayor of Upper Township, respectively.
The ads included businesses such as general stores, stores selling candy, sodas and cigars. The Sam Rosenfeld smoke shop offered “Beb-Vor and Havanna Seconds.” Beb-Vor was a slang term for rough or cheaply made cigars.
There were also ads from Woodbine meat shops, plumbing, heating and electrical businesses, tailor shops, clothing stores and a business named T. Naples, whose ad said, “Suits repaired, cleaned and made to order.”
There were also compliments and congratulations ads from Dr. Joseph Joffe, Woodbine Children’s Clothing Store, Sindle & Stern Inc., manufacturers of children’s clothing, Levy’s candy and school supplies, W.M. Katz, plumber, M. Cohen flour and feed, Jacob Bear shoe store and Pekarsky’s Modern Bakery, among others.
Another item at the museum is a commencement program from June 22, 1939, which lists 15 graduates. The valedictorian was Seymore Benson.
History
The Borough of Woodbine got its start when a group of Russian Jews bought 3,000 acres on Aug. 11, 1891, as a site for agricultural development. The 3,000 acres were purchased for $37,500. Prof. Hirsch Loeb Sabsovich led a group of 12 men, who spoke essentially no English and knew little about farming, to develop the Woodbine Tract. The borough was incorporated on March 3, 1903.
A reference was made to an Agricultural School existing in 1899 in “Adventures in Idealism,” by Katharine Sabsovich, wife of the professor, who was called Grisha.
The first teacher in a Woodbine school was faced with students who spoke a variety of languages, but not English. The earliest notions of schools were to develop them as agricultural and industrial schools.
As plans for school developed, so did the idea of public school as a place where children learned to become useful, self-supporting members of the community. The professor personally recruited some of the teachers to the Baron de Hirsch Agricultural School, also referred to in “Adventures in Idealism” as the Woodbine Agricultural School.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
