Old Schoolhouse

The Old Port Colden Schoolhouse was built in 1869 on the banks of the Morris Canal. The stone set over the door is dated 1869, a time when the canal was at its busiest. The bricks to build it were made in a nearby brickyard and much of the labor was donated by the local people. Counting the cost of the land, it cost a total of approximately $4500 to build. It was typical of the kind of building that began to replace the one-room schoolhouses at that time. The front door opened into a small hall with a coatroom on the right and a steep winding staircase on the left. Then there was one large classroom behind the hall used for grades one, two, three and four. The second floor was the same for grades five, six, seven and eight.

There were two outhouses out behind the schoolhouse with a large fence between them. One was for the boys and the other for the girls. The source of water in the schoolhouse was a cistern in the basement that collected roof water. It was hand pumped into a container in the coatroom on the first floor. Buckets of water were hauled upstairs for use in the second floor classroom. Heat was provided by wood and coal stoves. Boys would be assigned the chore of bringing up coal from the basement.

Throughout the years most of the building has been left intact as it originally was. It has now been placed on the National and State Registry as a historic building. The Washington Township Board of Education has been acquiring grants from the State of NJ, Warren County and Washington Township to help in the restoration process.

So far the slate roof and beautiful belfry have been replaced. The soffetting and fascia have been restored. The windows were all replaced and the bricks that were broken or missing replaced and repointing done where needed. Also, the front door was stripped and refinished just like it originally looked and the front porch was replaced with one that exactly replicates the original. In other words, the outside envelope of the building has been totally restored. As soon as funds become available again, the next part of the project will be to begin the inside. In the meantime, we are collecting registers, desks, pictures and other objects that were one time found in the old schoolhouse so that we will be ready to display them once it is complete.