The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-06-10
new HIGH SCHOOL
Bergen" Shows Why It
AAes3snus IlserSq ssTol1I
I sIss :Shogadl!BeII 8 Located yea ps I'm ialqeA 1.
That Section.
JOURNAL DUpLICITY EXPOSED
Circumstances Which Con-
denim the Harrison Pro-
perty For a Site.
Jersey city. N. j. June 9, 1899.

AS IL seems 10 Dc WllidH thc idh5S ~
possibility that at last the citizens oil
| Jersey City, after years of fruitless en-
| deavor. are to become possessed of a new
High school building and the lettering
pile of bricks and mortar on Bay street.
which at present disgraces the name, IS
| to be abandoned for the purpose, a few
words in the columns of your valuable
| paper up on the selection of a suitable
site for the contemplated structure may
not he amiss.
The subject has been agitated for SO
many years without any material result
that the minds of the people seem to have
become somewhat apathetic upon 1t ana
comparatively little interest is being taken
in the important proceedings now before
the Board of Finance and Board of Edu-
cation except by those directly interested
in the sale of various sup~posed-to-be suit
able school sites.
At the joint meeting of the Board OF
Finance and the new High School Conn
mittee of the Board of Education, held
ON Tuesday afternoon last about a dozen
sites were offered by their respective own
ers or representatives, and every site was
located on the Heights. OF course the
new High School must be placed some
where on the Hill, as nearly the entire
growth of population is beyond the boun-
diaries of old or lower Jersey City. But
there seems to be. a division of opinion IN
the Board of Education, to which body IS
entrusted the selection of a site. as to
what section of the Heights should be
chosen.
The High School of any city is in a
sense the educational centre of that city
and as such should obviously be located:
first. as near the centre of school popu-
| lation as possible; second, away from the
hustle and noise of business or manu-
featuring sections; third, in a neighbour
| hood where the beauties of such a build
| ing. as a High School should be architec-
| turalIy. would not be detracted from by
cheap or saualid surroundings. Other fac
tors to be considered by our Board OF
Education are space and cost. but judg-
| ing by the offers made on Tuesday there
is plenty of ground to be had at fairly
| reasonable figures.
Most of the sites so far offered are To-
Gated either in the Hudson City or Bergen
section. and it is to the greater desir-
ability of some of the plots offered IN the
Bergen section that I would lik to call
the attention of your readers. Nearly
every one of the sites offered in the Hud-
| son City section are located very near the
| Court House., and the surroundings or
most of them would not by n means
form a fitting frame for a handsome
building. Moreover. the distance to be
travelled to and from a school in the
| vicinity of the Court House. from all that
| section of the city south of Grand street
would be much greater than even to the
| present school in Bay street. The people
of Lafayette and Greenville ought to con-
| slider this fact and also the fact of the
| change of cars that would be necessary
at the Junction. And the residents of
those sections are more generally given
to sending their children to the High
| School than are those of the north end
| of the city. Another point against most
of the Hudson City sites is that they are
| located on beds of trap rock which would
| entail an immense expenditure in blast
| ing foundations and cellars. thus leaving
less of the available appropriation to be
| devoted to the building itself.
On the other hand there were offered to
the Boards two or three pieces of prop
| erty in the Bergen section that to the
| thinking taxpayer should be ideal spots
for the location of a High School. They
| are in quiet ~neighborhoods, surrounded by
| a splendid residential section and safe for
MANY years to come from the encroach-
| ments of business or other undesirable
| attributes of a school location, and if they
| are not now exactly in the centre of the
| city's schoo population they will be be-
fore long and they are now easily ac-
| cessible from all parts of the city.
One of the local daily papers, from mo-
tives tina seem not to be entirely disin-
| t~erested, has seen fit to object to two of
| the most desirable sites offered. because
| of their proximity to a prominent private
| school and the fear that a High School
so near would draw patronage from this
| private institution. But, permit me to
| say, Mr.. Editor, that if the merits of the
| system of education pursued in this
| private school anywhere near approach
| its pretensions. it has nothing to fear from
the location of the public High School in
| the vicinity.
Some years ago a Board of Education
chose and purchased for a High School
| the plot of ground at Bergen and Fair
mount avenues. and the selection of that
site was suitable in every way except as
to the size of the plot. Hence it was
| abandoned. AT that very time the afore-
mentioned daily paper strongly advocated
one of the very sites it now opposes. In
/ the meantime the Bergen section has
| steadily grown in prominence as a resi-
| Dental section and if the location was
then desirable it is doubly so at the pres
ent time. But the private school built by
| a stock company had not then been even
contemplated.
In an editorial last night that paper
| advocated the purchase of a piece of prop
erty which was not offered to the Board
| of Education. but which it, the paper,
| characterized as the most desirable site
for a High School in Jersey City. 1t re-
| ferred to the so-called Harrison prop
| erty.'' which is now owned by the N. ].
Junction Railway Company, which COM
| pany, no doubt, is very anxious to dis
pose of such a useless waste of rock.
This property is situated on the brow of
the hill at Newark avenue. and consists
Of a lofty promentory of trap rock. over
looking miasmatic marshes, adjoining a
cemetery and almost on top of the West
Shore freight yards. Without doubt
all that vacant space beneath
This desirable site will. in a
very few years be nothing more
than than a big freight yard, noisy with
the din of locomotives blowing off steam,
ringing bells, and all the other necessary
adjuncts of a big railroad yard.