Princeton’s Valley Road School School Makes Top 10 Endangered Historic Places List

The Valley Road School
The Valley Road School

The Valley Road School on Witherspoon Street in downtown Princeton has been named to the top 10 list of most endangered historic places in New Jersey for 2013.  Preservation New Jersey is slated to announce the list at a 10 a.m. press conference in Trenton.

Several generations of Princetonians were educated at the Valley Road School, which was the first integrated school in Princeton. The portion of the building facing Witherspoon Street later housed the township municipal offices, but is now used by Princeton Community Television. Corner House recently relocated to the former Borough Hall.

A task force formed by the mayor is exploring tearing down the building to expand the firehouse. A group of residents has proposed preserving the building instead and using it as a community center where nonprofits can rent space at reasonable rates.

The 10 Most Endangered Historic Places program spotlights irreplaceable historic, architectural, cultural and archeological resources in New Jersey that are in imminent danger of being lost.  The 2013 list includes sites in Bergen, Camden, Essex, Gloucester, Mercer, Monmouth, Morris, and Union counties.

Selections to the 10 Most Endangered Historic Places list are based on the likelihood that solutions can be found and historic buildings and places can be brought back to useful and productive life.

This year the list also includes one issue that endangers historic resources statewide. Preservation New Jerseys aims to bring the preservation community together this year to rally support for a long-term, stable source of funding for the Garden State Preservation Trust, which has funded New Jersey Historic Trust planning and capital preservation grants for hundreds of historic resources in New Jersey. The NJ Historic Trust is currently out of money for further capital grant rounds.

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Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.

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