Lambert Street School

Lambert Street School. . , Construction of the building began in 1856 and it served as a school from 1857-1925. The upper floor housed the high school, accessible through the door on the front right side of the building and led to the stairway to the second floor. Plaques presented by some of the senior graduating classes are displayed in the Alloway History Museum in Room 216 of the Municipal Building. After 1912, high school students from Alloway attended Woodstown or Salem High School. The lower floor was an open room with three sliding doors that could separate it into two rooms. The school was heated by a coal stove in the middle of the side wall closest to town on the lower floor. Coal was delivered into a shed on the right side of the building that is no longer there. Coat racks lined the street side of the 1st floor rooms. Two outhouses, one for boys and one for girls, stood in the back corners of the property. The schoolhouse bell, originally in the belfry that is no longer on the house, is also on display in the Alloway History Museum., From Alloway Remembers, this is the wording of the original bid for the contract: , Allowaystown, June 7, 1856 , To Mr. David Evans, Edwin Stretch, and Joseph S. Jacobs , Trustees of the Allowaystown Public School, No. #8 , We propose to enter into a contract with you to build a new brick school house in said village, the said house to be built of brick two stories high of 9 feet each high. Said building to be 24 feet, the lower story joice (sic) to be 3 by 10, of white oak, with a large girder the whole length to be of white oak. The 2nd story joice (sic) to be hemlock 3 by 7 with girder on each door. The lumber to be black oak or hemlock. Good shingle roof. The floors to be Caroline pine 1 ¼ inch thick. Said building to have eighteen windows in the same and the sash to be hung on weights. Said building to have fice (sic) doors and closets. The same to be done in a workman‐like manner and good manners and to be finished by the middle of October next., We propose to build the same for the sum of twelve hundred and ninety-nine dollars and fifty cents. , Signed: William House and Richard G. Hadley, Ernest Dorrell purchased the building when a new school (now the Municipal Building/Senior Citizens' Complex) was built on Greenwich Street in 1925. Initially, Ernest operated a lampshade business on the first floor and lived on the second floor. In 1927, he married Olive Evans and as the family grew, a rabbit hutch was moved from another property in town and Ernest turned it into a workshop. The family expanded into the bottom floor of the schoolhouse with eventually eight boys being born from 1927-1949. Ernest, who had studied at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art prior to World War I, began to decorate furniture and became an antique dealer. He also received recognition for making and painting lampshades, partnering with Martin Bach of Durand Glass, who made the lamp bases. The school building remains in the Dorrell family. Both Ernest and Olive had attended school in the building., School Photos are from the Robert Dorrell collection of photographs by Abraham and Willard Darlington at the Salem County Historical Society. For more information about Alloway history, visit the Alloway History Museum in Room 216 of the Alloway Municipal/Senior Citizen's Complex This project was assisted by a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the department of State, the Salem County Board of County Commissioners, and the Salem County Cultural and Heritage Commission., Captions , Class plaques from Alloway High School on display in the Alloway History Museum. , Lambert Street School , Alloway High School students at Lambert Street School