New Jersey Ave School

New Jersey Avenue School was built in 1925 to replace a smaller structure. The old school was racially segregated, while the new building was meant to be integrated. It offered kindergarten all the way through eighth grade. 

The building was designed to be open to the public for concerts and various civic events. Because of this the classrooms were all on one side of the building, apart from the gym and auditorium.

The 350 seat auditorium was beautifully decorated. The stage spanned almost the entire width of the room, while chandeliers hung from the ceiling. 

The gymnasium was tucked away behind stage.

Students from New Jersey Avenue were relocated to the new school on Pennsylvania Ave in 2012. The city intended to fix up the building and put it back to use, but before that could happen superstorm Sandy came through and flooded it. 

I pulled up to the school about a decade later at the end of a long day exploring around the state. I was tired and had no idea how I was going to get inside the building. To my absolute shock the main front door had a missing window just feet from the sidewalk. 

The city police were notorious among local explorers for their swift response to alarms, so seeing the easy access set my nerves at ease. 

The city left everything inside the school when it closed, and after the flooding during Sandy everything was deemed a loss. 

Power had been left on for several more years after the closure, powering the alarms and preventing burglars from getting inside. Unfortunately once it was cut the scrappers wasted no time ripping the place apart looking for copper. 

It was announced that the school would be demolished in 2025 and replaced by a new administration building for the Board of Education. A press briefing was held outside the vacant school featuring several lovely former staff members, as well as the scandal plagued superintendent of schools La'quetta Small. 

During the early stages of the demolition process the building was accidently set on fire by one of the workers. The blaze was so severe several local news outlets reported on it, which is how I found out the school was being demolished. 

The school is now part of a growing list of historic educational facilities demolished across the state in the last decade. I'm grateful I was able to see the building and document it so it doesn't get completely forgotten to time.

First Presbyterian Church of Atlantic City

As someone who grew up in North Jersey, Atlantic City might as well have been Las Vegas. None of my travels as a kid ever took me past it, so I didnt see it in person until I was grown. They were both known to have a gruff reputation, corrupt history, and gambling. Despite that, the city actually holds several really distinctive civic buildings. The subject of this article is one such space that has unfortunately been lost. 

Source: TFPNJ Postcard Archive

The original First Presbyterian Church complex was built on the same site between 1856 and 1857. The main building was a handsome carpenter gothic structure with a tall, distinctive spire above it's bell tower. It also had a detached secondary chapel along S. Presbyterian Avenue. Corrupt crime boss and republican politician Nucky Johnson married in the old building in 1906. Johnson is ficticously portrayed by Steve Buschemi in the hit HBO series "Boardwalk Empire". 

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The church was stripped back to its frame and almost entirely rebuilt in 1909. This was likely done due to the fire hazard the original church building posed. Seneca Red sandstone replaced the old wooden clapboard. The bell tower was moved from the center of the building to the right corner, while the enormous spire was never rebuilt. 

The interior floor plan was dramatically changed as well to accomidate the growing congregation. Seating in the nave was reoriented to face the left wall, which had been opened up and rebuilt to serve as the pulpit.  This allowed the a much more significant balcony to be constructed, nearly doubling the capacity of the sanctuary. Three gorgeous windows were purchased from Tiffany Studios and installed behind the choir loft. 

Atlantic City experienced a significant population decline in the decades after WWII. Eventually the First Presbyterian congregation had become so small they didn't need such a large building anymore. Victory Deliverence Church moved into the space in 1989, making very few changes.

A charity food program known as Sister Jean's Kitchen moved into the building in 1997. Sister Jean was a former chef at several of the large casinos along the shore. One night a decade prior she saw a man digging through the trash for some food. She decided to take the man to a nearby pizzeria and get him something substantial instead. She invited the man to her house the next day for a proper home-cooked meal. This selfless act eventually grew into one of the most substantial charity meal programs in the history of Atlantic City. 

Sister Jean Webster passed away in 2011. The kitchen continued on in her honor, although it wouldnt be long before the program experienced another setback. 

Hurricane Sandy devastated the First Presbyterian building just a year later, forcing the kitchen out. Victory Deliverence came up with a plan to renovate the space, but it never came to fruition, and by 2018 the building was officially vacant. 

The building continued to languish over the years. The Tiffany stained glass was removed from the choir loft, and a number of pews were smashed up and discarded. The doors and windows were replaced by steel VPS panels to prevent further break ins. By 2024, plans were approved to have a cannabis dispensary replace the old church building. 

Demolition began in 2025. Usually thats the end of the story, but this one has a pretty wild twist. I mentioned earlier that the exterior was clad with Seneca Red Sandstone. That wasn't just a filler detail. The geological formation that produces that specific stone is part of a thin network that spans from northern Connecticut to southern North Carolina. The largest band streches from northern Virginia to the southern tip of New York, right across New Jersey. This band produced the stone for our church, as well as several prominent buildings in our nation's capital. Perhaps most notably was the original building of the Smithsonian Museum, known as "The Castle". The quarry that produced the Smithsonian's stone had been out of production for over a century, so they thought they were going to have to make an unflattering compromise duringtheir ongoing renovation. A member of the design team happened to be from Atlantic City thiigh, and knew of the old First Presbyterian Church. They brought a spalled piece of the museum to the old church and held it up; it was a near-perfect match. 

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It took several weeks to pry off all the stone, but the team got it done. The stone was loaded onto trucks and hauled down to the museum. The rest of the structure was torn down, leaving the lot bare for the first time in 168 years. It won't be for long though. A new dispensary means that lot will be on the tax rolls for that same period. City leaders have to be excited about that. 

Thanks for learning with me.