Elsmere School

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This is a photograph of the Elsmere School, which was built for the Elsmere neighborhood. The school served as the grammar school for grades 1 through 8, primarily for black families that lived in the Elsmere. The school was located at 801 Ellis St, Glassboro, NJ 08028, on the corner of Ellis Street and Higgins Drive, which was named after J. C. Higgins, who was a boy scout leader and worked in the Elsmere School as a custodian. Mr. Higgins was a widely respected community member of Elsmere. The schools' map coordinates 39.696884, -75.135342) 

Before Elsmere School was built the black students were required to attend another segregated school on Academy Street called South Glassboro School. These students walk a substantial distance (no sidewalk) every day to school. After complaints from the parents, the Board of Education hired a farmer with an open back truck to bus the students to the Academy St. school. Eventually, the Board of Education voted to build the Elsmere School. 

After the Elsmere School was closed it was used for various purposes including meeting space, a recreation center, and currently a boys and girls club. For more information on Elsmere and the Elsmere School, please explore local historian Robert P. Tucker's, The History of Elsmere: African American Life in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Additional schools in the area:
The Lawns School was a two-room schoolhouse and is thought to have been the first school in the area for black students.

South Glassboro School was located in the approximate area of South Academy and Washington Avenue. We believe this school was located on Washington Avenue near the map coordinates 39.691561, -75.108214. 

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