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The History of schools at Bergen Square began approximately in the early 1660s and is continued today, albeit in different physical buildings, the site has remained the same. This has made the site the oldest site in the United States that has been continuously occupied by an educational institution.

History

Around 1660, the Dutch laid out an 800 square foot area on a former cornfield cleared by the Hackensack Indians. The vicinity was walled off with large wooden stakes and gated, and separated into four equal quarters, with eight plots of land in each quarter. The initial layout of this "square" would become what is now the present day headquarters of the town, Bergen Square, and the roads intersecting, Tuers Avenue to the southeast, Newkirk Street to the northeast, Van Reypen Street to the northwest, and Vroom Street to the southwest have retained their position and name to this day. The village of Bergen officially began on September 5th, 1661, and it is regarded as having New Jersey's first local civil government and as being the first permanent settlement as well. Houses and community centers were built on the inside of the square and fields laid outside of it, to protect from Indian attacks. As time passed and Indian hostility ceased, the protective wooden fences were removed. For the early Dutch settlers, education was viewed as being equally as important to proper religious study, as both were united under the same governing body of the church. The Dutch Reformed Church had a congregation in the square and the town was under the governorship or Peter Stuyvesant, and under Dutch rule.

The first buiding (prior to ~1664):

Although the exact placement is not known, the multi-purpose church and schoolhouse was likely located at the corner of Tuers Avenue and Vroom Street outside of Bergen Square, and what is now at the intersection Vroom street and Bergen Avenue, which can be seen around the southwestern tip as marked by the steeple in the map on the right. The Dutch Reformed Church held jurisdiction over the schoolhouse around 1660. The building was most likely a simple log cabin, and served both the congregation for religious purposes as well as children for education, although both practices were not well defined or established until a few years later. In the summer months of 1662, the Dutch made their first attempt at a proper education when Engelbert Stuynhuysen, a teacher who had been licensed that year, was made voorleser, as well as to be the acting schoolmaster. He continued to act as the head of the school for two years, as he was contracted for, and his termination as voorlesser also marked the end of the use of the first log cabin as well.

The longest continuous educational site

Log Cabin (~1664):

Although Bergen was not attacked, four English frigates entered into the Upper New York Bay, and demanded surrender of the Fort at New Amsterdam, and thus, all of New Netherland. This marked the beginning of the English settlement, and under a provision for education by Governor Philip Carteret, the settlers were to select and maintain a land strictly for the use of educating the youth. In Caterets' charter, from September 22nd, 1668, he stipulated that the land was to remain free from rents or taxes forever. The lot on the eastern side of Bergen Square was chosen as the site, which in that year would become the official site dedicated to the cause of education, and is currently at the corner of Bergen Avenue and Academy street. The first school building, on what would become the longest continuous educational site, was most likely another log cabin. It was also probably used as a "drunkards prison" on the weekends. There were a total of 27 communicants that would attend this building for either educational or religious affair; 18 women and 9 men who would travel from surrounding communities outside of Bergen to the facility. Records indicate that around 1665, a man by the name of B. Van Giesen began acting as voorleser of the Bergen square school, a position which he held until his death in 1707.

Other then overlapping curriculum and the overseeing of the church and school, the buildings at this time may have been shared simply because the church was in a state of poverty. This ended in 1680, when the first "proper" church built in Bergen Square was erected, an octagonal building nicknamed "The Little Church", which had a brass rooster weather vane perched atop its steeple. This building marked the physical separation of the school and church, although the entities would remain closely tied for nearly another century.

First Building (1708):

The school building was rebuilt in the same site, and the Dutch church continued to run the facility. The church likely kept control over the school until the revolutionary war. The components for constructing the school were provided by donations from the citizens of Bergen, which included stone, clay, sand and lime. On May 11th, 1708, the new school was officially opened by Matheus Bensum, and the cornerstone was laid by Adrien Vermeulen. Vermeulen would be the voorleser until 1736, when he was replaced by Isaac P. Van Benthuyssen. He acted as head of the school until 1761, until the final schoolmaster of the first building, Abraham Sickles took his position. During his term, an official pastor arrived for the Bergen congregation and Sickles was relieved of his sermon related duties. He remained in this position until 1789.

Columbian Academy (1790):

In 1790, a council called "The Trustees of the Bergen Columbian Academy" took possession of the lot of the prior school building, and brought about the motion for the erection of a large two-story stone building, featuring an ornate copula. A few years later on October 30th 1793, an act called "An Act for the Establishing of Schoolmasters within the Province" was passed which enabled the school trustee system, likely marking the time when the school separated itself from the government of the Church, as the township had elected three men to decide on the pay for the schoolmaster. The school put out an advertisement in a New York Newspaper in 1796, boasting of the schools low rate, which was quoted as being twenty to twenty five shillings per year, quality education, and of its' proximity to New York. During this period, Elijah Rosegrant was listed as the school teacher. A single room in the academy was used by the "Ancient Order of Reehabites" a mysterious group whose activities entralled students for many years. The layout of the school room was in the shape of an "L", and the schoolmaster would seat girls on one side and boys on the other, placing himself at the corner so he could watch both simultaneously. In 1813, the township of Bergen acquired the deed of the school property from the Trustees of the Academy, and in the following year the Academy was approved for use of a public school under New Jersey legislation. Upon the demolition of the old Bergen Church in 1841, the brass rooster weather vane was placed atop of the copula. The Columbian Academy remained in operation until 1857, when the building was demolished for the construction of a new building by the city of Jersey City.

Columbia District and Public School No. 11 (1857):

Built with many of the same stones used by the previous Columbian Academy, the first brand new Public School was built on the same site as its predecessors in 1857, with the name "Columbia District School Number One, Town of Bergen". Following the merger of Bergen, Jersey City and Hudson cities in 1870, the facility was officially designated as Public School No. 11.

1903: Second Public School No. 11

At the same site as the Columbian Academy,

See also

• Voorleser

References

• [1]
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• [8]