Price's Switch Schoolhouse damaged during recent storms

VERNON — Recent heavy rains and strong winds took their toll on Sussex County’s last remaining one-room schoolhouse. The Price’s Switch Schoolhouse, located at the intersection of Price’s Switch and Meadowburn roads, has long been recognized as one of Vernon’s historical treasures. During the course of the stormy weekend, a large branch measuring about 18 inches across broke from a tree’s main trunk and fell directly onto the roof of the schoolhouse. On the Monday following the storm, Sussex County employees arrived to remove the broken limb. They also spread the bright green tarp on the top and left side of the building to protect it from the elements. Although only one window appeared to be damaged, plywood was used to cover the three rearmost windows on the right side of the building. On Thursday, Cheryl Delea, assistant director of the Division of Facilities Management for Sussex County, said that county workers would return to the site to remove additional trees that threaten the building. She also said that a contractor had already been to the schoolhouse and is preparing an estimate for the cost of repairs to the building. Part of the problem in making repairs is that to maintain the historic significance of the schoolhouse, the materials and methods used to make repairs should be true to the relative age of the building, including the metallic roofing material. Local farmer and college professor Dan Kadish, an alumnus of Price’s Switch Schoolhouse, opened the building for a brief guided tour. He graduated from the school in 1951, several years before the school closed its doors for good. Kadish still lives just down the road from the schoolhouse. Price’s Switch Schoolhouse is reportedly the last one-room schoolhouse in Sussex County. It closed its doors on June 20, 1958, although the inside of the building appears to be frozen in time. According to Vernon historian Ronald J. Dupont Jr., the building dates back to 1840 and was originally located on Route 94, about one quarter-mile north of Price’s Switch Road. The school was moved to its current location around 1883. After that time, the building was enlarged for the addition of coatrooms. At the front of the building, the left coatroom was for girls and the right one was for boys. Similarly, in the yard behind the school, the left outhouse was for girls and the right one was for boys. Also added later was a bank of windows along the building’s right wall. Dupont is the author of “Vernon 200, A Bicentennial History of the Township of Vernon, New Jersey.” It was originally called Price’s School. The building and grounds are owned by Sussex County under the direction of the county Freeholders and maintained by the Vernon Township Historical Society under an agreement with the County Historical Society. Asked for comment, Jessica Paladini, president of the township’s historical society said, “We are very upset that this damage has occurred to our schoolhouse, which is one of our most historic sites, but we are very happy that the county has stepped in so quickly to remove the tree and repair the damage.” Paladini added, “We’re just waiting on the insurance company now. This is the last existing one-room schoolhouse in the county and it is one of our most active historic sites. Hundreds of school children and adults visit it every year and learn about education at the turn of the twentieth century. The interior of the schoolhouse is precisely as it was on the day the school closed its doors in the 1950s.”