Newark Academy Staff Take Trip Back In Time For 250th Anniversary

NEWARK, NJ — In honor of its upcoming 250th anniversary year, the employees of Newark Academy recently joined together to celebrate the school’s connection with the Brick City.

More than 130 faculty and staff members at the Livingston-based school gathered for a bus tour of the school’s four previous locations in Newark.

The Newark Academy team gathered at the school’s first-ever location in Harriet Tubman Square (formerly Washington Square Park), which is now marked by a boulder and tablet. Founded before the United States in 1774, this first location was short-lived, as it burned to the ground during the Revolutionary War in 1780.

The school’s founder, Alexander MacWhorter, was determined to continue the academy’s education, and restarted school in 1782 in temporary locations until the founding of the second building in 1792 at the intersection of Broad and Academy Streets.

Newark Academy faculty and staff continued the tour past that location — now home to Regines clothing store — and drove by the school’s third location at the intersection of High (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard), William and Shipman Streets.

Newark Academy occupied that space from 1857 to 1929; today it hosts Arts High School.

Finally, the tour passed Newark Academy’s fourth and final Brick City location along the historic Morris Canal on First Street in the Roseville section. This location featured the school’s signature cupola and an athletic track nestled next to Branch Brook Park. However, in 1964 the building was cleared to make room for Interstate 280.

Newark Academy eventually found its current 68-acre home on South Orange Avenue in Livingston – but its roots in its namesake city haven’t been forgotten.

“As we closed out Newark Academy’s 249th year, it was important that we continue to reconnect with where our school’s legacy began,” head of school Donald Austin said.

“We are excited to engage students, their families and our alumni body in our celebration of this historic milestone throughout the upcoming school year,” Austin said.

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