Mount Lucas School
Township School located on Mount Lucas Road
Incorporated 1875. Closed 1917.
The one-room Township school at Mount Lucas, a farming community located two and a half miles northeast of downtown Princeton, began as a small stone building around 1838. The school drew most of its students from nearby small, family-run “Herrontown” farms. These modest farms averaged about thirty acres each (as opposed to the more common seventy acres) and Herrontown families lived with few luxuries. Still, the farm families balanced their everyday chores and seasonal responsibilities with their children’s need for schooling.
With the creation of a Township-wide school board in 1890, the original schoolhouse was replaced with a “large and commodious wooden building” considered modern for its time. Here, students of all grade levels continued to be taught in the same classroom by the same teacher. The Mount Lucas School closed in 1917, with its students now traveling to the new consolidated Township school on Witherspoon Street. The building, now a private residence, still stands today.
Students in front of the Mount Lucas schoolhouse, 1904. Historical Society of Princeton.
Mount Lucas School classroom, 1904. Historical Society of Princeton.
The coal stove in the center of the classroom helped keep students warm during the winter months.
Mount Lucas School picnic with teacher Miss Louise C. Wright. Historical Society of Princeton.
The Mount Lucas schoolyard featured ridge rocks and large chestnut trees. Its woods were a popular picnicking spot for students and families.
Taking the bus to school. The Princeton Recollector. Courtesy of Mildred Gibbs Wilbur.
When the Township opened its consolidated school at 400 Witherspoon Street, students from Mount Lucas had to venture outside of their neighborhood to the new school. Many traveled via horse-drawn buses like this one.