James G. Blaine School
The James G. Blaine School was located on the south-east corner of North 23rd Street at Wayne Avenue, facing North 23rd Street, in the Pavonia-Cramer Hill section of Camden. The school was built by Stockton Township, and joined the Camden public school system in 1899 when Stockton was annexed by Camden. The school was named for James Gillespie Blaine, who served twice as Secretary of State and was the 1884 Republican candidate for President of the United States, losing to Grover Cleveland. In the words of William H. Hirsch, who lived in Cramer Hill from the 1900s through the 1950s, “This schoolhouse was the genesis of a great many East Siders or shall I say Cramer Hill- or Pavonia-born people.”
The annexation of Stockton, in April 1899, brought eight new schools into the Camden school system. They were:
- Blaine School, Third (now 30th) and Green Streets.
- Washington School, Fourth (now 27th) and Cambridge Streets.
- Lincoln School, 28th Street and River Rd. (now River Avenue)
- Rosedale School, 3rd Street and Westfield Avenue;
- Harrison School, State (now Marlton Ave.) and High Streets;
- Garfield School, 29th and Master (now Cramer) Streets;
- McKinley School, 35th and Benson Streets;
- Catto School, 30th and Erie (now Saunders) Streets.
Camden now had two schools named for Lincoln, one in East Camden and one on Kaighn Avenue. The commission changed the name of the Lincoln School on Kaighn Avenue to the Claudius W Bradshaw School, in memory of the former Democratic Mayor, who recently died. The wisdom of the name change, however, was “questioned by many sections, because Mr. Bradshaw had never been identified with the public schools.”
In order to economize, the board closed the Linden and Blaine Schools, on June 30, 1932, its students being transferred to the George Washington Elementary School at 1033 Cambridge Street, just west of River Road. The James G. Blaine School was soon demolished.