During our continuing digitization efforts, we found this photograph of the Brick Academy in Basking Ridge, NJ, in a Fire Department scrapbook. The building started life in 1809, as the Basking Ridge Classical School and later became a Bernards Township public school. In 1904, it was auctioned off to the Ancient Order of United Workmen (A.O.U.W.), a fraternal organization.
Later used as the Bernards Township municipal building, it is now home to The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills (THSSH). In 1976, the Brick Academy was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Notice the shutters and the roof over the front porch. Trees are growing in front along West Oak Street and in the present parking lot. To the right, the old Presbyterian Session House (the old Basking Ridge Library) appears with the clapboard siding it had before its current brick veneer.
UPDATE: The photo is older than first thought. It was printed on postcards and one postcard was found postmarked October 20, 1905. The post has been updated to 1905 (from 1913) to reflect the earlier date.
