The Pleasant Valley School Story: a Story of Education and Community in Rural New Jersey

The story of the Pleasant Valley School in Hopewell Township, Mercer County, New Jersey reveals how the people of the Valley experienced education and community identity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As industrialization and urbanization gradually replaced the predominantly agricultural and rural lifestyle of the nation, the people of Pleasant Valley experienced the same threats to their lifestyle that were felt by countless other rural communities in the United States. The stories of individual teachers, students, and community members who lived through these changes show us the human side of history. The community was divided by debate over changes to the education given to children in the rural schoolhouse while becoming united by attending the many community activities held there. The Pleasant Valley community reached its peak identity during the 1920s and early 1930s when education and community activities merged into a series of agricultural fairs held at the schoolhouse and brought notoriety and a sense of pride to the people of the Valley. After decades of debate, the school was closed and sold in the mid-1930s and the people of Pleasant Valley were confronted with the reality that they were losing their community center and not just their local school. This story also highlights the role of one family in the history of the school and how the schoolhouse and lot were used after the school closed in 1936. The George Wooden family arrived in Pleasant Valley in 1913 and over the next 90 years participated actively in the life of the school and community. Members of the family attended the school, taught in the school, transported students to the school, participated in and helped to organize community events at the school, and then purchased the school when it closed and converted it into a poultry farm. Finally, the Wooden family made it possible in 2003 for the schoolhouse to continue to educate people by ensuring that it became a part of Howell Living History Farm in the Pleasant Valley Rural Historic District, operated by the Mercer County Park Commission.