NJN reporter Marie DeNoia spoke with Center for Community Arts Board Chair Shirley “Becki” Wilson recently as part of the “History Hunters” segment on NJN News. DeNoia also interviewed fellow CCA founder Emily Dempsey, Executive Director Steve Bacher and Curator/Archivist Rachel Rodgers. The segment is scheduled to air Monday, July 10, on the NJN News at 6:00 p.m., 7:30 and 11:00 p.m.

Franklin Street School Featured on NJN “History Hunters” Series

Every Monday evening for the next few months, NJN News will air a story about a historic site from each of the state’s twenty-one counties. Cape May County’s story, scheduled to air on July 10 as part of the evening news at 6:00 p.m., 7:30 and 11 p.m., will be on Franklin Street School. Once Cape May City’s segregated elementary school for African American children, Franklin Street School is now being rehabilitated by the Center for Community Arts (CCA) and will be transformed into a community cultural center.

The stories will take viewers back in time. Some will offer a glimpse into life in New Jersey hundreds of years ago. Others will trace historic events that occurred in the state. Some of the other places NJN will visit include the Hunter-Lawrence-Jessup House in Gloucester County, the Renault Winery in Atlantic County and Mount Tabor in Morris County.

Franklin Street School was built in 1927 as a segregated elementary school for Cape May’s African American children. When segregation was outlawed in New Jersey in 1948, the school's use changed, and it was later allowed to deteriorate. Advocacy efforts by the Center for Community Arts led to the State of New Jersey designating the neglected school an African American Historic Site. In January 2002, CCA acquired a 25-year lease of the School from the City of Cape May and is now working to rehabilitate the School as a community cultural center. It's one of the few such schools in New Jersey still standing.

The History Hunters segment will also include footage from CCA’s exhibit, “A Feeling of Community: Segregation and Education on Cape Island, 1860-1954,” on display at the West Cape May Borough Hall now through September.

The Franklin Street School Rehabilitation Project has received funding to date from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the New Jersey Historic Trust, the Black United Fund of New Jersey, Sturdy Bank, and many other generous businesses and individuals. Fundraising is ongoing; Phase II of IV is scheduled for later this summer.

West Cape May artist Susan Ross has designed a mosaic mural that will adorn the revitalized School’s entrance hallway. This summer, Ross will lead a series of free workshops in which community members will create tiles to be used in the mosaic.

For further information call 884-7525.