The town outgrew its tiny one room school and in 1871 added a 4-room structure called Harmony Street School, also called the Wooden School or Gray School by many. An 1876 manuscript of Salem Schools by William Reed says “the building is a model of the class needed in districts similar in size.” It was located on the north side of West Harmony Street and North
Broad Street. The belfry was on the original section of the school. There were renovations in 1896, 1900 and again in 1906. The 1896 renovation added two rooms and another two rooms were added about 1900. William A. Summerill states that “In 1906 a four-room unit was erected and made room for the development of the high school on the State’s approved
course of study which provided proper knowledge for the scholar to enter higher education institutions. Thirty-seven hundredths of an acre of land were added to the ground in 1906, by purchase from Samuel and David G. Simpkins. This high school was called Union High School. When the new Broad Street High School opened in 1915 Harmony Street
School became a grammar school. In 1916 the inspector of buildings described this school as being in miserable condition, being very old and stated it had outworn its usefulness. The staircases were described as dangerous and a fire hazard. It was recommended that the building be abandoned. Instead, in 1917 fire escapes were added. In a letter dated
May 1917 r to the Board of Education from the Principal Merritt Jenkins, he discusses the overcrowding at Harmony Street School. He expresses the need for 25 classrooms when they had only 20 and gives a recommendation for 4 classrooms to
be added in outside buildings. A 1918 news article titled “School in Garage Stirs Penns Grove Parents” discusses a garage located opposite the new high school building and rented at $840 per year for the previous two years. It was thought that the new high school opened in 1915 would be large enough to take care of the increase in pupils for a number
of years when it opened. “Then along came the powder boom and the new school was overcrowded the first year.” A new school was to be built in Carneys Point that summer (Lafayette School), but the powder village was growing so fast that two such schools would be needed there. There are 1914 and 1915 invoices from The First Baptist Church for use of the
church for school children. In 1915-17 there is information regarding the rental of space at Homan's Garage. In 1922 there is an invoice for $600 from Green's Garage for one year’s rent for a building used as a school and a two-year lease for the second floor of Poland’s Building. In 1930 there were twelve teachers and twelve classes for grades 1-8 at Harmony Street School as follows: two for 1st grade, one each for 2nd and 3rd grade, two for 4th grade, one each for 5th and 6th grades, and two each for 7th and 8th grades. In 1936 there were 262 students, six teachers for grades 1-5, with two classes for 1st grade and one class each for 2nd through 5th grades. Harmony Street School remained open until 1952 when the new Maple Avenue School (Paul W. Carleton School) opened. The school was demolished in 1953.
