As building gets demolished, community celebrates legacy of Camden’s Eastside High School

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Demolition crews began working at Eastside High School on Tuesday morning, taking down a piece of Camden’s history.

“I hate to see the building town down, but it’s time,” said Phil Rowan, a member of the class of 1971. “I mean, the building was kind of old when we were there.”

Eastside High School, the district’s only freestanding high school, came into existence in 1929. Until 2022, it was called Woodrow Wilson High School. On Tuesday, alums, community members and officials gathered to bid goodbye to a building that held a lot of memories in its classrooms and hallways.

“I went there and then I came back and taught here for numerous years,” said Al Mailahn, another alum. “It is cost-effective to rebuild than to try to fix and patch up.”

The Camden High School Campus is home to four high schools — Big Picture Learning Academy, Brimm Medical Arts High School, Camden High School and Creative Arts High School.

The building first opened as a junior high school in 1930. It became a high school three years later. Rowan and Mailahn vividly remember their time there as students.

“We used to run around the boiler rooms, down the lower level, where it was hot with the plastic underneath our sweatsuit,” Rowan said.

“We used to hop the fence at games when I was kid,” said Mailahn. “You had no money.”

Rowan recalled that the price to attend a game during those days was 50 cents.

“Back then, it was a lot of money,” said Mailahn.

“It’s like sneaking into Spring Lake up in Pennsauken,” added Rowan.

Woodrow Wilson High School needed to be replaced

More than two years ago, U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross toured the school with state Sen. Nilsa Cruz-Perez, trying to figure out how to best address the community’s needs. They soon realized renovation was not an option.

“I turned to Nilsa and said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ he recalled. “That’s no disrespect for anybody here, but the idea of putting lipstick on a pig and calling it good enough for our kids was something I wasn’t going to be a part of.”

Shortly thereafter, a $49 million facelift became a $105 million replacement of the nearly century-old building.

Built in 1929 and named after the 28th U.S. president and former New Jersey governor, the school opened to junior high school students in 1930. Three years later, it became a high school. In June 2020, Camden City School District officials announced they were renaming the school because of Wilson’s legacy as a segregationist.

The school’s current name took root during the 2022-2023 school year, though the original name remained etched in the building.

Celebrating the past and embracing the future Eastside High

Pamela K. Clark, president of the Camden Education Association, is a member of the Wilson class of 1988. Her mother was a teacher at the school from 1978 to 2006. Mailahn was her gym teacher in high school.

She said the legacy of Eastside High School is students “coming back and giving back.”

Clark is looking forward to the technology that the new building will have for students.

“Our children deserve the very best, like the suburban areas,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the younger generation continuing our legacy.”

The new Eastside High School is scheduled to welcome students in 2029. Current students, like Elijah Vargas, are attending class at the former Cramer School.

Vargas had the honor of opening a time capsule that was placed in the building. The rising senior opened the box to find a nickel and a copy of The Morning Post from March 21, 1929. He was expecting more inside of the box, but called it a “blessing” to have the honor.

“I was the first Eastside High School student to touch that,” he said. “That’s really a piece of history.”