Lower Township School District history

Cold Spring Village brings life to the day-to-day lifestyle of those villagers living in South Jersey during the “age of homespun.” (1790-1840) Those visiting can make a rare connection between past and present through this interactive, educational and hands-on facility.

Through the efforts of Mann, Massachusetts would become the first state to require children to attend school, passing a compulsory education law in 1852.

In 1853, a group of New Jersey schoolmasters and schoolmistresses interested in improving the state’s educational system founded the New Jersey State Teachers Association, which later became the New Jersey Education Association, our state’s teachers union.

In 1871, it began a term that ran from September to June.

New Jersey began requiring children to get an education in 1875, thirteen years before the construction of the Fishing Creek School.

Cape May County was a far different place in 1888.

By the 1700s people began to visit for the waters and a hotel was built there in the 1820s. It was named Erma in 1893, in honor of Erma Bennett on her marriage to Swain Ludlam.

In addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, students also studied geography, history and music, singing along to a used organ that had been purchased for the school in 1900.

The present church was built in 1923 but the congregation dates from 1781.

In 1926 the Atlantus was towed to Cape May, NJ by a Baltimore firm, that attempted to create a ferry service.

In 1928 it was purchased by a Pennsylvania family named Leckey who modified it into a summer home.

Fishing Creek welcomed the whalers as they moved more inland. It became simply the Villas in 1931 when the Post Office opened here and dropped the first part of the name.

Their first vine was planted in 1999 and a year later over 5,000 vines were planted.

A beach replenishment project in 2005 put the bunker back on the coastline.