Lawnside Magazine

To observe Black History Month, the Lawnside Historical Society, Inc., will screen “A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School” on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. in the Lawnside Borough Hall, 4 Douglas Ave., Lawnside.  The event is free and open to the public.

This one-hour documentary by HudsonWest Productions, tells the story of this northern state-run boarding school modeled on Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute.  The school, which offered academic, vocational and military training, closed in the 1950s in response to school desegregation. Legendary actress Ruby Dee narrates.

The screening will feature a chat with spouses Lionel and Betty Hunter, president and founder of the Bordentown School Social Club, an alumni association. The Hunters of Lakewood, N.J., appear in the film as they help organize annual reunions of alumni and their descendants.

“We hope people from the area who graduated from or attended the Bordentown School and their families will come out and eventually support the alumni group,” Raymond L. Fussell said. He is a Society member and former student at Bordentown. “I went to the school and there are things I learned from the film that I never knew.”

Linda Shockley said the values the staff taught and the philosophy students learned shaped their lives and their sense of community.  “I think the school has a message for this generation and those to come.”

The spacious campus is now the site of a juvenile detention center.

For information, call the Lawnside Historical Society at 856-546-8850 or visit our Web site at www.petermotthouse.org.

Click the link below to download the informational flyer:

bordentownschool release

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