What Will Become of the Valley Road School?

Should the old Valley Road School building on Witherspoon Street be converted into a community center, or should it be torn down to make way for the expansion of the fire station and emergency services next door?

This is the choice facing the Board of Education in the coming weeks, as proponents of both options have until June 1 to submit detailed plans for evaluation.  A key factor in the decision will be the financial viability of each proposal, as the Board resolved several years ago that “it cannot divert scarce education dollars to rehabilitate and maintain it in compliance with applicable codes”.  Either way, the Board wants to get rid of the responsibility of leasing and upkeep of the older portion of the building.  

All current tenants have already been told to vacate by June 30.  They are:  

• Princeton Community TV (Disclosure:  Princeton Community TV is an AllPrinceton media partner).  (5/25 update:  has been offered an extension to Sep 30)
• Corner House, a counseling service (has been offered an extension to Sep 30)
• The Affordable Housing Department

Princeton Regional School offices are in the newer portion of the Valley Road School building, which has already been brought up to code, and will stay as is.

The Community Center Option

If the Board opts for renovation, responsibility for the building would be turned over to a non-profit group created for just that purpose.  The VRS-ARC (Valley Road School Adaptive Re-use Committee) is a coalition of Valley Road alumni, TV station supporters, architects, long-time residents, and environmentalists.

“Princeton is such a great community”, said VRS-ARC member Dick Woodbridge, former Princeton mayor and currently an attorney with Fox Rothschild, “it should have a community center”.  Woodbridge was instrumental in creating the new non-profit group, known as “Valley Road Community Center, Inc.”, to raise the funds necessary to save the building.

The Firehouse Option

If the older building is to be demolished for a firehouse, the Affordable Housing Department would move to the Township offices across the street;  Corner House would eventually take space in the expanded facility;  but for the moment, the TV station has nowhere else to go.  

Consolidation of all fire services into a single location was one of the recommendations of a comprehensive study of the Princeton Fire Department, recently submitted to the municipalities.  “The three fire companies, operating out of three different locations served Princeton ably for many years but those days have come to an end” the report states, and goes on to endorse the plan to expand the Witherspoon firehouse into the Valley Road property. “A central facility will remain necessary.”  The entire report can be viewed here.

At What Cost?

The costs of restoring the building are up for debate, but the Save the Valley Road group believes that for several hundred thousand dollars, they can make the building serviceable for a long enough period to raise enough money for a more thorough renovation.  The plan is to install a new boiler and repair the roof before next winter; and later, to convert the interior into office spaces for non-profit groups, and restore the old cafeteria and auditorium for larger meeting and performance spaces for the community.  “These are all areas of great need for the community” says Kip Cherry, a member of the Save the Valley Road group.  “We’re eager to provide as low rental as possible for non-profits who we know are strapped and need to provide services for the public.  We are also hoping to form a real sense of community within the building, and create a place where agencies can help each other out.”

The restoration option would also allow Princeton Community TV to continue operations without interruption.  The TV station, which offers Princeton residents access to video equipment, studio, and training, would be hard-pressed to find a comparable space at Princeton’s punishing commercial rental rates.  

The proposal to demolish the building was submitted to the Board of Education last November by the Borough and Township mayors on behalf of the Emergency Services.  That plan calls for expanding the adjoining firehouse (Mercer Engine Company No. 3), consolidating Princeton’s three fire companies and first aid vehicles into a single place, and setting aside room for the Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad (PFARS), and Corner House.

“We haven’t done any real architectural drawings yet.  We didn’t want to spend the money until we know it can happen”  explains Mark Freda, Princeton’s Director of Emergency Services. But he predicts the plans for a new building, plus expanded firehouse, would cost a “ballpark figure” of $8.5 million. “The cost to expand the firehouse itself would be tax dollars because it’s a municipal department”, Freda says.  “At $250 per square foot, that would mean about  $1 million for the firehouse expansion. Corner House and the Emergency Services would be responsible for raising money for their share of the costs.”  Construction could take up to two years.  

Funding sources for the firehouse proposal is unclear at this point, and would be up to the Borough and Township to resolve.  Freda says the department’s four main trucks are already centralized at the Witherspoon Street location.  One reserve truck is parked at each of the other two firehouses (Harrison Street and Chestnut Street), which are still used for social events for the respective fire companies. Those two firehouses are municipal property, and it would be up to the municipalities to whether or not to sell them.

Competing Visions

When the School Board decided to divest itself of the old Valley Road School space, there was agreement that whatever takes its place must be “consistent with the educational mission of the Princeton Regional Schools district”.  The Community Center fulfills that condition with plans to open up spaces for various organizations to hold workshops and training.  The firehouse proposes to fulfill that condition by inviting Corner House back into the new building.

In the long run, it comes down to competing visions of the use of that public space.  

Kip Cherry argues for saving the building on both historical and practical grounds: “One of things we envision is a cultural corridor from the township hall to the university.  This would be a keystone in that corridor.  It’s not too far from the center of town, and just across the street from the township hall.”

The argument for consolidating the firehouses is just one part of a larger, more costly plan, as outlined in great detail in the recent Fire Department report, which also recommends a new substation be built on the Princeton University campus, for quicker access to what is a large part of the responsibility of the Princeton Fire Department.  That report also contains suggestions for moving the Princeton Fire Department away from the current all-volunteer model.  As Freda notes, “It’s a challenge to run a volunteer fire department these days.  The report says we’ll probably need to spend more money now.”

Discussion of the Fire Department report will soon be on the agenda of a joint Borough-Township meeting. 

The next meeting of the Facilities Committee of the Board of Education is June 6, 12pm, at the Princeton Regional Schools Valley Road office. 

About the Author

Donna Liu

Founder, AllPrinceton

Donna Liu is a digital journalist who has lived in Princeton with her family since 2002.  She founded AllPrinceton in 2010 as an online hub for community news and information.  At Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, she built UChannel - an online archive of public affairs lectures in academia.  Before that she established and managed CNN International's Asia Production Center in Hong Kong.