Demolition ceremony marks new beginning for Camden’s Eastside High School
The school, previously known as Woodrow Wilson High School, will be demolished and replaced with a new building. The existing building will be destroyed in the coming months.
There were tears, cheers, and nostalgic remembrances Tuesday as the Camden City School District marked the beginning of the final days of Eastside High School.
Built in 1930, the building will be demolished in the coming months and replaced on the same site on Federal Street. The $105 million project is expected to take about five years.
A small crowd that included city leaders, educators, and alumni gathered at the school Tuesday for a symbolic ceremony to mark the building’s closing. A demolition crew removed a portion of the front facade.
“It’s another great day for our city,” Mayor Victor Carstarphen said.
Elijah Vargas, a rising senior, excitedly unveiled a time capsule placed at the school when it was built. He gingerly pulled out a crumbling newspaper from March 21, 1929, and a crusty nickel.
“I felt something special inside,” said Vargas, 18. “For me to touch it was really just a blessing.”
The keepsakes will be turned over to the Camden County Historical Society for preservation. The same was done with a 102-year-old capsule discovered at the Camden High construction site in 2018.
Eastside’s building closed in June 2024, and students were sent to a former elementary school during construction. It currently enrolls about 486 students in grades nine through 12.
The school opened nearly a century ago as Woodrow Wilson Junior High and became a high school in 1933. Located in East Camden, it currently is the city’s only stand-alone traditional high school.
It was renamed Eastside High School in 2022 because of the segregationist views and practices of the former president and New Jersey governor.
» READ MORE: Camden’s Woodrow Wilson High School renamed Eastside High
In recent years, the school had fallen into disrepair. District officials initially announced a $50 million project to refurbish the building, but scrapped those plans and said renovations would not be enough to bring it up to standard.
Prominent graduates include Mike Rozier, a 1983 Heisman Trophy winner; Council President Angel Fuentes; and former Mayor Frank Moran.
Former school board member Jose E. Delgado, who has criticized the project, said the old building should have been salvaged. He believes the smaller, temporary Eastside building does not comfortably handle secondary students.
“It’s a travesty what they’re doing,” Delgado said.
Despite declining enrollment, the district has said it still needs Eastside High because it offers courses not available at its other traditional high school, Camden High, such as automotive training.
The project will be funded by New Jersey’s School Development Authority, which oversees the state’s plan to improve schools in Camden and other needy districts. The authority funds projects to address serious facility deficiencies.
A district spokesperson said the Eastside demolition is expected to take several months to complete, and then design work will begin.
The project calls for a 203,000-square-foot school that includes new computers; welding, performing arts, and video labs; and additional self-contained special education classrooms.
“I loved it in this space, great times,” said Pamela Grayson-Baltimore, a 1980 graduate and class president. “But it’s time; our kids deserve a new day.”
Grayson-Baltimore and about a dozen alumni, some wearing orange-and-black T-shirts, Eastside’s colors, picked up bricks from a pile of rubble. They chanted the school’s fight song:
“Root for the orange and black. The mighty, mighty Tigers are back!”
“It’s a big deal for me,” said Camden Education Association president Pam Clark, a 1980 graduate.
Eastside history teacher Jaime Kates picked up a keepsake brick, captured video, and took notes at the ceremony. She plans to use it as a teachable moment for a U.S. history II class lesson in the fall.
“This building will live on in our future students,” Kates said.
The district was under pressure to replace Eastside after a sprawling, new $133 million Camden High School complex opened in the city’s Parkside neighborhood in 2021. It houses Camden High and three magnet schools — Brimm Medical Arts, Creative Arts, and the Big Picture Learning Academy.
The old Camden High was a Gothic landmark razed in 2017. The new building was the first entirely new high school constructed in Camden in 100 years.
The new Eastside school is expected to open in fall 2029 and have room for 750 students.