Rutgers Preparatory School - History

History

Rutgers Preparatory School is the oldest independent preparatory school in the state of New Jersey. Founded as the Queen's College Grammar School, it was established on November 10, 1766 under the same charter that founded Queen's College (now Rutgers University).

Instruction began on August 15, 1768 under its first master, Caleb Cooper, who was affiliated with the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). After 1825, it was known as the Rutgers College Grammar School. It was first established in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from 1829 until 1957, housed on the corner of College Avenue and Somerset Street in a building that today is known as Alexander Johnston Hall, the second-oldest surviving building on the Rutgers University campus. From 1809 to 1829, Rutgers Prep shared Old Queens, the oldest building at Rutgers University (1809), with the young Queens College (after 1825, Rutgers College) and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Before then, instruction was carried on in various taverns and boarding houses in the New Brunswick area.

The school's original mission was to train young men for the ministry, and its curriculum had focused on theology and classical studies. Over the course of the 19th century, however, more secular options were added. During the Progressive Era, Rutgers Preparatory School was among the first schools in the nation to institute a curriculum involving the laboratory sciences, extracurricular activities, student publications, and community service. After experimenting with the admission of women as early as the 1890s, Rutgers Prep became fully coeducational in 1951. That same year, it eliminated the American football team and ended its boarding program to become a day school to which students commuted rather than lived. In 1956, faced with the prospect of Rutgers becoming the state university, the university's Board of Trustees decided to divest itself of the preparatory school, which became fully independent in 1957, relocating to its current location on the Wells Estate (purchased from the Colgate-Palmolive Company) in nearby Somerset, New Jersey.