As often as people look to the past in Secaucus, few historic markers remain. Old Town Hall was torn down in the 1970s to make way for the existing structure. Lincoln Junior High School vanished amid mismanaged reconstruction and overall neglect. While the town has a museum, its final location has yet to be determined. Lincoln Junior High School still lingers in many people’s memories, one of those sad chapters during the 1980s when the town lost one of its oldest buildings. Most of the people in local government today attended that school before moving on to Weehawken to finish high school. Some remember Mrs. Anna Stankin, a stout-hearted teacher who would not give in on anything. She once broke her arm in the morning on a school day and hustled to get it set in time for her to teach her classes in the afternoon. According to some reports, she used to drive a huge Chrysler which she gunned down County Avenue. Lincoln Junior High was built in 1929 on the location of the Old No. 2 schoolhouse that had served students in Secaucus before the turn of the century. The junior high school project was done under then-Mayor John J. Kane. It included the construction of the school, athletic field and Kane Stadium. More than half the original cost was paid through federal grants. Lincoln started as a grade school but was upgraded to a junior high in 1937. Officials wanted to keep the old school, and had envisioned transforming it into various types of facilities after the high school/middle school complex was constructed. One idea was to construct a police and fire complex there, thereby preserving the old Town Hall for posterity as well. Some even envisioned keeping the building as it was, with its full theater and other rooms for use as a community center. It had workshops and numerous other aspects that could have easily been converted to town use. Unfortunately, the contractor made mistakes, and once the roof was removed during the renovation, other things went wrong. Rain came in, did damage, and people began to suspect the building would not survive. The fire department was routinely called to the place on rumors of fire. “They were always false alarms,” said Councilman John Reilly, who has been on the Secaucus volunteer fire department for more than 25 years. “It was a joke. We went there weekly. Every time we went, we would find nothing. Then one day we got called there and found a police officer at the door. He told us: ‘Go home, boys, it’s only a false alarm.’ We knew he was probably right, but we figured since we were there we might as well check the place out. We split up. I went with Tom Hall. He opened the theater door, then closed it again and said: ‘Quick, we have to do something; the stage is on fire.’ That was the beginning of the end of the place. After that we knew it would have to be torn down eventually.”
The last old building in Secaucus, Memories abound over Lincoln Junior High
