Battin High School

The original Battin High School.
Located at 300 South Broad Street, Elizabeth, NJ. [1]

Battin High School, in Elizabeth, NJ,  was named for Joseph Battin, president of the Elizabethtown Water Company. In 1889 he donated the mansion that you see here for use as a public school. The mansion was replaced with a much larger building in 1913, at the same location.

When it first opened, Battin High School was coeducational. But starting in 1929, the boys in the community were transferred to the newly-built Thomas Jefferson High School.

Battin and Jefferson's status as a single-sex schools continued, remarkably, until 1977, when a new high school was built to hold all of the students from both schools.[1]

 My mother was a graduate of Battin in 1945, and it's likely that her brother attended Jefferson. I'll also be looking for other relatives and friends there. [Stay tuned for more in future posts.]

The "New" Battin High School, c. 1928 [2]

Did any of your ancestors attend Battin or Thomas Jefferson High School?

1889 - 1929 : Co-ed
1929 - 1977 : Females only at Battin
1929 - 1977 : Males only at Thomas Jefferson High School

School Resources

Ancestry.com, which is where I found the most relevant information for my purposes, has a collection of U.S. Indexed School Yearbooks, 1880-2012. It contains indexed records and online images for Battin High School Yearbooks from a variety of years between 1924 and 1958. There are fewer years represented for Thomas Jefferson High School for the years beween 1937 and 1954. Other Elizabeth, NJ schools in the collection include Alexander Hamilton Jr. High, Benedictine Academy, Sacred Heart High School, St. Mary Assumption High School, St. Patrick High School, and The Pingry School.
 
See Cyndi's List for a page full of links to school-related resources.

Lisa Lisson has a great blog post offering some suggestions for using school records in your genealogy research. 

Citations

1. Battin High School. (2015, December 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:02, 22 January 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battin_High_School&oldid=696954601

2. The Red and White, Battin High School Yearbook 1928. Ancestry.com.U.S.,SchoolYearbooks,1880-2012 [databaseon-line].Provo,UT,USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Retrieved 22 January 2016, from http://interactive.ancestry.com/1265/43134_b199586-00013 

See also, 
The school interests of Elizabeth : a city of New Jersey, U.S.A. : 1664-1910 / by Elias D. Smith. p. 55, from  http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101059434082;view=1up;seq=61