Built in 1912 on 508 East Union Street, Newark, the East Ward School would be renamed 8 years later to the Roosevelt Grammar School, after former President Theodore Roosevelt. The school would be expanded later in 1928.¹ The elementary school was referred to by the Newark Arcadia Historical Society “as an anchor for the East Newark community for decades.”² It would be closed by the Newark School District in 1976. The building would remain vacant until 1984, when it would be used by the Roosevelt Children’s Center until 1999, when the Children’s Center moved to its current location on Pierson Avenue.³ The building would remain unused until 2019 when it was demolished. A Byrne Dairy gas station and convenience store was constructed on the site.⁴

Newark historian John Zornow believes that the property sat vacant for so long because “... developers were reluctant to consider buying the property (which is owned by Jill Graybill) because it would most likely mean tearing down the old school, a relatively expensive prospect.” This is, despite the fact, that Zornow describes the school as “... a prime piece of property.”⁵ Zornow stated that there were a few ideas for the building, one of which was an “... ice cream-making operation…”.⁶.  However, Zornow stated that this was rejected due to the developers not providing a well-detailed pitch.⁷  Village officials agreed with Zornow’s negative assessment of the building and claimed that the building itself was not a good candidate for rehabilitation and was in very poor condition.⁸

On December 29th, 2018, an event was held where over one hundred former students and teachers of the Roosevelt School came to the school to “... reacquaint and reminisce over their common bond of a school that is soon to pass into history.”⁹.This event was an unofficial reunion coordinated in part by members of the Newark-Arcadia Historical Society.

Historical narrative written and compiled by John Trutt