Property

• Situated at the gateway to the NY-NJ Highlands and Ramapo Valley Reservation, this 2.8 acre property is bisected by Darlington Brook and is wholly within the Preservation Area of the NJ Highlands.
• According to the NJ State Historic Preservation Office, the Darlington Schoolhouse “is the State’s most architecturally significant schoolhouse.”
• The Schoolhouse was built and donated to the town of Mahwah for use as a schoolhouse and community meeting hall. After it was no longer used as a school, it served as a dance studio before being vacant for over 20 years.

Stakeholders

• Bergen County has long sought to preserve the Darlington Schoolhouse and awarded the Trail Conference a $250,000 grant in 2005 from the Bergen County Open Space Trust to purchase the property with the Green Acres match.
• Bergen County transferred a $300,000 NJDEP Green Acres Program grant to the Town of Mahwah to jointly acquire the property with the Trail Conference.
• The Town of Mahwah owns the property from Ramapo Valley Road up to, and including part of, the schoolhouse footprint. The Mahwah Town Council passed a unanimous resolution to provide an easement to the Trail Conference.

Preservation/Rehabilitation Costs

• A Preservation Plan prepared by Trail Conference architects estimates complete preservation will cost at least $1,000,000.
• The Bergen County Historic Preservation Trust Fund granted $200,000 in rehabilitation funds in the 2007 grant round.
• On November 26, 2007, NJ Historic Trust announced a grant of $50,000 to the Trail Conference for the Darlington Schoolhouse rehabilitation.
• Additional rehabilitation funds are being sought from the Mahwah community and institutional/corporate sources.