Princeton Friends School, 470 Quaker Road, Princeton 08540; 609-683-1194; fax, 609-252-0686. Jane Fremon, head of school. www.princetonfriendsschool.org.
Princeton Friends School, a Quaker independent school on Quaker Road, has raised $5.5 million in a 25th anniversary fundraising campaign, including a $1 million donation from philanthropist Betty Wold Johnson.
The goal of the drive was to contribute to the school’s endowment and build a playground and renovate a historic schoolmaster’s house and its adjacent barn on the Quaker Meeting property.
Though Princeton Friends School has only recently marked its 25th anniversary, Quaker education on the grounds of the Princeton Friends Meeting goes back to the 18th century. In 1781 the Quakers who settled Princeton built a schoolmaster’s house on what is now Quaker Road, and in 1800 a one-room schoolhouse was erected on the property as well. The schoolhouse — as well as the meetinghouse — were abandoned in the late 18th century, and the schoolhouse was torn down in 1901.
In the 1940s the meetinghouse was restored as part of the revival of the Princeton Friends Meeting, and in 1987 Princeton Friends School was established to carry forward the legacy of Quaker education in Princeton.
The school now has 125 students in pre-K through eighth grade.
“The success of our PFS25 campaign is a testament to the remarkable program that Princeton Friends has delivered for the past quarter century, touching the lives of so many in unimagined ways,” said founder and head of school Jane Fremon. “And the boost to the school’s endowment that this campaign produced ensures that PFS will continue to thrive for the next quarter century and beyond.”
