The Medford Historical Society Presents
The Cross Keys One-Room School House
Medford Cross Keys Schoolhouse On TV!
October 9th 2021
We’re famous! Medford’s Cross Keys One Room Schoolhouse to make a cameo appearance on the TV show "Roots Less Traveled" on NBC, Saturday, October 9th at 11AM!
Roots Less Traveled The Desire for Freedom
SEASON 3, EPISODE 1 PREMIERE 11:00 AM ON NBC
A poignant journey starts from an enslaved family's Kentucky roots and their progression to freedom through a monumental court case, an arduous trek across three states and the start of the American dream.
The goal of the show is to educate young people in learning the importance of their past and connect family as they share moments together. This episode that was filmed in Medford features family members whose ancestors attended a one-room schoolhouse in this area during the 19th century. We are so lucky to have this historical schoolhouse in our own backyard!
Today, the school looks much like it did when it was in use in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The building is a simple A-frame structure with a small front addition that once served as a vestibule and a wood and coal bin. There are three windows on each of the three sides of the building and one window and a door in the front. Each window is protected by a single, working shutter. The school has a New Jersey sandstone foundation that supports the building which is twenty-six feet long and twenty-two feet wide. Inside, the walls are plaster and the floor is made of three and one-half inch tongue-in-grove pine boards. The floor joists and rafters are made of oak, and the building is covered with clapboard cedar shingles which are painted white.
The building is furnished as it would have appeared in 1857. There is a teacher’s desk, a pot-bellied stove, a chalk board, a large ceramic crock for drinking water, a clock, a flag, historical pictures, assorted memorabilia of the time period, and double wooden student desks with lids that lift to reveal a place for school supplies such as slates, chalk, and books.
The Cross Keys School is opened for a variety of activities from tours for both children and adults, living history programs and open houses. During these events you will find both docents and schoolmarms, dressed in period garb, anxiously sharing with you what education was like in a bygone era.
Locationed in Medford, New Jersey, in Burlington County. Marker is at the intersection of Mill Street and Enclave Court, on the right when traveling north on Mill Street. (9° 53.415′ N, 74° 49.596′ W)