Completed in 1870, the main section of this building served as New Providence's second public school, replacing an 1822 log structure on Passaic St. Older boys and girls were taught on the first floor while younger children assembled upstairs, beneath a cupola that held a large bronze bell cast by the Meneely Bell Foundry in 1873. The bell called students in grades K-12 to class until 1907, when the four-room Lincoln School was built across the street. In 1917, the Borough bought the building for one dollar and it became New Providence Borough Hall. After WWI, the second-floor Council Chambers briefly housed the Catholic Mission of Our Lady of Peace until a church could be built. In 1954, expansion plans were approved to meet the town's growing needs, and one-story wings were added for the clerk, tax collector, and a police department with a three-room jail. The original Academy school bell was kept and placed in a new cupola. In 1980, the Borough outgrew the building and moved into the former Lincoln School.