The reason that Mullica Hill Quakers felt comfortable letting the care of a school close was the growth of public education in the United States. Quakers had long been powerful advocates of free public education, and they remain so in the present. For many years, local Quakers in Mullica Hill and the surrounding towns saw no need for an additional, independent school once free public education had been established. In 1908, Mullica Hill built a new schoolhouse near the Mullica Hill Meetinghouse and named it Union Academy. For over forty years, the building served public school students in Mullica Hill. Years later, after several changes in ownership, the building would again come to play a critical role in local education, as the Cope Building for Friends School Mullica Hill.
This historical entry is part of a series chronicling the history of Friends School Mullica Hill on the occasion of the School’s 50th anniversary. The entries begin with the first arrival of Quakers in the region and continue all the way to the present under the leadership of the School’s ninth Head, Matt Bradley.
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