History

From the settlement of Tinicum Township in the early 1700's as a farming and lumbering community, until about 1850, little is recorded about schools. 

The Stover family, who established grist and lumber mills on Tohickon Creek and along the Delaware River, built a young ladies' academy at Point Pleasant for their families during this time. 

The education the farm children received was obtained at home or in church-schools. 

After the Delaware and Lehigh Canal was completed in 1832, Tinicum Township enjoyed its most prosperous time and its peak of population. Many found employment on the canal, in lumber mills, hay presses, lime kilns, boatyards and grist mills, as well as in stores and taverns. 

During this period people began an organized drive for public education which resulted in the building of thirteen one-room schools between 1853 and 1865. They were: Chestnut Grove, Ridge Valley, Union, Rock Ridge, Mount Airy, Concord, Red Hill, Clay Ridge, Uhlerstown, Brick Church, Sundale, Point Pleasant, and Erwinna. 

The canal gave way to the railroad and trucks for transportation in 1926, and people moved to the cities to seek factory employment, or to pursue their professions. Many one-room schools were closed and pupils were transported to five remaining schools: Red Hill, Clay Ridge, Uhlerstown, Brick Church, and Erwinna. 

Prior to 1948, pupils who wished to attend high school had to find their own transportation to a nearby high school. For the next five years pupils were transported to Nockamixon and Frenchtown High Schools. In 1953 the seventh through twelfth grade pupils were transported to the new Palisades High School. 

World War II found people moving back to the country, and larger families swelled school enrollment until the rental of two extra rooms was necessary. 

Kindergarten became a part of the elementary school program in 1955. 

On September 15th, 1958, two-hundred and eighteen anxious pupils entered the new Tinicum Elementary School to complete a consolidation of all pupils into one modern building. 

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