Like many of the port cities around the world, the Newark of the late 19th century was a thriving industrial center. Its factories churned out thread, metals, paints and leather goods. In Newark, Thomas Edison set the www at his Ward Street factory for his later astounding achievements, and Edison rival Edward Weston established the first factory in the United States for commercial production of dynamo electric machines.

On March 24, 1880, the Essex County Assemblyman in the state Legislature introduced “An Act to Provide for the Establishment of Schools of Industrial Education.” The Newark Board of Trade sponsored the bill. The Act established three schools of industrial education: one in Newark, one in Trenton and one in Hoboken. The first Board of Trustees met July 1, 1884. The Newark Technical School opened Monday, February 9, 1885, with 88 students who attended despite a terrible snowstorm.

The Early Years

The first class, mostly evening students, attended classes in a rented building at 21 West Park Street. Soon the facility became inadequate to house an expanding student body. To meet the needs of the growing school, a second fundraiser—the institution’s first capital campaign—was launched to support the construction of a dedicated building for Newark Technical School. In 1886, under the leadership of the school’s dynamic first director, Dr. Charles A. Colton, the cornerstone was laid at the intersection of High Street and Summit Place for the three-story building later to be named Weston Hall in honor of the institution’s early benefactor. A laboratory building, later to be called Colton Hall, was added to the campus in 1913. Daniel Hodgdon served as the director of Newark Technical School from 1918 to 1920.

Under Dr. Allan R. Cullimore, who led the institution from 1920 to 1949, the modest Newark Technical School was transformed into the robust Newark College of Engineering. Campbell Hall was erected in 1925. During the lean years of the Depression and World War II, only the former Newark Orphan Asylum, now Eberhardt Hall, was purchased and renovated by the college.

The Postwar Period

The postwar period was one of enormous activity during which President Cullimore—like today’s post-Cold War university presidents— challenged the college to turn “war-time thinking into peace-time thinking.”

In 1946, about 75 percent of the freshman class had served in the armed forces. Robert W. Van Houten was acting president of NJIT from 1947 until 1950 when the board of trustees named him president. Cullimore Hall was built in 1958 and two years later the old Weston Hall was razed and replaced with the current seven-story structure. Doctoral-level programs were introduced and six years later, in 1966, an 18-acre, four-building expansion was completed. William Hazell succeeded Dr. Van Houten as president of NJIT in 1970.