New School Sign Provides Welcoming Gateway to Campus

A new school sign at the intersection of Main Street and Friends School Drive welcomed students and families to campus for the first day of school. The sign matches the brickwork and architecture of the campus. It is a combination of brick and cast stone with several unique features. Pillars on either side of the sign include engravings of the familiar “MFS 1785” logo. On the back are white marble bricks which contain the graduating class years of all students currently enrolled at the school, as well as a plaque recognizing the generosity of alumni parents and grandparents Mark and Ann Baiada who funded the new sign.

A dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on September 22 with School Committee members, preschoolers, seniors, and members of the Baiada family.

At the ceremony, Head of School Julia de la Torre provided the historical context for the land on which the sign was built at the entrance to the school. “In 1781, this ground that we are at today was purchased by Chester Preparative Meeting of Friends in 1781 from Ephraim Haines, and right here in the middle of the Oval, a Stone School House was built and opened in 1785.” She continued: “In the 1980s and early 1990s, a sign with the words ‘Moorestown Friends School’ flanked by some evergreens stood about two-thirds of the way up the Oval. Alan Craig, when he became Headmaster in 1990, noted that the sign was so low that it was almost hidden by the town’s electrical equipment boxes. He took up the challenge of getting a more prominent sign in place, one that would be much closer to Main Street, and could be clearly seen throughout the Main Street and Chester Avenue intersection. The new sign was installed in the 1993-94 school year. That white sign, with a red top, and marquee for news and messages that faced either side of Main Street, served the school well for nearly 30 years. But its wood and fiberglass structure began to deteriorate over time.”

Julia expressed gratitude to donors Mark and Ann Baiada for making the leadership gift for the new sign, while also providing critical guidance and suggestions throughout the process to ensure the sign integrated well with campus architecture and brickwork and also offered a prominent welcome to the community at Main Street. Mark Baiada shared: “We have to reach out and help bring people here so we can be a beacon and a model for others in the world. I want our students to get a wonderful education, feel strong and in touch with the beauty within themselves and the spirit of love. I think the sign reinforces that, and also tells the world what this is about and hopefully brings them here so more people are clamoring to come to Moorestown Friends School.”

Aegis Property Group, ThinkGreen, and Kent Design were the construction partners for the project.

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