The COOPER SCHOOL opened with great fanfare in 1874. In the fall of 1871 the West Jersey Press bemoaned, "It is much to the regret that so little interest is shown by parents as a general thing for the education of their children ... , Scholars drop in one by one day after day, and it is often not until November that the schools are full and thoroughly organized." They alluded to following the lead of New Hampshire, which just passed a compulsory education law. Over the summer, Camden's Board of Education repaired and enlarged many of its schools. 

During the 1870s, school enrollment increased rapidly and the board was constantly looking to purchase more land. The 1871-1872 school year began with 4,588 pupils on the register, but the average daily attendance was only 2,762 pupils. The North Baptist Church offered to rent its building to the board for a primary school, provided the Church could use the facility for Sabbath school purposes. The board declined the offer since the rules prohibited using the schools for any other purpose, but secular education. Instead, they purchased three parcels of land. One on Third Street, between Pearl and Elm Streets; a second, on Mount Vernon Street, above Broadway; and a third, at the northeast corner of Third and Walnut Streets.

The new schoolhouse on Mount Vernon Street. near Broadway opened in January 1872, with 316 students. Mr. William Armstead became the first Principal of the Mount Vernon Street (colored) School. 

The economic expansion, which began after the Civil War, ended in 1873.The consequence was a nation-wide economic depression that lasted more than five years. Yet, it was during this period of economic depression that the board of education continued to buy land, and erect schoolhouses. With the opening of school in September 1873, the board requested the Legislature to approve $50,000 in bonds to build a new schoolhouse in the first ward, at Third Street, south of Pearl Street, which extended as far back as Friends Avenue. Board Member Austin moved to start construction immediately, but James Cassady wanted to delay construction since the board had a deficit of $28,000, and did not want to market bonds in this financial condition. Mr. Mahlon Harden demanded building the schoolhouse now, so that the unemployed could work. Bidding and construction began immediately, and when completed, the school stood three-stories high with 14-foot ceilings, was made of pressed brick with granite trimmings, and able to hold 850 scholars. 

This school, called the Cooper School, in honor of William Cooper and his descendents opened in 1874. The Coopers owned the land on which the board erected the school since colonial days. The Cooper Schoolhouse opened on Saturday afternoon, October 31, 1874. A children's chorus sang, dignitaries spoke, as did Camden resident, Walt Whitman, who recited an original poem written for the occasion entitled, "An Old Man's Thought of School". The Cooper Schoolhouse opened with two principals, William H. Samuel, Principal of the boys' department and Kate Rudderow, Principal of the girls' department. The school had 14 rooms and an opening enrollment of 786 students. The average class size was 50, near the permitted maximum at the time.

Even after the Cooper School opened, the school district needed more pnmary-level classrooms. Yet, despite the lack of classroom space, State Superintendent of Instruction Apgar reported that Camden was in every respect a first-ranked school system in the state. Journalist and school board member Henry Bonsall wanted two additional schools built, in short order three were built- the Fetters, Mulford, and Mickle Schools. By 1878 overcrowding gave cause for another school to be built, the North East School. The Cooper School's girls divisions were full and no graduations into grammar school could take place.

Between 1892 and 1900 Camden's schools were run not by the elected Board of Education, but by an appointed Commission of Public Instruction. This was highly unpopular and the Board of education was brought back at the first opportunity. Camden's school age population growing rapidly and by June 1897, the commission heard so much about the need for schools and classrooms that they agreed to add enough rooms to hold 1,000 more pupils. They awarded construction contracts for classroom additions to the Cooper School, which became a separate building on the Cooper School grounds, as well as to the Central and Linden Schools. The commission gave the new building on the Cooper School grounds the name U. S. Grant School, after the 18th President, on August 30, and officially accepted it in December. The school opened as a mixed grammar school under the direction of Principal S. E. Manness and his assistant, Helen A. Westcott, daughter of Mayor John L. Westcott. Because of their close proximity, people called the two schools the Cooper-Grant School. The State Commissioner of Education Baxter notified Bergen, in May 1898, that hereafter districts must submit plans for any school building to the State Board for suggestions and criticisms, before awarding construction contracts.

In April of 1899 Camden annexed neighboring Stockton Township. Stockton's Supervising Principal, Joseph J. Stewart, replaced S.E. Maness, who had been principal at Cooper and also was one of the school district's city supervisor assistants. 

With the opening of schools in 1901, the Cooper, Stevens, Fetters, and Mulford schools became grammar schools, and the principals of these schools had their time divided in half between teaching and supervision. Mary A. Burrough, Principal of the North East School, became the supervisor of the Linden and Read Schools, and she received an assistant to help with her administrative duties. The Broadway School consolidated its boys' and girls' divisions under the direction of one principal, Miss Lizzie Anderson, and Mickle School's Principal, Miss Elizabeth West, directed both the Mickle and Evered Schools. Because the Cooper and Grant Schools were in close proximity, the superintendent sent the lower grades to the Grant School and the upper grades to the Cooper School.  Later, the board consolidated the Harrison School and its annex under one principal.

In late June 1937, the board changed an application for alterations and additions from the Mount Vernon School to the C. A. Bergen School. They also applied for a $925,000 loan for a new school in the fourth ward, and for modernizing the Cooper and Grant Schools. The loan never materialized, and this led to the formation of new civic committees and coalitions. Mr. Ventorino Francesconi, representing the Camden Citizens Taxpayers League, and the Fourth Ward Democratic Club of Camden, demanded a new school to replace the aging schools near the center of the city. Francesconi was incensed that district administration told him that the board made application for a new school through the federal government, but when he wrote to Washington, he learned that no application was on file. He declared, "You know that that section is known, perhaps, as the slums of the City of Camden, but unless something IS done in the way of a new school, I believe that children in our section will perhaps go on a school strike." He insisted that not only was the school a firetrap, but

“I am going to show you some pictures we took down there, showing the facilities. The first picture is of the [Stevens] School itself. Eighteen years ago, I went to that school and they were patching it .... This second picture shows the facilities being used by the girls-the roof is coming down, water on the floor, no seats. The third picture shows the facilities being used by the boys. I would not want my child to use these facilities, and I am sure that none of the members of the Board would want your children to use them .... The last picture is ... of the inside. This shows the plaster coming off the walls. It has been patched up several times before. A WPA Project is working there now.

Shaw informed Francesconi that board did submit an application in 1938, and showed him a letter from the PWA. In April 1939, the WPA notified the board that they approved the board's application for improvements to Central, Central Annex, Mickle, Yorkship, Stevens, and H. B. Wilson Schools.

IN January of 1948 Superintendent of Schools Dr. Leon N. Neulen created a committee to study consolidating students and closing schools in order to reduce maintenance and operating costs. They brought back a proposal for closing the Mulford school, sending its students to Fetters and Kaighn Schools and closing the Central School Annex by transferring its students to the Stevens School. They suggested not building an addition to the Sumner School which was operating at capacity, by send 109 the students to the Mickle School, and transferring Cooper School's eighth grade to Burrough Junior High, Stevens School's seventh and eighth grades to Hatch Junior High, along with the eighth graders from Fetters School. The Mount Vernon School officially closed on July 27, 1948, and the superintendent reassigned its 496 students to Sumner School. He reassigned Principal Josiah C. Conwell as Principal of the Bergen School, and transferred the opportunity school (the new name for the correction school), located in the Mount Vernon School, to the Starr School.

The Cooper-Grant Schools continued to serve the children of Camden as late as the fall of 1977. The schools eventually fell to the wreckers ball as Rutgers University swallowed up building after building and block after block between Cooper and Pearl Streets west of North 5th Street. The schools are long gone, but the name Cooper-Grant lives on, as it has become the name most recognized when referring to that particular part of the City of Camden.