Camden had become an industrial city by the 1880s, and although the country went into an economic slump in the early 1890s, generally referred to as "the panic of 1893", the city continued to grow and with it the need for new schools. The 1892-1893 school year began with 8,620 students on roll. The tax rate was down to four mills, and the school budget was $167,450. One year into the depression saw the school budget increase by more than 18 percent to $197,750 and this became a burden on many taxpayers. In July 1893, with the effects of the depression everywhere, the commission approved erecting a new eight-room school near Twelfth Street and Kaighn Avenue, in Liberty Park, using the same style as the Jesse W Starr School. They named the structure the Lincoln School, in memory of the nation's 16th President of the United States, and officially accepted it from the contractor on June 25, 1894. The school opened as a secondary school, with Kate F. Dinan, a graduate of Millersville Normal School, as the school's first principal, and four assistant teachers.

Following her appointment, the commissioners learned that some community members opposed the appointment of Dinan and one of her assistants, Mary Welsh, because these two were Catholics. "It was claimed that the matter was taken up by the AP.A [American Protective Association] and that they prevailed on their members to reconsider the action." About three million Irish and German Catholic immigrants arrived in American between 1820 and 1860. This gave rise to xenophobia, nativism, and such movements as the Know-Nothing Party. The A.P.A was a secret anti-catholic, anti-immigration society in the United States that became a disquieting factor in most of the Northern States during the period 1891-1897. The 60-year old Marylander, Henry F. Bowers on March 13, 1887, at Clinton, Iowa, established the first Council of the A.P.A Its purpose was to promote the interests of all Protestants everywhere in the world, and to try to obtain the services of a Protestant, regardless of position, before hiring a Roman Catholic. The association arranged for lectures by ex-priests, distributed anti-Catholic literature, and opposed the election of Catholics to public offices. The A.P.A reached its high tide in 1894, when more than two million members belonged.

The National A.P.A organization made an effort to prevent the nomination of William McKinley in 1896, and when the futility of this attempt became apparent, they endeavored to secure recognition, in the Republican national platform, for one or more of the principles of the order, preferably the one opposing appropriations to sectarian institutions. This also failed. President-elect McKinley's appointment, in March 1897, of a Catholic (Judge McKenna, of California) in his first cabinet probably best illustrates the low regard he had of the importance of the AP.A The society completely disappeared by 1911.

The following month, the commissioners reconsidered the previous report of the committee on teachers. City Solicitor Morgan, unmistakably told the commissioners that those appointed in July had certain rights, which they were bound to respect; namely, they could only remove teachers for cause. The majority report of the committee on teachers related:

“That the motion to reconsider did not name a cause; and that when the mover [Commissioner Francis] was pressed to do so, he named an irregularity in the line of promotion. This statement is misleading.

Discussions by your Honorable body brought forth the fact that the representatives of certain secret organizations had notified the chairman of the committee in person, and other members of the committee by mail, that these organizations were opposed to two of the appointees on the ground of their religious faith.

We would here say that this thing is at the bottom of all the opposition to these appointments, and it is useless to disguise the fact. In this connection, your Committee desire to say, that no political or ecclesiastical interference should be allowed or tolerated in the management of our Public Schools, nor should any organization, secret or otherwise interfere therewith.

Your Committee therefore decline, after due consideration to change their report ... for to reverse them would be illegal, and in violation of the national Constitution, an act that might be justly characterized as un-American ... and subversive of the most sacred rights of man.

The minority report proposed Emma Hall as Lincoln School's principal, and to that suggestion the solicitor responded that "it would be very detrimental to the successful management of the public schools if any teacher regularly appointed could be removed for capricious whim of the commission, for political or other reasons without legal cause." He indicated that once adjourned,

“Any attempt made by the Commission at a subsequent meeting to reconsider the vote by which the appointments were made is clearly without authority of law .... I am of the opinion that all those persons mentioned in the report of the Committee who were promoted, changed or appointed by the Commission ... [are] appointed to their respective positions and can be removed only upon good and legal cause.”

The commission affirmed their vote of July 30.

The census of 1894, found between 18,000 and 19,000 school-aged children living in Camden "for whom the Commission, by law, are bound to make provisions for." Bergen insisted that the district needed more schoolhouses and facilities, and he wanted them to "build additional wings to our large schoolhouses where we have room," because there is an economy of scale, and bigger schools allowed siblings to attend the same school as an older brother or sister. The commission constructed additional rooms in the rear of the Starr School, four-room additions each to Central and Mickle Schools, and purchased land adjoining the Starr and Lincoln Schools. Yet, the need for more classroom space became apparent when the committee on teachers reported that in the Mount Vernon School,

Camden now had two schools named for Lincoln, one in East Camden and one on Kaighn Avenue. The commission changed the name of the Lincoln School on Kaighn Avenue to the Claudius W. Bradshaw School, in memory of the former Democratic Mayor, who recently died. The wisdom of the name change, however, was "questioned by many sections, because Mr. Bradshaw had never been identified with the public schools."

Claudius W. Bradshaw was born in Sheffield, England, in 1834. He came to America at age five, and settled in West Philadelphia. He moved with his family to Camden in 1843, where he received a common school education, and became a wood turner. He joined the Independence Fire Co. in his early twenties, and in 1870, he became City Marshall, on the Democratic ticket. Later, he became the first elected Councilman-at-Large under the supplemental act of the City Charter. At his election, he received a large brass key, which he always kept with a great deal pride. He became Chief Engineer of the fire company in 1876, and held that position until 1880, when the voters elected him Mayor on the Democratic ticket. The voters returned him to office over challenger, Dr. Henry H. Davis, in 1883, but he was defeated in his try for a third term, in 1886, and ended his career of public service as a member of the County Excise Board. Bradshaw, who lived at 520 South Second Street, is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

In January 1904 the Claudius W. Bradshaw School on Kaighn Avenue was renamed the Abraham Lincoln School, and the Lincoln School on River Road was renamed the Benjamin C. Beideman School.

In early September 1935, the Board officially applied to the Federal Emergency Administration (FEA) of the Public Works Administration to put an addition on the Powell School and for a new school near 32nd and Federal Sts. Other projects for which they applied included converting the basement room at Lincoln School to an auditorium, application filed October, 1935.

In February of 1938 the Board of Education approved the appointment of Florence M. Dickinson as principal of Lincoln school at a salary of $2200 annually. The Lincoln School continued to serve the children of the surrounding neighborhood for many years.

After closing as an elementary school in the 1990s, the building was used as The Challenge Square Academy, where youth who had been involved in criminal activities were educated in small class settings. In the fall of 2005 Lincoln School reopened as the Met East High School, a magnet school sponsored and funded by billionaire owner of Microsoft, Bill Gates. Met East remains in the old Lincoln Building as of the spring of 2008, and budgetary errors and other mismanagement by Camden Board of Education and political officials indicates that despite overcrowding, Met East will remain in the old Lincoln building for some time to come, at the very least through the 2008-2009 school year.