The THOMAS H. DUDLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL on North 23rd Street first opened for students in 1904, during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Joseph Nowrey was the Mayor of Camden at the time. The school, built by East Camden contractor George Bachmann Sr., which is located at North 23rd and High Street in East Camden, was one of a series of public buildings erected early in the century, after the town of Stockton was annexed by the City of Camden. These buildings included the fire house and police station at 27th & Federal Streets, and the library building at Federal Street and Westfield Avenue. It replaced the Harrison School, which had been built decades before by Stockton Township on Marlton Pike (East State Street) north of of Federal street. 

The school was named for Thomas H. Dudley, a leading Camden citizen of the 19th century. Thomas H. Dudley served both the city of Camden and the nation as a whole for many years. He wrote the 1851 City Charter, was in charge of the United States'  efforts to to convince Great Britain to remain neutral during the Civil War, and was America's representative in the settlement of the Alabama claims after war's end. Thomas H. Dudley owned a fine home that sat at the center of what is now the Dudley Grange Park. This building held the East Camden branch of the Free Public Library of Camden for many years until budget cuts forced its closure. Once abandoned, the building was lost to fire. 

The Thomas H. Dudley School was designed by Philadelphia architect Paul Armon Davis III, who also designed the W.J. Sewell School, which also opened in 1904. Davis would go on to design or take part in the architectural work of no less than six other Camden public schools. In 1907 three Davis designed schools opened there doors, the Parkside School, the H.B. Wilson School, and the George Washington School. In 1910 the John G. Whittier School opened at 8th and Chestnut Street. Davis worked under Arthur Truscott in the design of 1916's Camden High School, and the final Davis-designed school to open was the Charles Sumner School at South 8th and Van Hook Street in 1926. 

When the Dudley School opened, the nearby Harrison School, which had been built by Stockton Township and was located at East State Street and High Street, was closed and demolished. 

Contagious disease was a problem in Camden and elsewhere at the turn of the century, and the school board authorized quarantine periods for diphtheria, smallpox, mumps, and whooping cough. Dr. Henry H. Davis, in charge of medical affairs in Camden's schools, closed the Dudley School for two weeks in mid-November, 1905 to prevent a diphtheria outbreak.

By 1910 Dudley School was so crowded that 90 students were on split session. The school board considered portable buildings, but decided the city would be better served by adding four rooms onto Dudley School.

During the Depression, students often were absent for lack of proper clothing. "Daddy" Sparks, a janitor at Dudley, used donated material from those in the neighborhood to mend about 100 pairs of shoes a month in the basement of the school for neighborhood children.

Sometime after 1950 an annex was built where houses had stood. The annex gave the school a new street address, 18 North 23rd Street.

The Dudley School in 2003-2004 served students in kindergarten through the fourth grade. Dudley serves an ethnically and racially diverse community. Students have come to Dudley in recent years speaking a variety of languages, including English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Haitian Creole. The traditionally working class neighborhood which Dudley serves was devastated by drugs when crack cocaine hit Camden in 1986, and only in very recent times has stabilized, although at a level that barely meets the standards of civil society. 

The Dudley School was scheduled to be replaced by a new school in 2006, as part of a new construction program that will see several other Camden elementary schools replaced, including the Catto School in East Camden, the H.B. Wilson School in Fairview, and the George Washington School in Cramer Hill. Government corruption on the state level, however, made this impossible, and the school will remain in use, barring disaster, into the foreseeable future.

At the beginning of the 2007 school year, The Dudley Elementary School ceased to exist. its students were sent to the new Catto School that had been built where Thomas H. Dudley's home once stood, Dudley Grange. The building remains in use, as the Board of Education's Early Child Development Center.