close to PCTI's present Wayne site where students learned to raise farm animals and grow crops. By the 1960s, the importance of vocational and technical education was becoming obvious, and in 1964, Paterson Mayor Frank X. Graves Jr. turned over Paterson Tech to the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders, thereby providing all youngsters in Passaic County access to Passaic County Technical and Vocational High School. With students flooding in from all over the county, Passaic County Tech, now reaching a student population of 500 young men and one girl, was significantly overcrowded. The school's two buildings — one dating from the Civil War located at the corner of Summer and Ellison, the other a refurbished factory on Market Street — could not meet the demands. By 1965 plans were well underway to build a new school that would accommodate students for generations to come. Provided with a Federal grant of $3,925,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) — the largest ever awarded to that date — and research from a Citizens' Study Committee, the county chose a tract of land which it owned in Wayne, previously the site of Camp Hope. Ground breaking ceremonies were held in November 1966 and construction began 15 months later. On September 8, 1970, Passaic County Technical and Vocational High School — at the time, the largest technical/vocational high school in the state and third largest in the nation — opened its doors to close to 1,500 young men and women. In the 25 years since, PCTI has added two wings and an additional Special Needs building, a variety of academic courses and special programs and has kept abreast of technological advances and economic trends by constantly updating vocational, occupational and technical courses. Passaic County Tech has since been renamed Passaic County Technical Institute. With construction completed, a new library (F-Wing Library), a separate gymnasium (the Athletic Center, which consists of an indoor pool, a basketball court, an indoor track, a room with DDR used by the physical education department, and a top notch athletic training room), and an extension to the school's F-Wing (now the FX Wing) were added to PCTI. Also, part of the H-Wing was remodeled, the first and second floor, to comply with the new H-Wing bridge that connects to the lower end of the FX-Wing, which added a new BlackBox Theater. Several trailer type classrooms have been installed behind