newjerseynewsroom.com

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The Petty’s Run archeology site on the Statehouse grounds, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in Millstone Borough, an historic landscape in Hopewell Township, a Newark mansion, and the remnants of a 19th century African-American town in Salem County are among this year’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places as chosen by the Trenton-based non-profit Preservation New Jersey.

The 108-year-old Muhlenberg Hospital complex in Plainfield, the Penns Grove Middle School in Salem County, and the Waldwick Railroad Station, the Gilded Age Atwood-Blauvelt Mansion, and the 18th century Zabriskie Tenant House in Paramus, all in Bergen County, complete the lost.

The annual list -- this is the 17th year it has been issued -- attempts to spotlights what Preservation New Jersey sees as irreplaceable historic, architectural, cultural and archeological resources that are in imminent danger of being lost. This year’s selection was announced Wednesday morning on the Statehouse steps in Trenton.

The selection of the sites is based on three criteria:

The site’s significance in history or architecture, the urgency of the threat to the place, and the likelihood that listing it as endangered will result in solutions and preservation.

Stephanie L. Cherry-Farmer, Preservation New Jersey’s senior program director, said the list acknowledges the sites’ importance to the heritage of New Jersey and draws attention to the predicaments that endanger their survival and those of historic resources statewide. The list is generated from nominations by the public.

“Several challenges face properties included on this year’s endangered sites list, including neglect and deferred maintenance, weak or non-existent local preservation ordinances, and misinformation or lack of consciousness,” Cherry-Farmer said. “On this year’s list, the effects of an extraordinarily challenging economy remain particularly evident: a dearth of funds, a lack of viable rehabilitation plans, and taxed municipal and state budgets are just a few of the difficult issues with which not only those sites on this year’s list, but historic properties throughout New Jersey, are currently grappling.”

Cherry-Farmer said that in a period of high unemployment, millions of potential private investment dollars that could be saving historic buildings and creating skilled jobs are going instead to surrounding states that have what New Jersey, even after bi-partisan legislature approval this past winter, does not: a state historic rehabilitation tax incentive. Gov. Chris Christie has not acted on the tax incentive.

“Historic preservation goes ‘hand in hand‘ with overarching forces that affect all New Jerseyans daily,” Cherry-Farmer said. “We all have a stake in the survival of our common heritage.”

The preservationist added, “As we acknowledge each year, selections to the 10 Most Endangered Historic Places list are based on the likelihood that historic buildings and places can be brought back to useful and productive life.”

Here are the sites Preservation New Jersey see as endangered:

Click on the thumbnails for larger images

Atwood-Blauvelt Mansion, 699 Kinderkamack Rd., Oradell, Bergen County -- A 19th century mansion, currently in foreclosure and threatened by proposed development.

Bachman Wilson House, 1423 Millstone River Rd., Millstone, Somerset County -- A 1954 Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece threatened by flooding and potential relocation.

Jacob’s Creek Crossing Rural Historic Landscape in the vicinity of the intersection of Bear Tavern Rd. and Jacob’s Creek Rd., Hopewell, Mercer County -- A rural historic landscape with 18th and 19th century significance, threatened by a proposed road realignment project.

Krueger-Scott Mansion, 601 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Newark -- A Victorian-era mansion threatened by neglect and a taxed municipal budget.

Marshalltown, Marshalltown Road and Roosevelt Avenue, Mannington, Salem County -- Extant remnants of a thriving 19th century free African-American community threatened by abandonment, neglect, and reclamation.

Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center’s Tracy & Swartwout Buildings, intersection of Park Avenue and Randolph Road, Plainfield, Union County -- A 1903 medical complex designed by Tracey and Swartwout, threatened by potential development.

Penns Grove High School (currently Penns Grove Middle School), 351 East Maple Ave., Penns Grove, Salem County -- A 1935 Public Works Administration school threatened with demolition and replacement.

Petty’s Run Archaeological Site, Statehouse grounds, West State Street, Trenton -- The only known Colonial-era steel furnace whose archaeological remains have been excavated, threatened with reburial by Christie administration.

Waldwick Railroad Station, intersection of Hewson Avenue and West Prospect Street, Waldwick, Bergen County -- A circa 1886 railroad depot threatened by inadequate funding.

Zabriskie Tenant House, 273 Dunkerhook Rd., Paramus, Bergen County -- An 18th century stone house and former African-American tenant house threatened with demolition.

“In a year marked by continuously dire economic news, we are once again struck by the realization that every endangered historic place serves as a challenge to all of us who cherish our history and our quality of life,” Cherry-Farmer said. “A deteriorating mansion in Newark and threatened historic hospital buildings in Plainfield represent forces that threaten everyone’s cultural heritage and serve as a powerful reminder that difficult financial times imperil landmarks statewide.

“In Penns Grove, public policy is currently presenting opportunities to save a cherished municipal landmark, while in Trenton, Paramus, and Waldwick, bureaucracy and misinformation may destroy similarly significant resources.

“Just as the entire environmental community rallies when the quality of a waterway is diminished or a bird habitat threatened, preservationists must stop seeing our battles as merely local problems,” Cherry-Farmer said. “We must unite our advocates and strengthen our voice statewide by drawing attention to all of our threatened historic places, the shared causes of those threats, and most importantly, the common solutions that we know can help save them.”

Cherry-Farmer said concern for the sites does not end when the list is announced.

“Historic preservation voices across New Jersey must support the advocates for these sites,” she said. “We must help to find solutions, and to herald them as models for threatened places in other communities, and we must demand improvements in helpful public policies, and an overhaul of those that hurt our cause.”

Detailed descriptions of these places can be viewed here.