Do you plan on spending the long weekend “down the shore” or maybe having a quiet picnic in a historic park? Do your travels take you past a historic roadside attraction? Does your favorite summer vacation spot hold special childhood memories?
Nominate your site NOW to our BEST OF NEW JERSEY HERITAGE TOURISM CONTEST 2009. Through August 3rd, submit a brief description your favorite heritage tourism site and a photo to info@preservationnj.org or as a comment here on our blog. We’ll run a poll from August 3rd through August 10th for a public vote on the best heritage tourism spot in New Jersey. The nominator of the site that collects the most votes will WIN A WEEKEND VACATION PACKAGE IN CAPE MAY this November, including TWO NIGHTS AT LEITH HALL, one of the area’s premiere historic inns, and a $50 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO CUCINA ROSA, rated one of Cape May’s best Italian restaurants!
Margate's famous Lucy! Image courtesy of the Historic American Buildings Survey.
Some of our current nominations include Lucy the Elephant in Margate and everyone’s beloved Garden State Parkway (since so much of NJ has spent MANY a summer day together here!).
Time flies, don’t wait…submit your nomination now to info@preservationnj.org and help support heritage tourism in the Garden State this summer!
Like it or not, the Garden State Parkway is a popular and historic summer tourist destination!
PNJ Executive Director Ron Emrich & consultant Donna Ann Harris (Heritage Consulting, Inc.) enjoyed a most excellent adventure yesterday, touring a dozen towns in South and Central New Jersey to check out the first set of affordable housing projects that adapted historic, or at least older, buildings. This as part of the PNJ effort, in cooperation with COAH and funded by DCA, to develop numerous case studies of such affordable housing development projects.
We saw some projects that didn’t respect the integrity of the historic structure being redeveloped (i.e. disasters!), but we were pleased to discover some great adaptive uses that prove that communities need not regard historic properties as an impediment to providing decent an affordable housing but instead should look at them as opportunities. Imagine: housing AND landmarks!
Look in the coming months for PNJ’s report.
Robbins Reef Lighthouse, 2008. Photo courtesy of www.lighthousefriends.com.
The 1883 Robbins Reef Lighthouse, located offshore in Upper New York Bay near Bayonne, NJ, is looking f or a new caregiver, and for now, there’s an attractive price tag of $0 attached. In accordance with the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA), light stations that become available can be transferred at no cost to Federal agencies, state and/or local government entities, nonprofit corporations, educational agencies or community development organizations for various uses, including historic preservation. But you’ll want to act quickly: under the NHLPA, these light stations are only available at no cost for 60 days, after which point they will be offered for sale.
The NHLPA is an excellent incentive for the preservation of historic lighthouses throughout the U.S. Properties are conveyed with preservation easements, and only to qualified entities. Furthermore, in cases like that of Robbins Reef, the light station will continue active navigation service, so the U.S. Coast Guard will retain the accessibility rights and development restrictions necessary for the station’s continued operation.
PNJ works hard to keep you aware of unique preservation opportunities such as the NHLPA. Won’t you help us to be an even further-reaching beacon for historic preservation?
Recently published findings in Maryland show that the historic rehab tax credits help save more than just buildings. Tax credit-driven preservation projects in Maryland have kept 387,000 tons of material from landfills, and preserved an estimated 1,053 acres of greenfields that otherwise might have been lost to sprawl development. Plus, vehicle travel to and from tax credit projects is 30 to 40 percent less than it would be to sprawl locations, with related greenhouse gas reductions.
This and related reports devoted to Historic Preservation and Climate Change are available. Menawhile, the proposed NJ state historicrehabilitation tax credit still languishes in the legislature.
Help Preservation New Jersey advocate for a state tax credit!
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday that the Campbell’s Soup Company has again announced their desire
Camden's Sears Roebuck and Co. building is ripe with adaptive use potential. Photo courtesy of Robert Owens from Flickr.
to raze Camden’s 1927 Sears Roebuck Building. listed as one of PNJ’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Sites in New Jersey in 2000. The Neoclassical-style building is located in the middle of a site of contemporary office development currently under construction by Campbell’s. Campbell’s reportedly came to a purchase agreement with the building’s current owner, Ilan Zaken, back in March, but the two have as yet been unable to finalize that deal. Zaken and Campbell’s, along with preservationists, the City of Camden, and others have been at odds over the building for several years. Zaken purchased the property in 2007, announcing plans to rehabilitate the space into a mixed-use retail and office building, but since that time, no changes have occurred. Campbell’s originally threatened to leave Camden if not permitted to raze the Sears Building, but later modified their redevelopment plans to wrap around the Sears property. However, when the building was again offered for sale earlier this year, Campbell’s again modified their plans, reincorporating demolition of the Sears Building. Ready to proceed with the project, Campbell’s has now requested that the City of Camden acquire the building via their powers of eminent domain in redevelopment areas.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Cavalier92.
On June 25, the State Legislature voted with strong bipartisan support in the Senate (26 Yes, 7 No) and Assembly (66 Yes, 9 No, 3 Abstain) to let the New Jersey voters decide in November whether to continue the state’s investments in open space. The 129-organization coalition, the New Jersey – Keep It Green Campaign, with Preservation New Jersey as a leading member of the group, applauded this overwhelming support.
The timing was crucial, with the Garden State Preservation Trust essentially empty and no longer able to fund NJ Historic Trust restoration grants or undertake new land preservation vital to New Jersey’s water supply, health and prosperity. The GSPT has been pivotal in supporting statewide and local efforts to provide for open space, parks, farmland preservation and historic preservation. read more…
A beautiful Cape May sunset. Photo courtesy of Flickr user nbarnes924.
It’s almost July, the rain seems to be tapering off, and temperatures are finally nearing hot! It’s time to get out and enjoy SUMMER in New Jersey! And just in case you need a reason, this year, Preservation New Jersey has the perfect incentive!
Do you know of a great heritage tourism site in the Garden State? We’re looking for YOUR favorite such places, and just for sharing, you might even end up a big winner! From now through August 3rd, submit a sentence or two about your favorite heritage tourism site and a photo to our blog, as a comment or message to our Facebook or Twitter page, or in an e-mail to info@preservationnj.org. From August 3rd through August 10th, we’ll run a poll, asking the public to vote for the top pick of
Leith Hall, one of Cape May's premiere historic inns. Photo courtesy of leithhall.com.
the submissions we’ve received, and the nominator of the site that collects the most votes will WIN A WEEKEND VACATION PACKAGE IN CAPE MAY this November, including TWO NIGHTS AT LEITH HALL, one of the area’s premiere bed-and-breakfasts, and a $50 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO CUCINA ROSA, rated one of Cape May’s best Italian restaurants! We’ll also feature your submissions on our soon-to-go-live new website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed, here in our blog and in our newsletter. Stop by one of New Jersey’s
Experience the fine Italian fare of local favorite Cucina Rosa as part of our prize package! Photo courtesy of cucinarosa.com.
amazing heritage tourism sites and tell us all about it for your chance to win a weekend “down the shore” and support heritage tourism in the Garden State this summer!
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GSPT supporters wore green stickers yesterday and filled the State House committee rooms. Photo courtesy of the Senate Majority Office.
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Assembly Budget Committee yesterday approved. by significant majorities, bill A3901/S1858, which would let the voters of NJ decide the fate of the GSPT bond referendum. While the bill approved yesterday did decrease the proposed funding from $600 million to $400 million, the advance of the current version would provide desperately-needed stop gap funding for the state’s open space, historic preservation, and farmland preservation financing program. The bill is now scheduled to be heard on the floor of both houses this Thursday, June 25. PNJ urges you to CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS today and tomorrow to once again voice your support for GSPT, the state’s only source of funding for historic preservation!
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PNJ will be hosting our 2009 Preservation Gala on Thursday,October 1, 2009 from 6:00 to 10:00p.m. at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, NJ.
We will be honoring leaders, visionaries and professionals who have preserved and restored important landmarks and landscapes in Newark, Hoboken and statewide.
VISION AWARDS
presented to New Jersey Historical Society; Michael Calafati, AIA; and NJ Transit
BUILDING INDUSTRY NETWORK AWARDS
presented to Tishman Construction; Austin Helle Company; and Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects
SARAH P. FISKE LEGACY AND LEADERSHIP AWARDS
presented to Congressman Leonard Lance and Conrad Hall, Sr. (in memoriam)
Sponsored in part by Schtiller & Plevy
Cocktail Sponsor, Masonry Preservation Group
Awards Sponsor, S&J Electrical Contractors, Inc.
For information about sponsorship or to donate an auction item please call 609.392.6409
or email PNJ at info@preservationnj.org.
PNJ’s 9-year-old, antiquated website is currently being re-configured. Please bear with us as we transition to a new and much improved full site. Meanwhile, phone us at 609.392.6409 to make a contribution to PNJ, and visit the 2009 Ten Most Endangered Historic Sites page at www.pnj10most.org.
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Unless the Legislature acts soon, landmarks like Trenton's Roebling Machine Shop, a previous recipient of NJ Historic Trust grants for its restoration and adaptation as the Museum of Contemporary Science, will no longer have a source of funding.
Just days remain in their session and the New Jersey Legislature is poised to take the summer and fall off without acting to extend the NJ Historic Trust restoration and rehabilitation grants by putting a measure on the fall ballot. The Historic Trust, along with Green Acres open space preservation and Farmland Preservation programs, are out of money for the first time in decades, but a bill pending in the legislature would allow New Jersey voters to decide whether to extend the programs for three years with a $600 million bond.
The state’s only grant program for rehabilitation and restoration of public buildings, churches, museums and other cherished landmarks has spurred hundreds of millions of dollars in historic preservation projects in every county and created hundreds of skilled jobs in construction, architecture, planning, engineering and other building crafts.
To urge legislators to act before they adjourn before June 30, go to the Keep it Green website where you can send messages to Gov. Corzine and key legislators urging them to act. Also please call Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (856-742-7600) and Senate President Richard Codey (973-731-6770).
