Lasting Bonds for a Shared Past

Hunter Research has had the privilege of designing numerous historic interpretive wayside signs for historic sites and cultural landscapes over the past two decades. Over the course of this work, we have developed a deep sense of purpose that continues to inspire us to become involved in local community projects.

On Juneteenth 2025, a sign titled Woodville “Little Africa” was unveiled at a celebration hosted by the Friends of Millstone Township Historic Registered Properties (FMTHRP) and Millstone Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Lewis and Catherine Conover obtained their freedom from slavery in 1828 and founded Woodville, an African American village. Shortly thereafter, they were instrumental in the establishment of St. James A.M.E. Church, a one-room church that still has an active congregation today.

The sign, a collaborative effort between FMTHRP, Millstone HPC member Shazel Muhammad and Hunter Research, was unveiled as part of a larger event, “Looking Back to Look Forward,” which sought to honor Woodville’s rich past. The event attracted some 160 attendees, with descendants of the original Woodville families, some from far-away states, coming together to recognize their shared history.

The sign will be set within a small memorial to Woodville and its founding families just south of Wagner Farm Park in Millstone Township. Hunter Research also led marketing efforts and assisted in event planning as part of a heritage tourism and marketing plan with the FMTHRP, funded in part by the New Jersey Historic Trust.

Bridging Our Past to the Present

Historic bridges provide both particularly interesting opportunities and challenges for historic preservation. The rapid development of bridge technology throughout American history has yielded a variety of beautiful bridge types, from stone arches to iron trusses. When it comes time to repair these resources, however, project engineers and consultants are often faced with varying forms of the following question: how much of the bridge’s historic composition can be preserved while also meeting modern safety standards and completing a cost-effective, lasting repair?

Between 2021 and 2025, Hunter Research provided cultural resource consulting services for the rehabilitation of Mercer County Bridge #140.4 carrying Montgomery Street over the Assunpink Creek in the City of Trenton, New Jersey. The Montgomery Street Bridge is a two-span stone arch bridge erected in 1873 to a design prepared by Trenton architect Henry E. Finch. The project addressed moderate cracking and missing stones in the arch barrels, defects in the spandrel walls, an abandoned water main penetrating the arches and scour undermining the abutments and pier. Engineers identified the bridge’s rare decorative cast-iron railings as substandard and a safety concern, but the County, local residents and preservationists expressed a strong desire to retain them. Due to the bridge’s listed status in the Mill Hill Historic District, the project was subject to review by the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office (NJHPO) under the New Jersey Register of Historic Places Act.

Hunter Research worked closely with the Mercer County Engineering Division and consultant engineer, Traffic Planning and Design, Inc., to develop a rehabilitation alternative that was fully compliant with the Secretary of the Interior Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. Rehabilitation of the stone arch barrels and spandrels made use of historic mortar analysis and incorporated matching stone masonry from a Pennsylvania quarry to fill voids and cracks. Sparwick Contracting, Inc. removed the unsightly utility pipes and conduits, relocated them into the sidewalk, and constructed a floating deck distribution slab. The cast-iron railings offered a particular challenge since they had been repaired with welds, a treatment likely applied in the 1950s in an abortive attempt to make the rails rigid. Sparwick carefully disassembled the railings, cutting them at the welded joints, and then sent the pieces to the shops of Susan R. Bauer, Inc. There, skilled historic metal fabricators cleaned the hollow rails and balusters, removed layer upon layer of paint, brazed and mended cracks and repainted the railings to show off the beautiful cast-iron workmanship. The installation of a low “Washington DC Historic Bridge Rail” along the slate curb line satisfied safety requirements and protected the historic railings after Sparwick reinstalled them. Hunter Research provided expertise in stone and iron conservation and coordinated with NJHPO staff, who issued a rare “no encroachment” finding for a state-funded bridge project.

The Montgomery Street Bridge project has so far won awards for its engineering excellence, historic preservation and community involvement from the American Council of Engineering Companies, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the New Jersey Society of Professional Engineers, the American Society of Highway Engineers and the New Jersey Alliance for Action (see project website here).

BREATHING LIFE INTO CEMETERIES

We tend to think of cemeteries as static features of the cultural landscape – a dead stop for our forebears. In actuality, every cemetery is in constant, albeit slow motion. New interments, foot traffic for grave visits and by those in search of quiet contemplation, animal life above and below ground, and all the while gravestones and monuments molder and erode. Intent on living our everyday lives, we may only give such final resting places a passing thought, but cemetery preservation and maintenance are critical activities that keep these commemorative places alive and well for our future reference.

Over the past few years Hunter Research has continued to specialize in cemetery studies, usually in support of efforts to protect and increase public awareness of the importance of historic graveyards. In our hometown of Trenton, with funding support from the New Jersey Historic Trust we have completed preservation plans for two of the city’s most revered resting places: the First Presbyterian churchyard on East State Street and the non-denominational Mercer Cemetery across from the Trenton Transit Center. In the case of the former, our plan has assisted in the 2024 award of a $750,000 National Trust for Historic Preservation grant for the rehabilitation of this historic burial ground (see press release here). We have also recently designed and installed historic interpretive signage at Locust Hill Cemetery, Trenton’s oldest surviving African American burial ground, located on Hart Avenue.

Elsewhere in New Jersey, at the 1758 Randolph Friends Meeting House in Morris County, we have undertaken ground-penetrating radar survey (with Horsley Archaeological Prospection), coupled with excavation, to identify and avoid unmarked graves in the Quaker burial ground ahead of a new parking lot (Randolph Friends homepage). At the other end of the state, outside Swedesboro, we are presently engaged resetting stones in a grave marker restoration project (with Lodestone Conservation) and completing GIS-based cemetery documentation at the 18th-century Moravian Church near Oldmans Creek. The first of these undertakings is being supported by the meeting house and grant funding from the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund; the second by the Gloucester County Historical Society and the New Jersey Historic Trust.