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.

Following in Clara Barton’s Footsteps

Over the past couple of years Hunter Research has been privileged to undertake archaeological work at two locations associated with esteemed humanitarian, nurse and educator Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross.

First, close to our Trenton home, working for the Bordentown Historical Society, we have investigated the Clara Barton Schoolhouse. This is where Barton, early in her storied career, opened and successfully operated the first free public school in New Jersey in 1852-53. Shortly thereafter, with enrolments rising and a new school building planned, the school board rudely replaced Barton with a male principal on the grounds that the position as head of such a large institution was unbefitting for a woman. The first schoolhouse still stands today, a charming one-and-a-half-story brick building, which for much of its existence has served as a residence. Our excavations exposed the remains of a rear kitchen addition and recovered artifacts from the period when the schoolhouse was home to two notable African-American families. Abraham Crippen, a prominent pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, lived there with his family from 1866 until 1872, followed by the family of Civil War veteran Henry Cole who were resident until around 1900.

More recently, in Glen Echo, Maryland, on the outskirts of Washington, DC, we have been part of a consultant team headed by Mills + Schnoering Architects, retained by the National Park Service to develop plans to rehabilitate the Clara Barton National Historic Site. This blufftop property, adjoining the delightful Glen Echo Park, was Barton’s home in her later life, the 38-room residence functioning as the nerve center for her many philanthropic and charitable endeavors. Our archaeological studies have focused on the remains of buildings and other buried features on the grounds associated with Barton’s occupation of the premises from the early 1890s until her death in 1912. The property is also yielding an abundance of Native American artifacts consistent with its ideal setting for camping on the bluffs overlooking the Potomac River.