Tilting at Windmills on the Maurice River

Today, wind power means arrays of giant, three-pronged turbines strung along hillsides or protruding from the ocean floor. Historically, along the eastern seaboard of North America, windmills were also not uncommon in the landscape, the power of air currents being used to grind grain grown in nearby farm fields.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, several windmills were once ranged along the banks of the Maurice River in Cumberland County, southern New Jersey, each one rotating on a large wooden post to capture in its sails the power of the prevailing nor’easter gales. None of these windmills survive today, although their former existence is witnessed on historic maps and in old documents and photographs.

Over the winter of 2021-22, a team of Hunter Research archaeologists, surveying the left bank of the Maurice River just below Leesburg in advance of a proposed commercial marine support facility for offshore wind power development, found evidence of a mid-18th-century peg, or sunken post, windmill. The remains were vestigial, to say the least, consisting of a sizeable hole, 8.5 feet deep and between 8 and 9 feet in diameter, containing the rotted imprint of a 2-foot-square timber post, along with other subsurface structural traces nearby. Associated artifacts, including a “Georgius II Rex” half penny dated 1735, along with documentary evidence, suggest that the windmill was most likely built and operated by members of the Peterson family, who were among the first Swedish settlers to take up residence in the Maurice River valley in the early 1700s.

The proposed development project will thankfully avoid what still remains of the windmill and its site will be marked with an interpretive sign.

Cultural Landscape Study Aids in Preservation of Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Churchyard

In 1697, Andreas Rudman, a Lutheran minister recently arrived from Sweden to attend Swedish and Finnish settlers, wrote to the mother church in Uppsala reporting his impression of the state of its churches in the lower Delaware Valley. His assessment was blunt, “the churches are old and decrepit,” but Rudman resolved that “therefore we, with the help of the Lord, will exert ourselves to build new ones.” Three years later in 1700, Rudman presided over the consecration of Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Church, an impressive, Flemish-bond brick church that rivaled any then in existence in Philadelphia. More than 325 years after its founding, the church stands at the center of a complex that includes a burial ground, parsonage, sexton’s house and community hall. Gloria Dei is a center of Swedish culture and one of the oldest churchyards in the United States. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1942, and its grounds have been managed by the congregation in cooperation with the National Park Service since 1958.

 

In late 2022, Hunter Research completed a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) for Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Church National Historic Site under contract with the National Park Service. Hunter Research’s historians, archaeologists and GIS specialists, with assistance from landscape architects at ETM Associates, worked closely with staff from Independence National Historical Park, the Olmsted Center for Landscape Architecture and Gloria Dei. The CLR was the first ever study based on primary source materials undertaken of the 1.5-acre churchyard and surrounding 3.3-acre park in South Philadelphia, less than a block from the Delaware River. The CLR assembled and presented research findings, existing conditions assessments and analyses of historical significance and integrity. The CLR identified historic landscape developmental periods and placed the site’s topography, building assemblages, spatial relationships, key vistas and views, circulation patterns and plantings into historical contexts.

 

The CLR data will be used to guide further development of appropriate landscape treatments in accordance with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. These treatments may in the future address effective vegetation management, conservation of significant landscape features, improved public access and accessibility, and updated interpretation for the benefit of park visitors. The CLR provides park professionals with the information necessary to make informed decisions regarding management and interpretation of Gloria Dei and will ultimately lead to strategies to improve the condition, appearance and public appreciation of the landscape.

Patrick Speaks

On Sunday afternoon, September 18, 2022, Hunter Research Vice-President Patrick Harshbarger was the featured speaker and tour leader at the annual meeting of the Hopewell Valley Historical Society. This event was held at the Watershed Institute, aka Brookdale Farm, aka the Drake Farmstead, a delightful pastoral setting at 31 Titus Mill Road in rural Hopewell Township roughly midway between the boroughs of Hopewell and Pennington.

Patrick’s topic was the history of the farm property that serves as the headquarters of the Watershed Institute, central New Jersey’s first environmental group and one of the largest and most respected watershed associations in the country. The farm has a fascinating history that encompasses seven generations of Drake family ownership and a period in the mid-20th century when it was the home of the famed psychoanalyst and humanitarian, Muriel Gardiner Buttinger. The property is currently under review for acceptance into the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, the nomination documentation for which was prepared by Patrick and other Hunter Research staff. Patrick’s presentation was followed by a walk-about of the farm and its impressive collection of agricultural buildings.