Passaic County - Making History Accessible

Hunter Research recently teamed with Dorothy Hartman of History in the Making to complete an innovative interpretive plan for historic sites, museums and parks throughout Passaic County in northern New Jersey.  Geographically and demographically diverse, the county challenges any attempts to distill its story into a single perspective. From its populous communities on the I-80 corridor to sparsely developed northern highlands, Passaic County brings together a metropolitan worldview, based on generations of immigrants from all over the world, yet, in places, still rests on a bedrock of small towns and closely knit neighborhoods.

The interpretive plan fulfills one of the recommendations of the Heritage Tourism Element of the Passaic County Master Plan, which set the goal of promoting high-quality countywide history and culture. The interpretive plan anticipates a new “core” exhibit at the historic Lambert Castle, which is undergoing restoration and scheduled to reopen in 2023. The core exhibit will explore the full breadth of the county’s heritage and culture, threading together the three themes of Nature’s All Around You, a Culturally Diverse and Creative People, and the Freedom to Think, Invent and Innovate. Satellite exhibits will be placed strategically, encouraging visitors to explore interpretive programming throughout the county. The plan collected data from 55 locations, of which about half currently have interpretive programs, and the remainder having the potential to offer high-quality interpretation with further investment. The project was made possible through a grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust to the Friends of Passaic County Parks, and was developed under the direction of Kelly Ruffel, Director of the Passaic County Department of Cultural and Historic Affairs.

Trent House Reveals

Throughout the challenging year of 2020 Hunter Research staff have continued working at the William Trent House, Trenton’s founding National Historic Landmark property at the Falls of the Delaware.  Back in the spring, working with Monmouth University faculty and students, we completed an interim report on the 2019 field school which produced exceptionally promising Native American, Contact period and early colonial remains in a well-preserved and surprisingly deep soil sequence.  In July, with the assistance of soil scientist John Stiteler, we conducted a systematic program of soil augering over the 1.59-acre core of the property, the informative results of which will help us plan for future field investigations.  Toward the end of the year, the Trent House Association learned that it had been successful in gaining a New Jersey Historic Trust grant to support another summer field school for undergraduate and graduate students in 2021, to be run by our staff and Monmouth University professors Richard Veit and Adam Heinrich.

Concurrently, Hunter Research has been partnering all year with Trenton-based architecture and landscape consultants Clarke Caton Hintz in producing an updated buildings and site preservation plan for the Trent House property.  Our charge has been to write a new history of the site and provide a reasoned assessment of its archaeological potential based on a quarter century of archaeological explorations.  This document, also funded by the New Jersey Historic Trust, is in the final stages of completion, and will guide the preservation and interpretation of this superior historic property well into the future.

Children’s Summer Home of Cinnaminson

In late 2018, Hunter Research was contacted by Moorestown Ecumenical Neighborhood Development, Inc. (MEND, Inc.), as lead developer for federal, state and county government sponsors, to assist with historic preservation compliance related to a project to build an assisted senior living facility on the location of the former Children’s Summer Home of Cinnaminson. Specifically, Hunter Research was brought in to fulfill requirements of Section 106 and a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office (NJHPO) to mitigate demolition of the rambling late-Victorian summer home, which had been abandoned for nearly a decade. The firm’s architectural historians documented the building to the standards of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), created a historic marker and interpretive sign and completed a historic context study of children’s summer retreats in New Jersey.

The Children’s Summer Home of Cinnaminson was established in 1897 by the Westfield Friends Meeting to provide underprivileged children of Philadelphia with a reprieve from summer heat, pollution and disease. It was part of a nationwide reform effort known as the Fresh Air Movement, which gave city children opportunities to experience the outdoors, while usually also receiving religious or moral instruction from sponsors.

Hunter Research conducted HABS Level III archival research and photo-documented the summer home prior to demolition. The HABS content was then used to prepare a traditional historic roadside cast-metal marker and an interpretive sign for placement in the lobby of the new assisted senior living facility. Hunter Research managed sign development and fabrication steps, as well as handled approvals and coordination with the NJHPO and the building contractor.

As a capstone work product completed in 2020, Hunter Research produced an in-depth historic context study of New Jersey summer homes and camps. Research revealed that the Garden State’s proximity to New York City and Philadelphia fostered many types of country and seashore retreats. Summer homes reached their height of popularity during the Progressive Era and reflected the charitable efforts of the wealthy elite and religious communities to offer children “wholesome” domestic environments in which to breath clean air and eat fresh foods. Summer camps had more of an outdoor recreational emphasis than the homes and have tended to remain economically viable until recent times. Hunter Research’s historians identified nearly 50 children’s summer retreats established between 1870 and 1920 and described their significant historical and architectural characteristics. Future researchers may use the study’s data and recommendations, which were reviewed and approved by NJHPO, to assess eligibility of summer homes and camps for the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.