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.

Follow the Signs

Hunter Research continues to nurture a productive side line in historic interpretive sign design.  Over the past five years, mostly working with graphic designer Douglas Scott, our firm has completed signage for a number of choice historic sites, most notably Seneca Village in Central Park. This past Juneteenth a group of signs along with National Register of Historic Places plaques were unveiled at three of Trenton’s most revered Black landmarks – the Carver Center, the Higbee Street School and the Locust Hill Cemetery. A week later, five more signs were added at historical and geographic points of interest along the 20-mile Lawrence Hopewell Trail in the Princeton vicinity of New Jersey – a couple of mill sites (one with an iconic Warren pony truss bridge), a farm, a park and a drainage divide. Visit the history page at the LHT website for more information [link].

Meanwhile, several more sign projects are in process and will reach completion in the coming months.  Among these are a family of signs for the William Trent House, a National Historic Landmark property in New Jersey’s capital city; a pair for the Divident Hill Monument in Weequahic Park in the City of Newark; and one on either end of the historic bridge crossing the Connecticut River between Lancaster, New Hampshire and Guildhall, Vermont.  We view our signs as history’s friends, connecting the present and past for a decade or two into the future, and grounding us in the immediate reality of place.