| DEP's
State Historic Preservation Office Names Five New Sites
to the New Jersey Register of Historic Places
(03/168) TRENTON - New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner
Bradley M. Campbell today announced the listing of five
new historic sites to the New Jersey Register of Historic
Places. The sites are located in Camden, Middlesex, Salem
and Somerset Counties.
"New Jersey is blessed with a rich
heritage of historically significant sites and artifacts
that are vital parts of our communities and landscape,"
said Commissioner Campbell. "Listing these sites on
the New Jersey State Register will help property owners
and communities be more effective advocates for protecting
their historic properties from destruction."
The State Register is a list of areas and
properties worthy of preservation for their historical,
architectural, cultural or archaeological significance.
In addition to the state listing, Commissioner
Campbell will recommend that these properties be placed
on the National Register of Historic Places, administered
by the National Park Service. National Register listing
offers historic properties a measure of protection from
federally sponsored or assisted activities.
Below is the list of sites added to the
register.
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Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Camden,
Camden County
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, constructed
1864 - circa 1877, is significant in the area of architecture
as a well-executed example of the Gothic Revival style
as applied to an ecclesiastical structure. Constructed
of Trenton brownstone, the cathedral has pointed-arch
windows, stained glass and wood tracery, a large rose
window, buttresses, an offset tower, spire and many
other features common to the Gothic Revival style. The
interior finish work, including the plaster and frescoes,
the Carrara marble alter and some of the domestic stained
glass windows were completed before the consecration
of the church in 1893. The Mayer Studios stained glass
windows were installed in 1905. Noted Newark, New Jersey
architect Jeremiah O'Rourke designed the Cathedral.
O'Rourke developed a relationship with the Roman Catholic
Church and was commissioned to design churches, rectories
and schools for the Dioceses of Trenton and Newark in
the latter half of the nineteenth century and the beginning
of the twentieth century.
-
St. Joseph Polish Catholic Church, Camden,
Camden County
St. Joseph Polish Catholic Church, built in 1914 is
an architectural and community landmark in the City
of Camden. The parish was established in response to
the determined efforts of Polish immigrants who worked
toward the goal of instituting a new parish reflecting
their history, culture and traditions of worship. Once
established, the parish was instrumental in creating
a welcoming neighborhood for Polish immigrants through
the construction of housing in the area of the church
and the formation of Polish-owned savings and loan associations,
as well as acting as a religious, educational and social
center of the new neighborhood, which became known as
"Polishtown."
The church was designed by Philadelphia architect George
I. Lovatt, Sr., who was well known for his ecclesiastical
commissions in the greater Philadelphia area. The design
of the church reflects the Baroque influence on the churches
in the parishioners' native Poland and is laid out in
a traditional basilica form. It is constructed of New
Hampshire granite with decorative elements carved from
limestone or formed in copper. The interior was designed
with a repeating theme of arches and elaborate decoration
that includes faux painting, statues and murals.
-
St. Mary's Church, Borough of South River,
Middlesex County
St. Mary's Church is a local landmark in the river town
incorporated as the Borough of South River. This imposing
and majestic church is the tallest structure in the
Borough and can be seen from any approach to the Borough
of South River. Formed by Polish Catholics, it is a
well-preserved granite Romanesque Revival church, significant
for its architecture. The architect of the church was
Henry Dandurand Dagit, a renowned Philadelphia architect
of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
-
Alloways Creek Friends Meetinghouse, Lower
Alloways Creek Twp., Salem County
The Alloways Creek Friends Meetinghouse, constructed
in 1756, was the third meetinghouse constructed for
the Alloways Creek Friends. The original form of this
meetinghouse, a one story, single-cell building, was
a common form for small Friends Meetings in the Delaware
Valley from the late seventeenth through the mid-eighteenth
centuries. The construction of a major addition in 1784,
along with alterations to the original building, converted
the meetinghouse into a two-story, two-cell form that
quickly dominated Quaker meetinghouse design in the
second half of the eighteenth century. While new meetinghouses
constructed during the period were built with equal-sized
rooms, reflecting contemporary thought on space arrangement
for worship and business meetings, the Alloways Creek
Friends Meetinghouse retained a slight discrepancy in
the size between the two rooms, maintaining the distinction
between the main worship room/men's business meeting
room and the women's business meeting room found in
the earlier generation of meetinghouses. Typical Quaker
meetinghouse elements exhibited by the Alloways Creek
Friends Meetinghouse include its plain, rectangular
brick form with a side gable roof, covered entrances,
unadorned interior, facing bench platforms, a U-shaped
gallery and a movable partition that allowed joint worship
services and separate business meetings.
- Dirck Gulick House, Montgomery Township, Somerset
County
The Dirck Gulick House was constructed in the mid-eighteenth
century and is a one-and-one half story Dutch vernacular
building. It is a rare example of a Dutch built stone
house in a Dutch community typified by its frame houses.
In the Gulick house there is evidence that a process of
assimilation was underway in the house-building culture
of other nationalities present in mid-eighteenth century
central New Jersey.
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