2011 Ten Most Endangered Historic Places in NJ

The 10 Most Endangered Historic Places program spotlights irreplaceable historic, architectural, cultural and archeological resources in New Jersey that are in imminent danger of being lost. The act of listing these resources acknowledges their importance to the heritage of New Jersey and draws attention to the predicaments that endanger their survival and the survival of historic resources statewide. The list, generated from nominations by the public, aims to attract new perspectives and ideas to sites in desperate need of creative solutions.

In 2011, Preservation New Jersey announced its 17th annual 10 Most Endangered Historic Places list.  In a year marked by continuously dire economic news, we are once again struck by the realization that every endangered historic place serves as a challenge to all of us who cherish our history and our quality of life. A deteriorating mansion in Newark and threatened historic hospital buildings in Plainfield represent forces that threaten everyone’s cultural heritage and serve as a powerful reminder that difficult financial times imperil landmarks statewide. In Penns Grove, public policy is currently presenting opportunities to save a cherished municipal landmark, while in Trenton, Paramus, and Waldwick, burocracy and misinformation may destroy similarly significant resources.

Just as the entire environmental community rallies when the quality of a waterway is diminished or a bird habitat threatened, preservationists must stop seeing our battles as merely local problems. We must unite our advocates and strengthen our voice statewide by drawing attention to all of our threatened historic places, the shared causes of those threats, and most importantly, the common solutions that we know can help save them.

Preservation New Jersey’s annual 10 Most Endangered Historic Places list rallies support for these important character-defining landmarks and historic places that teeter on the brink of extinction. But the work does not end when the list is announced; it is barely begun. Historic preservation voices across New Jersey must support the advocates for these sites. We must help to find solutions, and to herald them as models for threatened places in other communities, and we must demand improvements in helpful public policies, and an overhaul of those that hurt our cause.

As concerns about sustainability grow, so should historic preservation awareness. When we allow historic buildings to deteriorate or send their rubble to the landfill, opportunities are being lost to make communities “greener” by adapting these buildings for new uses. In this time of record unemployment, millions of potential private investment dollars that could be saving historic buildings and creating skilled jobs are going instead to surrounding states that have what New Jersey still, even after bi-partisan legislature approval this past winter, does not: a state historic rehabilitation tax incentive. Historic preservation goes “hand in hand” with overarching forces that affect all New Jerseyans daily. We all have a stake in the survival of our common heritage.