The Stone Pony among New Jersey\'s most endangered historic sites

[davepeck]

possibly another breakfast venue that will cease to exist...

Building on Jersey history
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
BY TOM HESTER
Star-Ledger Staff

A statewide preservation group yesterday named the Stone Pony, the Asbury Park rock-and-roll landmark that nurtured Bruce Springsteen, to its annual list of New Jersey\'s most endangered historic sites.

The list of 10 sites also includes the village of Hope in Warren County, the Ford Faesch Manor House in Rockaway Township, the old Michelin tire factory in Milltown, the North Princeton Developmental Center in Montgomery and the Polhemus House in Newark.

The sites were chosen to acknowledge their importance to New Jersey and to draw attention to their predicament, according to activists with Preservation New Jersey, the Trenton-based nonprofit organization that has announced an endangered historic sites list annually for 11 years.

"The list is not about history for history\'s sake," said Michael Calafati, the group\'s president. "More than any previous list, collectively these sites underscore New Jersey\'s struggle to retain its individuality, its uniqueness, and its sense of place."

Being named to the list does not guarantee preservation. Depression-era Roosevelt Stadium in Union City, which was named an endangered site last year, has been demolished to make way for a new Emerson High School.

Preservation New Jersey director Ron Emrich said the Stone Pony is considered endangered because the plan to redevelop the Asbury Park beachfront does not include preserving it. The famed rock club opened in 1974, and Preservation New Jersey says the building has been a music venue for 76 years.

"Plans call for wholesale luxury condo development, which is not exactly what the Stone Pony is," Emrich said. "Although the club is open and in use, the city has no plan to save it."

But Caroline O\'Toole, the club\'s manager, said that while the future of the building at 913 Ocean Ave. is unclear, the Stone Pony name has been protected should a new club rise in its place.

"As with any business, you cannot be sure of the future of anything," she said. "If the Stone Pony does not exist as a building, its name is going to go on. It is a name that is responsible for the legendary Asbury Park music scene, and there is no way that is going to be endangered."

O\'Toole said the Stone Pony has a full summer schedule set, including something new: country acts.

The Ford Faesch Manor House in Rockaway Township, Morris County, is the 1770 home of iron master John Jacob Faesch, who provided ammunition to the Continental Army. It is rundown and in need of nearly $1 million in renovations, said Patricia White, vice president of the Historical Society of the Rockaways.

She credited the township\'s fourth-grade history students with trying to save the township-owned, fieldstone-and-wood house, which boasts three stories and 12 rooms. Over the years, fourth-graders have raised more than $4,000 to help preserve the manor through bake and lemonade sales. The fourth- graders at Stony Brook School got the site named to the endangered list.

"If we could bottle what the children of Rockaway feel about this house, it would be restored," White said.

The village of Hope was founded in 1769 by Moravians, an evangelical sect that came to New Jersey to spread the Gospel.

Many of the original limestone houses and stores have been restored and are in use today, but preservationists worry that the structures may be shaken into history. In the 1920s, the intersection of Routes 521 and 519 was set in the center of the village in an attempt to lure automobile traffic to the town, but now the roads have brought heavy trucks rumbling off nearby Route 80, many bound for the nearby county incinerator. Their vibrations are damaging the structures.

"The truckers found they can shave 17 minutes off their run if they use Route 519 instead of Route 46," said Robert C. May, an activist with the Hope Historic Preservation Commission.

The 100 buildings at the 250-acre North Princeton Developmental Center on Route 601 in Montgomery, Somerset County, stand empty. But from 1898 until 1952, it was the New Jersey State Village of Epileptics, which housed more than 1,500 patients and staff and was considered a model of progressive institutional care in the United States.

Eric Joice, director of the Epilepsy Foundation of New Jersey, said the state has agreed to sell the property to Montgomery Township, which wants to make it a cultural, educational and recreational center, but many of the buildings are in disrepair and polluted by lead paint and asbestos. He said the Epilepsy Foundation would like to create a museum there.

The 22-acre Michelin tire factory was the bread and butter of Milltown from 1916 to 1930. Seventy- five years later, what remains is a distinctive but polluted, deteriorating, underused complex of rows of low, connected brick buildings with gables that conceal peaked, triangular, green-ribbed skylights. Boraie Developers of New Brunswick wants to demolish the plant and erect age-restricted housing and some retail.

"Advocates for the site feel the mill, the complex, or at least parts of it reflect the history of the town," said Emrich, the Preservation New Jersey director. "There are plenty of examples where these type of sites are being restored for housing."

When completed in 1864, the Polhemus House on Washington Street may have been the first house in Newark to have indoor plumbing, gaslight and a dumbwaiter.

The city-owned building is a four-story brick brownstone that contains stained-glass windows, two handsome staircases, and rosewood and mahogany woodwork. But it stands empty and neglected, Emrich said, its brick façade covered with peeling paint and its iron front steps damaged.

Emrich said Polhemus House, if restored, could contribute to the James Street Commons Historic District, which is important to the city as a residential neighborhood near the city\'s center.

The other four sites named to the endangered list are the R&H Simon Silk Mill in Union City; the Doo Wop Historic Motel District in Wildwood Crest, Cape May County; St. Michael\'s Episcopal Church in Trenton, and the Mount Zion AME Church in Woolwich, Gloucester County.

[Buquebus]

only in Dirty Jerz.. that place is alright, I guess.  I have personal qualms because it took one Freddiewaht to convince the guy at the door that I was going to my car for extra $$$ to spend on beer and not for drugs. anyways  do people really like the Boss that much?!?!

[jocelyn]

anyways  do people really like the Boss that much?!?!

Are you kidding? I remember being in a Ticketmaster line once for Phish, and there happened to also be people in line for Bruce tickets, as well as Cher and Jerry Seinfeld.

Anyhow, I made some disparaging comments about "The Boss" (I looked around and thought I was safe) and all but got beat up by a 45 year old woman. Apparently "Born to Blow" is not in fact the name of a Bruce Song, but I had always thought that it was due to being a member of this forum. :lol: