 Bring Back The Nail House!This Little Building is Huge! Help us restore and reclaim this icon of Bridgeton's industrial and working class heritage. |  Cohansey Riverfrom the Bridgeton Bluffs |  Ferracute Office Building |  Waterfront Park |  Downtown's pocket park |  Candlelight ProcessionFor the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. |  Commerce Street Bridge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Pocket Park at night |  View of Sunset Lake from Piney PointBridgeton's City Park |
We are an open circle of thoughtful cultural and multicultural activists--some young--some seasoned--all invested in sustainability.
For us, historic preservation is creative, futuristic work. we are not out to freeze the past, but to model people-centered “place-making” as a path to green, sustainable, culturally & economically diverse housing and neighborhood improvement...jobs creation...quality of life...environmental justice and economic reinvestment.
We pour our energies (and yes, our love) into this small New Jersey city because it tells an amazingly rich story of the making of America--working and middle-class--farming and industry--native & immigrant--over four centuries.
And because, with the largest historic district in the state, this same small city enlarges the challenge and the potential impact of what we do. JOIN US!
THANK YOU!
For your recent participation in
"A Race through Time, 2020," a celebration of
local & regional history recently organized by the Vineland Historical Society
with its County-wide partners during the months of July and August, 2020.
The Nail House is no longer open at regular dates and times,
but do contact us (contact form below) if you would like to visit.
We will be happy to try to accommodate you!
There are many historic artifacts and photographs on display.
Our guides will tell you what we know of local and Nail Mill history--
and what we are discovering all the time!
Books, T-shirts, Note Cards and Historic Photographs
are available for sale.
Remember every purchase helps support this project!
Call (856) 369-1300 and leave a message if you would like
to request special arrangements.
The Nail House is wheelchair-accessible; masks and
safe social distancing are required.
HISTORY BY REMOTE & VISUAL LEARNING
Thanks to a recent programming grant from the Cumberland County Cultural & Heritage Commission and the generous additional support of the
New Jersey Council for the Humanities via the national CARES program, CHABA will soon be announcing details of two VIRTUAL "Nail House Residencies" for 2020-2021 by a distinguished historian and a mixed-media artist and poet respectively. Each "Resident" will be interpreting some of the complex culture of the region from African American and women's points of view.
Be sure to email us for announcements and news about these venturesome "residency' programs--soon to be available on-line!
CHABA Celebrates 100 Years of Woman Suffrage!
BRIDGETON
BRING BACK THE NAIL HOUSE
HISTORIC DISTRICT
Named for the tiny bridge that has straddled the Cohansey River here since 1716, Bridgeton has been the seat of New Jersey’s rural Cumberland County since before the Revolution. It is steeped in a marinade of precolonial, colonial and postcolonial histories and cultures.
CHABA has been collaborating with the City of Bridgeton (which owns the Nail House--the little building at the entrance to Bridgeton CIty Park) on repairs that have made this historic
'founder site' accessible again.
We are committed to assuring that this key contributing structure can keep telling not just the story of the city itself but of the park--a gem of public space and one of the largest urban parks in the state--symbol of CHABA's commitment to the work of promoting environmental justice in this community and beyond.
JOIN US!
Bridgeton’s architectural range is encyclopedic: from cabin to castle, high Victorian to classical revival to modernist. The Historic District itself includes an amazing number of individual architectural gems, many designed by noted architects.
