Preservation for the People !
Mission
CHABA is an open circle of diverse and multigenerational preservation activists based in Bridgeton, NJ, a small, postindustrial and river-bound American city in rural Cumberland County that also boasts the largest historic district in the state. Our nonprofit work, founded in principles of community, social justice, environmental sustainability and quality of life, is focused on this district, modeling and promoting the kind of practical and social reinvestment that reflects the best of the American urban tradition. We aim to model historic preservation as creative, collaborative, intergenerational and futuristic, and use both educational programs and supportive hands-on work to save and celebrate the local, neighborhood and regional structures that can carry this city’s past into a livable, beautiful and storied American future.
vision
Bridgeton, New Jersey, was born in 1716, well before the American Revolution, at a King’s Highway crossing of the Cohansey River. The Cumberland County historic home of entreprenuers and immigrants for centuries, it has been in many ways a model of human thriving in coexistence with nature. Now a post-industrial small American city, set within a wide surround of farms, wetlands and Native American settlements, it boasts both the largest nationally-designated historic district and one of the largest urban parks in the state. CHABA strives to protect, restore and ‘script' this rich land- and cityscape through both people-centered ‘placemaking’ and structural preservation, unpacking the hidden stories of its structures over four and more centuries and interpreting them futuristically within a citywide, regional and national context, with the aim of both telling a classic American story and helping create a just, vibrant, green, sustainable and inclusive community.
About CHABA
CHABA's Spanish translation of the District's Historic Guidelines was the FIRST in the state of New Jersey, and won an Historic Preservation Award in 2014. ASK FOR THEM at the Community Development Office!
Our 'HomeFronts' workshops--designed to teach repair skills--and our hands-on help to home- and business-owners are unique and signature parts of our services to the community.
For us, preservation isn’t just about pretty exteriors. It’s about safe, vibrant, and sustainable neighborhoods with great stories to tell. It’s about building better communities through creative, hands-on placemaking. We connect people with each other across regions and disciplines to help improve the economy, job prospects, education and the environment.
We provide free training, and the tools and information people need to make old houses work for new families. We take the fear-factor out of Historic District Commission reviews.
If you need one we’ll even go with you - for free!
"It’s a story worth saving.
It’s a story worth sharing.
It’s OUR story.
And it still matters."
