By PreservationNJ https://preservationnj.org/can-historic-assets-be-a-solution-to-new-jerseys-affordable-housing-crisis/ As municipalities recently scrambled to answer interrogatives from the court and file updated model ordinances to satisfy the most recent round four housing obligations by a March 15th deadline, historic assets offer a solution. Historic Preservation is often thought of as a “nice thing to do” but that is not enough to preserve the structures that characterize our...

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on 22 March 1840, Oberlin Smith moved to Bridgeton before the Civil War, got his training here as an engineer, and lived here for the rest of his life. In an era of remarkable American industrial founders and many celebrated industrial enterprises, he stands out for his humanity, creativity, generosity and public spiritedness, right here at home. On our dedicated Smith/Ferracute page, CHABA remembers his founding the Ferracute Machine Company here in Bridgeton, and...

‘Bridge-town’ was a high-profile Patriot village and a lively post-Revolutionary West Jersey junction In 1791, when a gentleman farmer from Back Neck named David Sheppard thought it an ideal place for an American patriarch to raise a family. So he and his wife Phebe (Ludlam) chose a choice little homesite for their imposing, many-storied Federal-style mansion, exactly where Commerce Street crosses Cohansey “Creek,” and right up against the high bluff that looks out over the very bridge the...