CHABA
the Center for Historic American Building Arts
Preservation for the People !
CHABA is a people-centered, multilingual and multicultural non-profit dedicated to preserving the past and building the future of Bridgeton, New Jersey--proud owner of the state's largest nationally-registered historic district, with some 2000 properties!
Our HomeFronts program offers free advice or affordable preservation services for properties that are
privately-owned, and we seek grants for public sites.
But we are also storytellers.
We call it 'scripting the landscape'--anchoring
places in the human experience over time.
For us, preservation is futurism--about creating a healthy, inclusive, vibrant, sustainable community for all.
CHABA is assisting the City of Bridgeton in preserving the 'Nail House' at the entrance to Bridgeton City Park--surviving home of the former Cumberland Nail & Iron Works,
and one of the most storied places
in South Jersey.
Through a combination of grants--
City, County and State--we are completing repairs that have already enabled this little building to be a hub of social and cultural activity again for people of all ages,
and return to life as the ceremonial entrance to one of the largest urban parks in the state.
One of our aims is to promote the
Nail House's educational use,
including tours for schoolchildren
at every level. Look for our heavily-illustrated "intergenerational children's book"
telling this "grunge to green" 200-year story!
Its colorful down-to-earth language
(English and Spanish) has already
made it a local classic!
"CHABA brings people together and makes our community stronger AND more beautiful!
I'm proud to support their mission" - Nadia Albizu
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 and the hub of its commercial activity
since before the Revolution.
It is steeped in a marinade of pre-colonial,
colonial and postcolonial histories and cultures
that--layer on layer--have flavored
the South Jersey region for centuries.
A premier example of an Arts & Crafts home on Bridgeton's west side
With over 2000 inividual properties,
the district’s architectural
range is encyclopedic--
from cabin to castle, high Victorian to
classical revival to modernist.
It also includes an amazing number of
individual architectural gems,
many designed by noted architects.
CHABA has been collaborating with the City of Bridgeton
and the New Jersey Historic Trust to make essential
repairs to the 1815 first home to the
Cumberland Nail & Iron Works, a 'founder site' that
helped launch Bridgeton as an industrial powerhouse.
Now--In this post-industrial era,
we are not only making it accessible and usable again,
but telling its stories--of ironmasters and ironworkers,
of course--but also of its 'grunge to green' transformation
in the 20th century into a resource for recreation
and culture at the very entrance to Bridgeton City Park.
We know we can reclaim and 'adaptively reuse' historic places in the social and cultural life of our communities,
and not just keep them alive but make them beacons of environmental practice for the future.
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A flyer for a 'maker' event at the Nail House, is conveniently located on the edge of the Downtown,
at the entrance to Bridgeton City Park--
both popular community destinations
