Resources

With the support of the NJ Council for the Humanities' Preservation New Jersey is working to develop a plan for a multi-part series of public programs to provide methods, tools, training and resources to teach the public on how to preserve cemeteries. The Cemetery Stewardship Program Series will focus on the care and preservation of historic cemeteries, promoting sustainable practices to protect and maintain these important cultural sites. The series offers educational sessions on topics like monument preservation, historic research, and community involvement. It provides participants with the knowledge and tools to contribute to the long-term preservation of cemeteries, ensuring that these spaces remain respectful, accessible, and historically accurate for future generations. _____ This session will outline where to look online and in archives (in person visits) for information on cemeteries and descendants buried at respective cemeteries. Presenters will provide details on a variety of methods to properly record information on cemeteries and the descendants, including the information uncovered during the research phase of the project. Presenters will also focus on frequently disregarded or unrecognized details such as funerary art and stonecutters’ marks on gravemarkers and monuments. This session will also include information on geophysical survey methods and online databases to document and present cemetery data for a broad range of audiences.

Join PNJ for a new webinar on preservation advocacy. This historic preservation advocacy workshop will focus on educating participants about the importance of preserving historical buildings, landmarks, and cultural heritage. Preservation New Jersey participates in the annual Preservation Advocacy Week set for March 3-6, 2025. The webinar will discuss key legislative actions, tools and strategies needed to advocate for historic preservation efforts in NJ, and how to get involved to support preservation and historic sites.

Many cemetery stewards understand that they need to do something about the issues they face, but they have no idea where to start or who they should involve to help guide them on this journey. This session will provide details on the cemetery preservation planning process for stewards of historic cemeteries that includes basics such as ownership, stewardship, memorialization, interpretation, short-term and long-term planning, signage, community engagement, fundraising, and grant writing.

The Vought House, built in 1759 by Christoffel Vought, is on the National Register of Historic Places for its connection to events of the American Revolution and its architectural significance.  Most significant are the original ornamental plaster ceilings throughout the main floor, including a unique motif of a coiled serpent that adorns the ceiling of the center hall. Established in 2006, the mission of the non-profit 1759 Vought House organization is to restore and preserve the Vought House for use as a museum and education center. In this talk we’ll share the dramatic human story of the locally prominent Vought family and their Loyalist activities during the American Revolution, and we’ll show our restoration progress and plans for celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Join Preservation NJ via Zoom on September 19th at 7PM as we sit down with the project team at Clarke Caton Hintz and the City of Paterson Historic Preservation Commission, and members of the development team to share in the story of restoring Hinchliffe Stadium. The Stadium was completed in 1932 and sits on a dramatic escarpment above Paterson's National Historic Landmark Great Falls, surrounded by the city's national landmark historic district, the first planned industrial settlement in the nation. Hinchliffe stadium is known for hosting track and field, football, baseball, entertainment events, and auto and motorcycle racing. It is one of only a handful of stadiums surviving nationally that once played host to significant Negro league baseball during America's Jim Crow era. The stadium was designated a National Historic Landmark in March 2013 and a Paterson Historic Landmark in May 2013. In December 2014, Congress passed legislation to include the stadium in the Great Falls National Landmark District. This event is an installment of our series, "Talks with Our Ten Most," where we share updates -- and lessons learned -- from past PNJ Ten Most Endangered Sites. Hinchliffe Stadium was listed in 1997.

In this panel discussion, hospitality entrepreneur Margot Stern will talk about her proposed boutique hotel in Hopewell, NJ and the challenges of adaptively reusing the historic Titus Farmstead as a boutique hotel. She will be joined by Preservation New Jersey, Lindsey Scannapieco, an expert in creative place making, and Mark Gallagher of Princeton Hydro, a consulting firm of Watershed Management and Ecological Restoration projects. They will discuss the project's scope and design, its potential to set the standard for historic and environmental stewardship, as well as share some of the challenges they have confronted in this and other adaptive reuse projects.

This is an unedited recording of Preservation NJ's April 15, 2024 presentation by RevolutionNJ, followed by Q&A from the audience. The commemoration of the 250th is an opportunity to bring together people from all walks of life to explore America’s Revolutionary history and New Jersey’s important role in it. RevolutionNJ's working groups, consisting of volunteers that reflect the diverse professions, expertise, and people of the state, will create programs and initiatives that help people engage with the Revolutionary era in all its complexity and show how the diverse people, events, places, and ideas of that time are still relevant today. The goal is to commemorate the 250th in a way that resonates with the tapestry that makes up New Jersey – and our nation. See more at: https://www.revnj.org/. This event is an installment of PNJ's free, virtual series, "Q&A with PNJ," which seeks to highlight voices across New Jersey’s historic preservation community and bring their knowledge and expertise on a wide variety of historic preservation topics to the public. See more at: https://www.preservationnj.org.

This is an unedited recording of Preservation NJ's February 28, 2024 presentation with Kate Marcopul of the NJ State Historic Preservation Office and Glenn Ceponis of the NJ Historic Trust. Each provided an overview of the functions of their offices, followed by Q&A from the audience. This event is an installment of PNJ's free, virtual series, "Q&A with PNJ," which seeks to highlight voices across New Jersey’s historic preservation community and bring their knowledge and expertise on a wide variety of historic preservation topics to the public. See more at: https://www.preservationnj.org.

This is an unedited recording of Preservation NJ's January 16, 2024 "Talks with Our Ten Most" discussing the T. Thomas Fortune House in Red Bank with Journalist, Author & Playwright, Producer, Director, Historian, Educator - and T. Thomas Fortune House Executive Director - Gilda Rogers. The T. Thomas Fortune House was listed as a PNJ "Ten Most Endangered" site in 2007. The mission of the T. Thomas Fortune Foundation is to preserve and further the civil rights and social justice legacy of T. Thomas Fortune through community outreach, education, the arts and public programming. See more, and plan your visit, at: https://www.tthomasfortuneculturalcenter.org/. PNJ's free, virtual series, "Talks with Our Ten Most," allows us to share updates -- and lessons learned -- from past PNJ Ten Most Endangered Sites. See more at: https://www.preservationnj.org/10-most. Hosted by Melissa Ziobro of the PNJ Board of Directors.

This is an unedited recording of Preservation NJ's October 11, 2023 "Talks with Our Ten Most" discussing the Anchor Cafe (and the terra cotta industry more broadly) in Perth Amboy with Mark Nonestied, Division Head, Middlesex County Division of Historic Sites and History Services. The Anchor Café on New Brunswick Avenue is a 3-story brick and terra cotta structure with a steep slate roof and dormers that was built in 1905. It was listed as a PNJ "Ten Most Endangered" site in 2022. PNJ's free, virtual series, "Talks with Our Ten Most," allows us to share updates -- and lessons learned -- from past PNJ Ten Most Endangered Sites. See more at: https://www.preservationnj.org/10-most. Hosted by Melissa Ziobro of the PNJ Board of Directors.

This is an unedited recording of Preservation NJ's August 10, 2023 unscripted conversation with Sandy Hook Foundation President, Pete Izzo, and Shawn Welch, a retired Army engineer officer and Co-Chair of the Secretary of the Interior's Fort Hancock Federal Advisory Committee. This virtual event was a part of PNJ's series, "Talks with Our Ten Most," where we share updates -- and lessons learned -- from past PNJ Ten Most Endangered Sites. Sandy Hook, specifically Fort Hancock, was listed in 1995. See more at: https://www.preservationnj.org/10-most. Fort Hancock and Sandy Hook Proving Ground National Historic Landmark are home to several batteries and historic Army buildings, the oldest surviving lighthouse in the U.S., and a former United States Life-Saving Service station building which bears witness to the maritime history of this peninsula. Since 1895, Fort Hancock was one of the places vital to American defense up to the nuclear age. For more on Sandy Hook history, see: https://www.nps.gov/gate/learn/historyculture/index.htm. The Sandy Hook Foundation is the official friends group to the National Park Service at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, a unit of Gateway National Recreation Area. Established in 1989, the Foundation has funded cultural, educational, environmental, and conservation programs and has helped restore and preserve historic structures of the Sandy Hook Lighthouse and Fort Hancock — both National Historic Landmarks. For more on the Sandy Hook Foundation, see: https://www.sandyhooknj.org/. Hosted by Melissa Ziobro of the PNJ Board of Directors.

This is an unedited recording of Preservation NJ's July 13, 2023 unscripted conversation with Brianne Van Vorst of Liberty Stained Glass Conservation, LLC. Topics covered include how stained glass was historically manufactured, how stained glass ages, how to approach repairs, and more. See more about Brianne's work at: https://www.libertysgc.com/. This event is an installment of PNJ's free, virtual series, "Q&A with PNJ," which seeks to highlight voices across New Jersey’s historic preservation community and bring their knowledge and expertise on a wide variety of historic preservation topics to the public. See more at: https://www.preservationnj.org.

This is an unedited recording of Preservation NJ's February 22, 2023 unscripted conversation with Fred Carl and Mike Ruane of the InfoAge Science and History Museums at the Camp Evans National Historic Landmark. This virtual event was the first in PNJ's new series, "Talks with Our Ten Most," where we share updates -- and lessons learned -- from past PNJ Ten Most Endangered Sites. Camp Evans was listed in 2002. See more at: https://www.preservationnj.org/10-most. The site opened in the early 1900s as a Marconi wireless station, served as a Navy and RCA communications lab during WWI, and was known as the Army’s Camp Evans laboratory from WWII until 1997 -- when the Army left the property. Camp Evans innovations helped to win WWII, to revolutionize communications, and to usher in the space age. The once endangered site is now a thriving non-profit with over 40,000 square feet of largely hands-on exhibits spread over a dozen buildings and covering all manner of military and science history. See more at: https://www.infoage.org/. Hosted by Melissa Ziobro of the PNJ Board of Directors.

This is an unedited recording of Preservation NJ's April 6, 2023 unscripted conversation with Ruby Simmons of the Shady Rest Golf Club. The Shady Rest Golf & Country Club is the oldest African-American golf clubhouse in the United States of America. It has added significance as the home course of John Shippen, the first African American golf professional to play in a U.S. Open. See more at: http://preserveshadyrest.org/history-shady-rest.html. This event is an installment of PNJ's free, virtual series, "Talks with Our Ten Most," where we share updates -- and lessons learned -- from past PNJ Ten Most Endangered Sites. Shady Rest was listed in 2008. See more at: https://www.preservationnj.org/10-most. Please note that our speaker experienced some technical issues due to bad weather. Hosted by Melissa Ziobro of the PNJ Board of Directors.

This is an unedited recording of Preservation NJ's June 22, 2023 unscripted conversation with Nancy Patterson of the East Point Lighthouse. The video opens with Nancy discussing the history of the lighthouse. This fully restored and furnished active lighthouse was built in 1849 and is situated on the picturesque Southern Bayshore in Cumberland County. It functions as a year round museum, thanks to the work of the Maurice River Historical Society. The site, however, continues to be in peril due to rising waters nearby. See more at: https://eastpointlight.com/. This event is an installment of PNJ's free, virtual series, "Talks with Our Ten Most," where we share updates -- and lessons learned -- from past PNJ Ten Most Endangered Sites. East Point Lighthouse was listed in 2019. See more at: https://www.preservationnj.org/10-most. Hosted by PNJ Executive Director Kelly Ruffel, with support from Melissa Ziobro of the Board of Directors.