Author Topic: New Bridge Landing  (Read 5804 times)

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New Bridge Landing
« on: June 24, 2008, 02:48:22 AM »
Looks like Hackensack's original courthouse from 1819 will be rebuilt, this time just over our northern border.  Within 2 years, this park will connect directly to Hackensack via the river walkway project currently under construction.  See article.

HISTORIC PARK IS READY FOR RENAISSANCE
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Last updated: Thursday June 19, 2008, EDT 8:21 AM
BY ASHLEY KINDERGAN
STAFF WRITER
The Historic New Bridge Landing Park is ripe for a renaissance.
 
DANIELLE P. RICHARDS/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Renovation of the Steuben House, above, and a visitor's center modeled after the old Hackensack Courthouse, below, are planned for New Bridge Landing Park.
Three major projects at the site are planned by the Bergen County Historical Society and Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission, a new museum, a new visitor’s center and restoration of the 18th-century Steuben House.  The park touches four municipalities and has as many historic buildings. At a critical point in the Revolutionary War, George Washington retreated over the Hackensack River crossing with his troops.
The push to get the projects done came from last year’s nor’easter, which flooded the Steuben House and damaged important artifacts housed there.  “The flood was a transformative experience,” said Kevin Wright, secretary of the Park Commission. “It made us rethink everything.”
 
Wright and Mike Trepicchio, chairman of the Park Commission, said the flood made it clear that immediate action was needed on two long-term goals: the artifacts needed a safer home and the commission needed direct control over spending and administrative decisions.
State Sens. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, and Gerald Cardinale, R-Cresskill, have introduced a bill that would transfer fiscal and administrative control from the state to the commission, which is composed mostly of local residents. The bill is at the environment committee.

About 600 items were damaged and the rest are in storage without a permanent home, said Bergen County Historical Society President Deborah Powell. They were briefly housed at the nearby Campbell-Christie House, but had to be moved when repairs started there.
A conservator is restoring some of the most critical pieces, including some drenched documents and a rare 1815 grandfather clock. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has committed about $160,000 to “stabilize” the artifacts, Powell said.

A new home, modeled after the Veldran Mill that used to stand in Oradell, is also in the works. “Collections need a stable environment, and you can’t provide that in an 18th-century building,” Powell said. “We need a building where we can control the light and control the temperature.”
The museum would be designed to stand above the floodwaters of the Hackensack River, which often inundate the Steuben House. “The advantage of selecting a mill is not only that it would be an icon of the rural past,” Wright said. “Mills were raised on stilts or pilings.”

The historical society hopes schoolchildren will play a large part in raising the $1.25 million in estimated building costs.  Anthony Vouvalides, principal of Roosevelt School in River Edge, said teachers and students disappointed by the shutdown of the Steuben House will hold a penny drive this fall to raise money for a museum. The school will shoot a video this summer to help publicize the fundraiser to other school districts and corporate sponsors.
“We think one of the goals is teaching kids to become activists in the community,” Vouvalides said. “The Steuben House used to be one of the premier sites to come and talk about American history. Since it’s been closed, it’s really a lost gem.”

The state Department of Environmental Protection has budgeted $70,000 for a study to assess what the Steuben House would need for a makeover.
Trepicchio said the commission wants the house open so the public can watch restorers peel back the plaster to reveal original moldings, repaint the walls to original hues and rip out modern heating systems.
A new visitor’s center modeled after the original Hackensack courthouse, built in 1819, would tie the site together.
Amy Cradic, assistant commissioner of natural and historic resources at DEP, said the agency will pay for the visitor’s center, but a timeline and cost estimate are not yet available.

The land for both the museum and visitor’s center, a former auto parts junkyard and pizza store purchased by the state and commission three years ago, must first be cleaned of lead and petroleum contamination by removing 20,000 cubic yards of soil, said DEP spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas. Trepicchio said he has been told the work will begin in the next few months.

Officials hope that the improvements at the site will lure tourists looking for a slice of history, to be followed with trips to local malls, shops and restaurants.
“We could have our own mini-Williamsburg here,” said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck. “We’ve got everything to support it all around us.”
E-mail: Kindergan@northjersey.com



 

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