National Park Service: Southern New Jersey and the Delaware Bay (Chapter 2)

The first Europeans to settle along the Cohansey River included Richard Hancock, a surveyor for Fenwick who bought 500 acres on the east shore and moved there in 1675; within a decade he erected a dam and sawmill. Soon, more settlers arrived, and the town that sprang up on the west side of the river was called Cohansey; the town that grew up on the east side of the river was referred to simply as "The Bridge." Bridgeton was combined and incorporated in 1865 (Fig. 10). Residential and industrial buildings affiliated with the plethora of mills clustered along the river were built near East Lake and the commercial center of town.

Figure 10. Map of Bridgeton, Atlas, 1876. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

As the American Revolution approached, the importance of Greenwich and Bridgeton—home of prominent families such as the Fithians and Elmers—increased. One of the first radical newspapers was printed and displayed at Potter's Tavern in Bridgeton; its sentiments and others like it helped spark the Greenwich tea party. This aristocracy built its grand and exclusive residences on the west side of the Cohansey River from the 1790s to the early twentieth century. They are the work of some of Philadelphia's finest architects: James C. Sidney, Thomas U. Walker, Samuel Sloan, James Sims, John T. Windrim, Addison Hutton, Isaac Pursell, and the team of Edward Hazelhurst and Samuel W. Huckel. Examples of homes built by these men are located along and north of West Commerce Street, on Giles and Lake streets. Some existing institutions attributed to Philadelphia architects include the Fourth Methodist Episcopal Church (1888, Harvey N. Smith) on South Avenue, Cumberland County Bank (1886, Hazelhurst and Huckel) at East Commerce and North Laurel streets, and McGear Brothers Building (1871, Addison Hutton) opposite to the bank. [8]

Many of Bridgeton's significant buildings are part of a designated (discontinuous) historic district encompassing 616 acres on both sides of the river; about 2,000 residential, commercial, and institutional structures are included. The popular materials for building here were wood-frame, brick, and a local New Jersey red-brown sandstone. Among the noteworthy sites are the John F. Ogden House (1813), Jeremiah DuBois House (1833), Timothy Elmer House (1815), Jeremiah Buck House (pre-1808, Fig. 11), and the Samuel Seely House (1798). [9]

Figure 11. Jeremiah Buck House (HABS No. NJ-530), 297 E. Commerce St.—a formal, Georgian block with decorative glazing, shutters, dormers, and porches—was documented by HABS in the 1930s. HABS.

Approximately 80 percent of the residential architecture in the historic district is the double house whose gable-front earned it the local name, "A-Front Double." This type is found elsewhere in town, as well. Often close to an industrial facility, they typically were built and shared by factory workers who occupied one half and rented out the other:

Size of family and financial circumstances do not seem to have made a difference in the building of doubles except in scale and extent of architectural detail. A glass factory owner was just as likely to share a party wall as were the workers in the factory. The double house can be seen as a symbol for a city whose success was derived from the willingness of the rich to invest in the town and from the acceptance of mutual dependence. . . . [10]

Another common residential form is the saltbox, introduced by settlers from New England. Most houses in Bridgeton are ornamented with a smattering of vernacular design elements from Greek Revival, Queen Anne, and Stick Style—some manage only dentil molding, while others tout Victorian turrets, projecting bays, and grand mansard roofs with decorative shingles. [11] Little major alteration has been made to Bridgeton's historic core since the early twentieth century.

The city's role as the county seat is represented by the nearby Cumberland County Hospital (Fig. 12), an outstanding Palladian block both in its monumental scale and elaborate Georgian detailing. The layout is a bilaterally symmetrical seven/nine-part plan with hyphens and projecting blocks. Fine Georgian details include five cupolas, a rusticated, raised foundation, and round-topped windows with decorative glazing. Of practical note, the rear facades are equipped with metal tube-like chutes that drop from the second floor down to the ground; in case of fire, patients could slide down them to safety. On the interior, the foyer features a similarly Palladian octagonal rotunda with arched openings supported by Doric columns; though currently unoccupied the building appears to be in good condition.

Figure 12. Cumberland County Hospital (1899), a massive Georgian Revival building composition, is one the most formal in the area and currently unused.

Bridgeton has commemorated its heritage with a reconstructed Swedish farmstead located in the municipal park on the west side of the Cohansey River. Opened in April 1988, the New Sweden Company Farmstead Museum consists of seven reconstructed seventeenth-century log structures, among them a dwelling, smokehouse, threshing barn, bath house, and animal shelters. Next to the museum is a reconstructed Lenni Lenape Indian village of tepees. The Indian village is complemented by the George Woodruff Museum in the Bridgeton Public Library, and the Lenni Lenape Information Center on East Commerce Street.

Millville

Prior to the founding of Millville, Henry Drinker and Joseph Smith purchased 24,000 acres of woodland here, built a dam, and formed the Union Company whose main product was lumber cut at the water-powered sawmill and floated downriver. In 1795 Joseph Buck, a Cumberland County resident and Revolutionary War veteran, bought a portion of the Union Company land and planned Millville. The town was laid out to facilitate the erection of mills on every possible tract along the river, with manor houses situated on higher ground to the east. His plans show streets extending from Smith to Broad streets, and from Buck to Fourth streets along the river. As Buck planned, Millville's first residents established themselves on the east side of the river, though as more people settled there, houses were built on the opposite shore, too (Fig. 13). Millville was incorporated in 1866.

Figure 13. Bird's-eye view of Millville, (1886). Wettstein. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Millville resident Charles K. Landis purchased a large tract of land that included the land north of the dam that had once been owned by the Union Company, and extended into Gloucester and Atlantic counties. In 1862 Landis laid out the town of Vineland about two-and-one-half miles east of the Maurice River and seven miles north of Millville. In 1864 Vineland was separated from Millville Township and became part of newly formed Landis Township. Since then, Millville Township (which was divided from Fairfield and Maurice River townships in 1801) has consisted only of the town of Millville. Vineland, while historically connected to Millville, is outside the NJCHT study area.

Dwellings on the east side of Millville exemplify Buck's ideal of an integrated residential-company complex and reflect a variety of nineteenth-century architectural styles. The Richard Wood Mansion (1804), made of South Jersey sandstone, was built by David Wood who, along with Edward Smith of Philadelphia, bought the Union Company improved the dam, which they used to power a blast furnace.

The mansion is flanked by blocks of houses that were rented to Wood company employees. These are either plain, two-story double A-Fronts with four bays across, or boxier three-story, three-pile, six-bay dormitory-like buildings with two ridge chimneys. Entrances are in the third bay of the side facade, or centered in the gable end. Few of the latter, especially, are decorated; on the ones that do contain ornamentation, it is usually limited to spindlework on the porch. Present occupants have restored the buildings' exterior with aluminum or faux-brick asphalt siding—perhaps to help establish their identity in the neighborhood.

Double dwellings on close-by Archer Street reflect late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century middle-class origins. These gambrel-roof, gable-front, double piles appear to be a bilaterally symmetrical plan. A total of six bays across, the recessed entries are in the outermost bays. One-story porches that wrap around the facade from door to door, and hipped-roof dormers, are common; others have a pent or visor instead of a porch. [12] Elsewhere in Millville, worker's housing is found near the Foster-Forbes Glass factory aligning both sides of Route 47 at the south end of town, and on the west side of the river on both sides of Route 49. These, too, are double-A types, though the ornament is more Victorian, akin to buildings in Bridgeton and Salem.

Millville's refined and eclectic Victorian upper-class housing is mostly located on the northeast side of the Maurice River between Pine and Oak streets, on either side of Route 47/Second Street. Their ornamentation reflected the prestige assumed by the occupants. Second Empire and Italianate design features predominate, with mansard roofs and deep eaves, scroll-based window surrounds, tall rounded or pointed windows, steep patterned roofs with elaborate brackets, bays, and spindlework porches. The Gothic Revival styles have pointed windows, cross gables, and steeply pitched roofs. Examples include the Edward Stokes house (ca. 1870), Second Street between Mulberry and Pine, home of a Millville native who served as governor 1904-08. The Smith-Garrison Ware House (ca. 1850), opposite the Stokes house, was home to Robert Pearsall Smith, manager of Whitall Tatum Company and founder of the Workingmen's Institute. The Isaac Owen House (1854), South Second Street, was built and owned by a Port Elizabeth carpenter who constructed the Union Lake Dam, Millville Bank, and other structures in Millville. [13] The historic commercial thoroughfares are High Street (Fig. 14), Main Street/Route 49, and Second Street Route 47.

Figure 14. View of High Street, Millville.

Small Towns

The small towns that depend on Millville, Bridgeton, and Salem for major services also have significant architectural structures, though they are fewer and less densely placed. Most are adjacent to a waterway, or are located along a main road or street that intercepts the water. While some of these quietly picturesque hamlets are obvious candidates for historic designation, other settings must be determined through research.

Like many towns founded along rivers and creeks during periods of early settlement everywhere, these share a pattern of street names associated with the proximity to shore and its landmark buildings. High Street, Water Street, Front Street, and Mill Street usually indicate the route closest to the water; and Main Street runs perpendicular to them. In Millville, Dorchester, Mauricetown, Salem, and Hancock's Bridge, after High or Front Street logically comes Second Street. Commerce and Market streets, often lined with non-residential structures, are near the water as a testament to the importance of transportation and trade. More common names—sometimes denoting a structure or location—include Church, South, Washington, and Union streets. Indicative of historic function are Port Street in Dividing Creek, Stable Street in Port Elizabeth and Mauricetown, and Temperance Street in Port Norris.

Of the three counties, Cumberland has by far the most small towns in the area designated for study; Greenwich, Roadstown, and Fairton are the oldest. While a handful of these continue to function as well-preserved historic towns, most saw their heyday in the prosperous and populous industrialized years of the nineteenth century, and have since shrunk in both economic and physical terms.

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Last Modified: Mon, Mar 14 2005 10:00:00 pm PDT
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