Susan Hand will speak on New Jersey’s historic planned communities, including Roosevelt and Twin Rivers.
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Suzanne Hand, one of the state’s leading preservationists, will speak about the importance of some of New Jersey’s planned communities at the Ely House on Thursday.
Her discussion will include an examination of the histories of Roosevelt, a village designed as a planned community for Jewish settlers, and Twin Rivers, New Jersey’s first planned unit development.
"There are more similarities (between Roosevelt and Twin Rivers) than might be imagined at first glance, such as open space," Ms. Hand said.
Her talk will also examine Llewellyn Park, the first suburb in the United States designed for West Orange in 1857; Yorkship Village, a garden-city-type community built in Camden during WWI; Radburn, the "Town for the Motor Age" built in Fairlawn in 1929; and the last three Levittowns.
Ms. Hand is appearing in Hightstown as part of the Hightstown-East Windsor Historical Society’s speaker series, which began in February with an appearance by Dean Bennett, a noted actor and impersonator of Benjamin Franklin.The program begins at 8 p.m. and is free of charge. Ms. Hand’s appearance is sponsored by the Historical Society and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.