Silver anniversary for historic status.
By: Josh Appelbaum
It’s been 25 years since the Cranbury village was deemed a state and federal historic district.
But members of the Cranbury Historical and Preservation Society say the battle to keep the area’s small-town character is one that still continues.
To Don Jo Swanagan, a member of the society’s executive board and a member of the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee, preservation of the Historic District is an ongoing issue.
Mr. Swanagan said traffic, new commercial and residential construction and what he describes as uncontrolled growth in neighboring towns are all factors that affect local efforts at preservation.
"There have been so many that have almost been completed that have threatened the protection of the district as it is," Mr. Swanagan said. "A lot of it has to do with the public’s awareness of the historic value of Cranbury."
He said a good way to make sure the district remains intact and its buildings historically authentic is to maintain the authority of the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee.
Established in 1988, HPAC is a five-member committee that advises residents and the Planning and zoning boards on the impact renovations or new development might have on the Historic District.
The current district encompasses about 800 houses along North and South Main streets from Plainsboro to Old Trenton roads, including houses on Symmes Court, Maplewood Avenue, Park Place and Bunker Hill and Station roads. It also includes a 2,400-foot buffer.
HPAC identifies and designates historic landmarks and advises the Planning and Zoning boards and residents of the impact of development applications on designated historic structures within the historic district. Review of applications by HPAC is required before building permits are issued.
The village was placed on the state Register of Historic Places in 1979 and was formally designated by an act of Congress to the National Register on Sept. 18, 1980.
The effort to get the designations began in 1967 by Richard Robert. In 1969, Mr. Robert organized a committee that drafted bylaws under which the district would be managed.
The preservation of the area was intended to "promote, support and encourage the beautification of the land and buildings located in the township," according to the bylaws.
In 1967, the Cranbury Historical and Preservation Society was established to promote the historic significance of landmarks and other structures in town. The society also sought to acquire housing and sites to bolster a prospective historic district and exhibit it to the public.
The society began its preservation efforts when it bought the Dey House at Park Place East, now known as the Cranbury Museum, in 1972.
The original house was probably built in 1834 by Garret P. Voorhees and was bought in 1972 by Marvin Dey, who then sold the house to the Historical and Preservation Society. By October of that year, 70 volunteers had converted the house into a museum. In 1975, a wing was added as a gift to the Cranbury Museum from Mary E. Perrine, on behalf of her father, Arthur E. Perrine.
Previously, the society rented space at 15 S. Main St. as a museum. Township Historian Betty Wagner, a past president of the society and an honorary trustee, said the society bought the house with money collected from Cranbury citizens and matching funds from the L’Hommedieu family of Cranbury.
Since its inception, the society has registered about 250 historic sites in Cranbury, most of which are in the historic village, and commemorated them with the plaques that adorn buildings today.
In 1993, the historical society leased the former Gristmiller’s House at 6 S. Main St., which was dedicated in September of that year, for the township’s history center. The center is dedicated to historical and genealogical research and oral history archiving.
Despite its success in preserving so many historical sites, the society has contended with various federal and state initiatives that it perceived as harmful to the survival of the district.
In 1970, the township considered demolishing the Old School building, which now serves as Town Hall. The building was built in 1896, but was almost razed after the Board of Education consolidated five schools in the area into the current Cranbury School building.
Citizens formed a Save the School committee, which rallied to have it included in the Registry of Historic Places. The committee and the nonprofit organization, Cranbury Landmarks, Inc., succeeded in its efforts and had the building restored.
The society also sees large-scale development as a potential threat to the historic village.
In July 1974, a state Superior Court judge signed an order that required Cranbury to provide 816 low- and moderate-income housing units. Ms. Wagner said that at the time developers used what was referred to as "the builder’s remedy," by which they would construct four regularly priced homes for each affordable one, which would have added about 4,000 new houses in Cranbury.
She said if the construction of 4,000 houses had been completed, the character and the label of Cranbury as a "small town" would have ceased to exist.
The society collected signatures from 80 percent of the registered voters in Cranbury to petition to stop what it perceived as over-development, and a disaster for the Historic District.
The historical society received a $10,000 donation from the Critical Issues Fund of the National Trust For Historic Preservation and raised another $16,000 on its own to challenge the builder’s remedy in court.
The society’s battle over the housing obligations went on for nearly 20 years, and the Council on Affordable Housing reduced Cranbury’s second round requirements to about 223 housing units. Cranbury fulfilled that requirement last year by completing the construction of 18 rental units on the Bennett Place property. The township also paid the cost of building 120 units in Carteret and Perth Amboy through a state-approved regional contribution agreement.
In the mid-1980s, the township starting working on an historic zoning ordinance, and in 1989, an ordinance that established HPAC.
HPAC’s role is to protect, enhance and perpetuate historical resources in the township.
Currently, HPAC, the Planning Board and the Township Committee are considering changing the boundaries of HPAC’s oversight to include historic sites currently out of its jurisdiction.
Township officials have said the new ordinance will include clearer guidelines for homeowners in the historic district to do improvements to buildings.
Mr. Swanagan said the Planning Board and Township Committee has been supportive of the historical society’s efforts to preserve historic homes.
"They’ve helped us with the fact that people live in these historic homes, and they often want to make changes to their property," Mr. Swanagan said. "The ordinance helps to prevent change that would not be in line with the history of the district."
He said HPAC enhances the quality of the Historic District, and by extension, Cranbury. But Mr. Swanagan said it takes conviction on the part of township boards and committees to enforce it.
"The rules and regulations have to have a proven benefit," Mr. Swanagan said. "And you have to have the conviction that it is a necessary ordinance that will have a positive benefit to the area and the general welfare of the community."
Mr. Swanagan said the township has done a lot of good work on planning a long-range vision for Cranbury that includes historical and farmland preservation.
He said the types of challenges the Historic District faces today are based on regional problems like traffic and development.
Mr. Swanagan said neighboring communities haven’t thought carefully about the problems brought on by rapid, large-scale development and its impact on traffic and the regional community.
"They have not considered the need of preserving open space," Mr. Swanagan said.
Mr. Swanagan said traffic is the main byproduct of high-volume commercial development and is something that impacts Cranbury negatively.
"In terms of planning, the township has done its best with trying to divert traffic," Mr. Swanagan said.
But, he said, the sheer volume of traffic coming through Cranbury from neighboring townships undermines its planning and preservation efforts.
However, he said overdevelopment and traffic are things that neighboring towns and the county must work together to control.
"It’s certainly not within our control," Mr. Swanagan said. "We are only a township of 13 square miles."