BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
The Tredwell House, Rumson, was damaged in a fire June 15. Five of the six members of Rumson’s Historic Preservation Commission have resigned, citing a lack of cooperation on the part of the borough.
Former commission Chairwoman Hollis Colquhoun said Monday that she felt the commission was not tapped by the Borough Council or the Borough Planning Board to its full potential.
“Only once were we asked to give advice about a historical property,” she said, “and that was after they already started the renovation of Bingham Hall. I didn’t even know it was happening until I saw people working on it.
“When I asked about it, I asked if the commission was needed to give an opinion about the historical building and we were asked to tell the borough what the color of the paint originally was,” she continued. “With respect to the new Borough Hall project [a local history room], we were never asked for any input.”
Colquhoun said that she doesn’t believe that the borough is interested in preserving its historical sites.
Colquhoun said that although she recognizes that the commission, which was formed in 2004 but had been outlined in the borough’s 1985 master plan, was purely an advisory group, she did not feel that the Borough Council or Planning Board had any desire to seek its advice.
The purpose of the commission, according to Colquhoun, is to research historical sites, educate the community about the sites, and advise the Planning Board and Borough Council in their dealings with historically significant sites.
Mayor John E. Ekdahl said Monday the reason advice from the commission was not often sought was because the commission had failed to submit a complete list of historical sites in the borough, so many of the sites were not known to borough officials.
“It’s true,” Ekdahl said in response to Colquhoun’s comments about the commission not being asked for its opinions, “and that would be to our own disappointment. The commission was supposed to identify locations in Rumson they considered historically important, by taking an inventory of the town. To our own disappointment, we never received that report.”
He said that it was incumbent upon Colquhoun, being the chairwoman of the commission, to make sure that inventory took place and that the report was submitted to the borough.
Colquhoun said that the commission did an initial inventory based on the Historic Sites Inventory compiled by Monmouth County.
“We took off a couple of sites that are either gone or have been so renovated that they are no longer historical,” she said.
Colquhoun said that an additional site, Redmen’s Hall, was also added to the list, and that she received a letter from Ekdahl acknowledging the suggested changes.
“We were hoping to add more sites to the list,” she said, “but that’s a pretty daunting task. We had been doing it piecemeal, but after a while we realized that the borough wasn’t interested in what we had to say, and we kind of lost momentum.”
Ekdahl said that new members are being sought for the commission, and that he believes there should be more cooperation between both parties.
Colquhoun said that she did not believe borough officials gave the commission the kind of support it needed in order to be effective, and did not seem interested in the opinions of the commission members.
“The Historic Preservation Commission was not given the recognition owed to a commission appointed by the governing body,” she said, “because I don’t think the governing body has any desire to preserve historic sites. They have no desire to consult or have any inclination to request input of any kind [from the commission] or to put any kind of legal pressure or incentives on private owners of historical homes.”
One of the most glaring issues between the Borough Council and Planning Board and the commission, according to Colquhoun, was the lack of protection afforded the Tredwell House, a 300-year-old home that stood on Ridge Road until a fire compromised the structure last June, requiring its demolition.
Ekdahl said that although he did not know for sure, he believed that the Planning Board’s decision on the Tredwell House was the main catalyst for the multiple resignations of commission members.
The home had a contentious history since December 18, 2000, when a subdivision approval was granted by the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment to the owners of the property, Arthur and Leslie Parent, with the condition that the Tredwell House not be demolished. The Parents let the application lapse.
In 2004, the Parents submitted another application for a subdivision, again proposing that the house be demolished.
The board passed a resolution in February 2005 that would permit demolition of the newer additions to the 300-year-old structure, but require the historically significant part of the building be kept intact.
The newer additions to the building date in the early to mid-20th century.
The Tredwell Preservation Coalition, a group of local residents formed to advocate for the preservation of the Tredwell House, filed an appeal in state Superior Court last summer.
Judge Alexander Lehrer upheld the board’s decision and the coalition brought the case to the state Appellate Court, which found that since the home had by then been destroyed, the decision by the board was moot, and ordered that the application be brought back before the board for a new hearing.
The new application for the Tredwell property is scheduled to be heard by the board Feb. 5.
In its complaint, the coalition claimed that the public was not permitted to speak during the Tredwell hearings in front of the board, and Colquhoun reiterated that claim.
“We were never given advance notice of agendas on requests regarding any future development on the Tredwell house or any other historical properties,” she said. “We had all kinds of suggestions.”
In June, the council held a special public meeting at which a resolution was passed stating that the Tredwell site is a historic property and should be protected against trespassers and damage to any archeological deposits.
The resolution also called for an archeological dig of the site, to uncover any historical and prehistoric artifacts before any new construction began on the property.
“We were expecting [the borough] to follow through with what was laid out in the resolution,” said Colquhoun. “They have had no discussion with us subsequently. The resolution was nothing more than a public relations stunt, and the commission was just window dressing.”
Colquhoun said that the Tredwell site is the “biggest archeological treasure between here and Rhode Island,” and that artifacts have been discovered on the site dating back 2,000 years.
“The Parents are free to develop the property,” she said. “All we are asking for is the time and some money to do a dig, and they won’t even do that.”
Colquhoun also said that this year is the borough’s tercentennial, and that the commission was never consulted concerning the planning of any celebratory events.
“The archeological dig,” she said, “should be a part of that. It’s about the history of Rumson.”