The first of several new signs was erected on the corner of West Front Street and Washington Street in Red Bank’s residential Washington Street Historic District. KRISTEN DALTON The Washington Street Historic District in Red Bank will be outfitted with new street signs in the coming year that recognize the special status of its streets. The first of the burgundy signs that officially identify the historic importance of the residential district on the borough’s east side is already in place.
Preservation Red Bank (PRB) and the borough’s Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) joined forces with the mayor and Borough Council in 2009 on an initiative to create a residential historic district.
PRB, a citizens group dedicated to protecting Red Bank’s historic fabric, donated the six to eight signs that will be installed. According to HPC Chairman George Bowden, the total cost is a little more than $1,000.
“We worked for approximately two-anda half years and our objective was to create a historic district that represented the early residential culture of Red Bank,” Bowden said.
“The oldest commercial area is the Broad Street Historic District, but the oldest residential district was Washington Street back in the mid-1800s.”
The residential culture was generated by people who worked in the downtown as blacksmiths and trades people selling dry goods while living just a few blocks over on Washington Street.
There are 106 houses located within the east side historic district and all feature the architecture unique to the 19th century.
“With the houses, our objective was to try to retain the flavor and the romance, if you will. Some of these houses are so handsome in design, and they stress the Italianate style popular between 1860-1873. That was the most popular form of architecture back in the post-Civil War era,” Bowden said.
The houses also feature long porches, arched windows, wood shingles, mansard roofs and bay windows. Additionally, the narrow streets and closely spaced houses are indicative of residential construction that predates both the automobile and the streetcar, reflecting a largely pedestrian society.
During that time Red Bank was establishing itself as a viable community of commerce and industry to serve the inland communities of Monmouth County.
“Washington Street itself, once upon a time, extended down to the [Navesink] river. It stops now and has stopped for many years at Front Street, but there was a time in the early 1900s where it extended down to the river and it was part of the heart of Red Bank,” Bowden said.
“So Washington Street was a very significant street ending at the river, and it’s really part of the historic fabric of Red Bank.”
The easily identifiable burgundy signs are modeled after those used to represent the Forest Hill Historic District in Newark. The first sign in the Washington Street Historic District was installed at the end of December at the corner of Washington and Front streets across from Riverview Medical Center.
“By being physically present, the sign will attract attention and make people aware of the fact that there is a designated historic district,” said Councilman Ed Zipprich, who is the council’s representative to the HPC.
“There’s pride knowing that we protected our history as we move into the future,” he added.
In 2009 the Monmouth County Planning Board awarded the Washington Street Historic District in Red Bank a Planning Board MeritAward, commending the project’s potential to maintain and enhance consistency with the unique historic character of the neighborhood.