The NJ Historic Preservation Office has made a bid to acquire the T. Thomas Fortune House in Red Bank for an undisclosed amount. In 1976, the home of journalist and activist T. Thomas Fortune was named a national landmark. The state has stepped in to save the T. Thomas Fortune house, a state official has confirmed.
According to Bob Considine, press director for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the state Historic Preservation Office has submitted a bid on the historic home, which preservationists envision as an African American cultural center.
“We have an interest in preserving the house,” said Considine, adding that the owners of the home will ultimately decide whether or not to sell the property. He declined to disclose the amount of the bid.
“Whatever the owners decide to do, we’ll respect the decision.”
Members of the Vaccarelli family currently own the property located at 94 Drs. James Parker Blvd. on the west side of Red Bank. The home has been owned by the family since 1918. “It would be a saving grace if the family accepted the bid the state put forward,” said Councilman Edward Zipprich, who is council liaison to the Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission.
Fortune, a 19th- and 20th-century journalist and activist, was the publisher and founder of three New York newspapers, including the New York Age, which was considered the foremost African-American publication of its time.
The National Negro Press Association awarded him the honorary title of dean. The Fortune family remained at the home until 1913.
Fortune moved to Red Bank at the beginning of the 20th century, where he continued to write and speak as a pioneer in the civil rights movement. He died in 1928. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. “It is the opinion of the committee that the story of this national historic landmark property far outweighs the economic benefits for any other development that can be built on this property,” said Mark Fitzsimmons, a member of the historic preservation commission, at the Borough Council meeting on Sept 23.
He added that if the building is restored as a museum it would increase the flow of tourism to the borough.
More importantly, according to Fitzsimmons, is preserving a part of the borough’s history.
“What is more important than saving a national historic landmark that would give Red Bank national attention while keeping a building that would stand for one of the most important issues and ongoing issues in this country’s history?” Fitzsimmons asked.
Zipprich noted the urgency of saving the deteriorating structure.
“I am undoubtedly in support of preserving this national historic landmark. We are watching it painfully fall apart by neglect and we need someone to come along to preserve it,” Zipprich said.
According to Gilda Rogers, who is a member of the historic preservation com- mission, the house is one of only two national historic landmarks devoted to African American heritage in the state.
“This landmark is unique due to its relationship to the history in this country regarding civil rights and social justice during this time period in which T. Thomas Fortune lived, and the continuous issues with civil rights and social justice in this country,” said Rogers.
According to Rogers, funding for the acquisition would come through the DEP’s Green Acres program.
Over the past few years, she said, the historic preservation commission and the T. Thomas Fortune Project have held educational forums as well as fundraisers to raise awareness of the home.
In 2014 the Borough Council named February as T. Thomas Fortune House Month.
Later that year, the owners of the home filled an application to have the house demolished but did not go forward because the application was deemed incomplete.
Contact Michael Nunes at [email protected].