By STEVEN VIERA
Staff Writer
EAST BRUNSWICK — For a centuries-old building, the Alice Appleby DeVoe Library is still the center of attention among local groups that want to ensure its preservation.
The Alice Appleby DeVoe Memorial Library Association (AADMLA), a New Jersey nonprofit corporation established in November of 2015, has been working to maintain the library and develop historically oriented programming, although its efforts have gone against the wishes of the East Brunswick Museum Corporation, the sole entity that leases the property and does not sanction or approve AADMLA’s activities.
Located at 166 Main St. in East Brunswick, the building is named for Alice Appleby DeVoe, who was born there in 1868. Her son, Fred, sold it to the town in 1945, and it became East Brunswick’s first library.
When the library closed, the Museum Corporation secured a lease from the township that took effect in January 1982 and is active until December 2031.
Today, AADMLA Director Richard Walling says the building is in need of repairs and is not receiving the upkeep it requires.
In November of 2015, he led a crew of volunteers to paint the exterior walls, clear overgrowth and perform other basic maintenance “so that there would be less weather damage from the winter.”
“We look to build, create and move forward with civic-minded folks and groups. The museum has had a lease for about 35 years; the present condition of the building speaks for itself,” he said.
The Museum Corporation, however, says it did not grant its permission for these activities.
“He insists on invading that area,” Estelle Goldsmith, vice president of the East Brunswick Historical Society and Museum Corporation, said of Walling.
“We have no interest in engaging in any adversarial position regarding the museum,” Walling said.
At a Township Council meeting on June 27, Goldsmith read a letter to the body on behalf of Museum Corporation President Marc Farfara to inform councilmembers of Walling’s and the AADMLA’s unsanctioned activities.
“[The building] is not in the best of shape,” East Brunswick Business Administrator Jack Layne said.
He explained that over the course of the past 10 years, the township has allocated $62,000 in community development block grants (CDBGs) for the preservation of the facility, including $18,000 for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-accessible bathrooms in 2007 and $8,000 for general upgrades in 2013.
This year, the town is spending $4,000 in CDBGs for a structural analysis to determine what additional work may be necessary on the site, although Layne pointed out that it “would be premature” to say there will be future improvements to the building without knowing the results of the structural analysis.
According to the AADMLA and Old Bridge Village Heritage Center’s redevelopment plan, there is a desire to acquire a lease to 166 Main St. — the site of the Alice Appleby DeVoe Library — within its first year of operation.
However, the East Brunswick Museum Corporation’s lease on the property is still active for another 15 years, and neither Layne nor East Brunswick Chief Financial Officer L. Mason Neely were aware of that plan and had received no communication to that effect.
Contact Steven Viera at [email protected].