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MISSION
STATEMENT
INTRODUCTION
HISTORY
LANDMARKS
RECOGNITION
AWARDS
OFFICERS,
TRUSTEES and STAFF
TOURS*APR 18th*
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The Newark Preservation & Landmarks Committee's
award-winning logo shows the 18th century Plume House
"preserved" in a Mason jar
Since its early days the Committee has been identified by a unique
logotype -- an historic building "preserved" inside a canning
jar. The symbol was designed by Johnson & Simpson, a graphic design
firm that was at one time on Bleeker Street opposite the
Rutgers-Newark campus. Milton Simpson, a strong supporter of preservation,
arranged to put a photograph of the Plume House, one of the oldest in
Newark, into a Mason jar, and then took a picture of it.
The
logotype has been used on all of the Committee's publications and
stationery, and has been copied by some other preservation groups. The
symbol also won awards for the creative firm.
You’re Invited to a Timely Tour
Grand Buildings, Fragile Blossoms at WPA Sites
A springtime tour of public works projects from the Great Depression, including major transportation facilities and the flowering cherry trees in Branch Brook Park, will be presented by the Newark Preservation & Landmarks Committee for Saturday, April 18.
The six-hour excursion, aboard a chartered bus and the Newark City Subway, will focus on “The WPA in Newark: Lasting Legacies of 1930s Stimulus Packages.” It will be led by Elizabeth Del Tufo, who has conducted scores of tours in the last 25 years.
A similar tour in 2004 of Works Progress Administration efforts in Newark was highly successful, said Del Tufo. “The subject seems timelier than ever now,” she added, “because of all the talk in Washington and Trenton of major new public works to combat the recession.”
Visitors will see evidence that visionary officials in the Depression days not only pumped money into job-creating bridges and roads, but also constructed great buildings, parks, and transit systems that still serve and beautify Newark and other towns, Del Tufo asserted.
Departing from The Newark Museum at 10:30 a.m., the tour group first will see two large terminals that both opened in 1935 – the original Newark Airport and Pennsylvania Station.
The airport building, whose opening was attended by aviator Amelia Earhart, was the first central passenger terminal at any American airport, and at one time was the busiest in the nation. In 2000-2001 it was relocated and restored by the Port Authority, and serves as an administrative and public safety building. Visitors can see exhibits on the early history of aviation, and climb to the original control tower.
The second stop will be another Art Deco masterpiece. Penn Station, one of the busiest in the United States, serves 50,000 riders on weekdays on Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, PATH, the subway, and local and long-distance bus lines. The depot was designed by McKim, Mead & White, and the WPA arts program decorated the grand waiting room is adorned with stylized medallions of different forms of transportation.
The tourists will then board a subway car for a 15-minute ride under downtown Newark and along the edge of Branch Brook Park, with scenic vistas of lakes and woods, and the towers of Sacred Heart Cathedral Basilica. New Jersey’s oldest light-rail line, which also opened in 1935,was built in the bed of the old Morris Canal.
At the northern end of the park, the group can stroll through Essex County’s 33rd annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The park contains more than 2,000 trees, some of them planted by the WPA. The county and the Branch Brook Alliance are planting hundreds more trees, with a goal of 5,000 by next year. Branch Brook is the oldest and largest piece of the nation’s first county park system.
The tour bus will return to the museum, which exhibits several treasures acquired in the 1930s. The Lyons Farms Schoolhouse, erected in 1784 near what is now Elizabeth and Chancellor avenues in the Weequahic section, was dismantled stone-by-stone by the WPA and rebuilt in the museum garden in 1938. The federal arts program also helped develop the institution’s famed Tibetan exhibit, and added nearly 2,000 paintings, drawings, and other works to its collections.
Advance registrations are required for the tour. The cost is $30 for adults and $10 for children, with a $5 discount for landmarks committee members. For information or reservations, call 973-622-4910.
Refreshments are not included. but tour-goers can buy snacks at Penn Station or at vendors’ carts in the park.
John T. Cunningham (right), noted historian, chats
with two Landmarks Committee trustees, Richard Grossklaus (left) and
John Dwiborocyzn, after he received the group's first annual Charles
Cummings Award in a ceremony at the Sydenham House.
Historical marker to be mounted on the 1712
Sydenham House, the oldest building in Newark, is displayed by William
Mikesell, president of the Landmarks Committee, with the new owners of
the house, Francis Crespo (left) and Lance Dronkers. The pair received
NPLC's Recognition Award for their restoration and beautification
efforts.
THE NEWARK PRESERVATION & LANDMARKS COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 1066, Newark, NJ 07106 – (973) 622-4910
Newark's Celebration
Of Negro League Baseball History
The glory days of Negro League baseball a half-century ago in Newark were celebrated in a series of events Thursday and Friday, Sept. 13 and 14, 2006.
The Newark Preservation & Landmarks Committee is joining public officials and civic leaders paid tribute to the Newark Eagles, who played in the city from 1936 to 1948. The Eagles produced many star players and won the Negro League World Series in 1946 – a year in which they drew 120,000 fans to the old Ruppert Stadium in the Ironbound.
Four of the six surviving players from the Eagles came back to Newark to attend some of the events, and relatives of those who have died also attended. They were saluted in a ceremony on the evening of Sept. 14 at the Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium on Broad Street at Interstate 280.
Public officials took part in the celebration, which was supported by Mayor Cory Booker and the City Council, the Newark Bears organization, and local business and professional people. The Bears gave tickets to youth organizations and senior citizens for the stadium program and a home game.
In the days before African-Americans were accepted into the major leagues, teams in the Negro Leagues drew ardent followings in many cities. “The Eagles were an important source of entertainment and civic pride for Newark’s African-American community, and for the city as a whole,” said Anthony Schuman, an architecture professor at N.J. Institute of Technology who chairs the celebration.
The Negro Leagues flourished through the 1930s and ’40s, but declined and disbanded after Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby crossed the color line into the majors in 1947. Some Negro League players who integrated the big leagues – and some who never had the chance, in spite of their talents – subsequently won recognition at the National Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
NPLC dedicated historical plaques at the Wilson Avenue site of Ruppert Stadium, which was razed 40 years ago, and the house on Crawford Street where Effa Manley, co-owner and business manager of the Eagles, once lived and worked. She died in 1981, and last year became the first woman ever named to the Hall of Fame.
This
site maintained by James Lewis, Librarian, Newark Public Library.
jlewis@npl.org
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