Naugle House, Fair Lawn

The Borough of Fair Lawn is legally required by its agreement with Bergen County to maintain the Naugle house.

To prevent deterioration of the Historic Preservation Property, Municipality [Fair Lawn] shall maintain the Protected Features [Naugle House and historic details] in good condition at Municipality's cost and expense.  "Good condition" means that the Protected Features are intact and structurally sound, there are few or no cosmetic imperfections and the feature needs no more than routine maintenance.  F.3.c.  Open Space Trust Fund and Historic Preservation Trust Fund Grant Agreement between the County of Bergen and Borough of Fair Lawn, 2007-2010

Do you think this qualifies?

 

What is going to happen to this house if development of the Vander Plaat property proceeds?  The access easement to the Vander Plaat property runs within 10' of the corner of the house.  Who is going to protect this house?

 

 

Come to the Zoning Board Meeting to discuss the develoment of the Vander Plaat property on September 4 at 7 pm.  

New Jersey. "Built-out"?

In the Record of July 29, 2014 Michele S. Byers reports on some of New Jersey's firsts.  After talking about feel-good firsts--light bulbs, cultivated blueberries, seashore resorts, Byers relates that "New Jersey is the first and only state where all counties are classified as metropolitan areas."  There are an average of 1,030 people for every square mile.

In addition to being metropolitan New Jersey is headed for another first--the first state to be fully "built-out".  Build-out is defined as all be property being either preserved or developed--no tracts of open space in private hands.   Think of it: every piece of property has come on the market and been developed or re-developed (with housing or retail or churches, etc.)  or has been preserved (mostly with government money).

In this case the battle over the three acres in Fair Lawn should be seen in a larger context.  Is this land going to become part of preserved open space or is it going to be developed?  Fair Lawn, Bergen County, and New Jersey can use all the open space it can get.

Bergen County just announced 2014 Open Space Land Acquisition and Preservation Grant Program .  There is money available for purchasing open space and for historic preservation.  I hope Fair Lawn is paying attention.

Vanderbeck Property, Fair Lawn

Will the Vanderbeck, Jr. house look like this?

 

 Historic Arnold Farmhouse in Smithfield, RI, demolished

(Thanks to Todd Braisted for the heads-up on this one.)

 Zabriskie Tenant House, Paramus, New Jersey

Zoning Board hearing in Fair Lawn for the Vanderbeck property is on September 4, 7 pm, Fair Lawn Borough Hall.  Follow Dunkerhook Advocates on facebook.

Towns neglect their houses

Which of these houses are owned by municipalities?
Which of these houses would you want in your neighborhood?

The Zabriskie-Schedler house in Ridgewood and the Naugle house in Fair Lawn are both owned by the towns and left in dilapidated condition.  Some basic homeowner maintenance should be provided these treasures.  How much does it cost to trim bushes, clean gutters, keep ivy from growing on a house?  Demolition by neglect is a time-honored way to avoid facing the responsibility of maintaining a building and of making a decision.  If a house is let to go too far, then the question, with a shrug of the shoulders is, "how can we afford to fix this house up?"  So if one of these houses is in your neighborhood, speak to the town.  If they own the property, ask the Council why the town does not have to meet its own property maintenance standards.  Ridgewood has just identified 6 abandoned properties in the Village--they didn't mention the one they've abandoned.

RIDGEWOOD: Groups fighting to save house--OWNED BY THE VILLAGE

FAIR LAWN: To Fix Historic House--OWNED BY THE TOWN

DETROIT: 10 reasons for historic failures

BLOOMFIELD:  House is declared an endangered historic site 

Fair Lawn to fix historic Naugle House

Fair Lawn to fix historic Naugle House

Near HACKETSTOWN:  Abandoned Mansion 

Which of these houses is in your neighborhood?

Which of these houses is in your neighborhood?  

Which one is in Detroit?

Preservationists say there’s more money to destroy historic homes than to restore them

10 reasons for historic failures

Groups fighting to save house

House is declared an endangered historic site 

Fair Lawn to fix historic Naugle House

To Fix Historic House

Fair Lawn to fix historic Naugle House

Abandoned Mansion 

Summer Day at Dunkerhook

I had the pleasure today of a walk at Dunkerhook--on the paved path and on the dirt trail beside the river.

  The lazy Saddle River.

 

Egret in the Hohokus Brook.   Hmmm.  Which is my better profile?

Three wood-ducks from far away.

How not to Clean a Gravestone

Dick Eastman has posted the following article on his blog.  This can go in the category of "stupid genealogy crimes"  (the "perp" posted the evidence on findagrave) and more sadly, ignorance.  Spread the word--don't touch tombstones without knowing what you are doing (see links in article, esp. www.gravestonestudies.org) and ask permission. 

Marker showing fragility of stone

"Here is a sad bit of news: A man is suspected of damaging several historic graves with a wire brush recently at the New Providence Presbyterian Church on Stoney Point Road in Surgoinsville, Tennessee. He apparently used a wire brush to make the engravings on the tombstones easier to read. Now here is the worst part: he was “cleaning” the tombstones so that he could take pictures to be posted on Find-A-Grave.com!

"Aaaarrrggghhh!

"On July 15, church committee member Bill Davidson reported to the Surgoinsville Police Department that several tombstones had been “scrubbed” — possibly with a wire brush — causing damage to the old stones. The dark stain that builds up on tombstones over time was scrubbed clean in streaks over the engravings, and in some cases the engravings were rubbed almost smooth — to the point that the words are no longer legible. Davidson stated that some of the damaged tombstones date back to the 1700s, and some belong to Civil War veterans.

"The church didn’t give anyone permission to go onto cemetery property and scrub any stones, Davidson added.

"Here is the ironic part: the culprit was easy to find. Police did some checking on Google and located recently posted photos of the damaged tombstones at www.findagrave.com. The culprit’s user name was clearly shown on each photo.

"You can read more about this tragedy in the Kingsport Times-News at http://goo.gl/7EfPGl.
If you are in a cemetery, please do not touch any tombstone, much less historic ones, unless you know what you are doing. You can find dozens of articles online that describe what to do and what not to do. Start at https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=tombstone+care. I can recommend the Association for Gravestone Studies web site at https://www.gravestonestudies.org as an excellent resource although some of the other sites may also be very good."

Also see comments at original post:  http://blog.eogn.com/2014/08/01/how-not-to-clean-a-tombstone-for-find-a-grave/

http://www.eogn.com.