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New Jersey's rich past always has included the stories of the lives of a
few “famous” women from Annis Boudinot Stockton, a Colonial poet; to Clara
Barton, Civil War nurse and the founder of the first public school in New
Jersey; to suffragist leader Alice Paul; to pioneering aviator and writer
Anne Morrow Lindbergh; to 20th-century political leader Millicent Fenwick.
The New Jersey Women’s Heritage Trail will lead you on a journey throughout
the state, using historic places to tell the collective story of a few of
these famous women, and many of the more private women, who contributed
to the agricultural, industrial, labor and domestic history of the state.
Although women always have comprised over half of the state’s population,
the tales of women’s contributions to New Jersey history often have been
omitted from our telling of history. The Heritage Trail brings to life the
vital role of women in New Jersey’s past and present.
The example pages below
illustrate how the Trail is meant to offer both a broad sampling of women’s
sites with a wide geographic distribution by county, and a fair distribution
of historical trends and themes related to women's roles in New Jersey’s
past. Inclusion on the Trail often is based on public accessibility, either
for a visitor to a historic house museum, or someone driving by. If a site
is not included in this Trail brochure, it does not necessarily mean that
the site is insignificant, but sometimes that the site is publicly or visually
inaccessible, the owners’ privacy is being protected, or its significance
is post-1960, the cutoff date for this brochure. The New Jersey Women’s
Heritage Trail will continue to change and grow, with sites being added
as variables change, such as a historic site being reinterpreted to include
the role of women, or the significance of a site becoming “historic” as
time passes. We hope to update this brochure periodically to reflect these
changes.
The idea for the New
Jersey Women’s Heritage Trail emerged from collaborative work done by the
Alice Paul Centennial Foundation, the New Jersey State Historic Preservation
Office and Preservation New Jersey when they helped to organize the first
annual conference on women and historic preservation in Bryn Mawr, PA, in
1994. These groups saw the need to tell the story of the important contributions
of New Jersey women through the historic sites and places they left behind.
In 1999, legislation provided the initial funding to begin research to identify
historic sites associated with New Jersey women. With additional funding
from the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office, and support from
the Alice Paul Centennial Foundation, work was begun in the summer of 2000.
Preservation Partner, a historic preservation consulting firm, carried out
this groundbreaking project, with additional scholarly contributions by
the Women’s Project of New Jersey. New Jersey is the first state in the
country to undertake a statewide comprehensive survey of women’s historic
sites.
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New Jersey Women’s Sites Survey
New Jersey Women’s Sites Survey (PDF Format)
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Women have always comprised over half of the state’s population, but their contributions to New Jersey’s rich past have often been omitted from our telling of history. Do you know about a site in your community that has an association with the life of a particular significant woman, or that reflects the broad patterns of women’s lives before 1980? If yes, please fill out the attached form and return it to the Historic Preservation Office. Your efforts will help us to fill in the blanks.
Submissions will be added to the HPO cultural resources inventory, viewable online thru the LUCY online map viewer. If requested, HPO staff will evaluate the property for its eligibility to be listed in the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places (request is made by marking the box requesting a Certification of Eligibility letter on the survey form). Submissions may also be considered for inclusion in the New Jersey Women’s Heritage Trail (See above).
Criteria for Inclusion in the New Jersey Women's Heritage Trail:
- The site has an association with an historical event or activity that reflects the broad patterns of women's lives in New Jersey before 1980; or
- The site has an association with a particular woman who had an impact on New Jersey, or the state has an impact on her life, during her residency or period of noteworthy accomplishment, which occurred before 1980.
- Preference is given to sites that are publicly accessible.
Committee to determine whether a site meets the above Criteria will be comprised of::
- Historic Preservation Office staff
- Representative(s) of the New Jersey Historic Trust
- Representative(s) of the New Jersey Historical Commission
- Representative(s) of the Alice Paul Institute
The committee will meet twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter. Details to be announced.
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Camden County, Camden City
VICTOR
TALKING MACHINE
COMPANY (RCA)
The Victor
1 Market
Street,
between Delaware and Front Streets
Private
Women
Workers
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This Camden landmark
is the only industrial building that remains of the original twenty-two
Victor Talking Machine Company structures that lined the Camden waterf ront
by 1911. Women played an important role in the Victor Talking Machine Company
from its founding in 1901. Some of the company’s earliest and most successful
recording artists were female opera singers. Early company photos show an
all female Statistics Department in the 1920s, and depict women as assembly
workers beginning in the 1930s. This cabinet manufacturingbuilding was built
between 1909 and 1916, and is well known for its “Nipper Tower”, with its
four massive illuminated stained-glass windows depicting the company’s mascot.
The original windows, designed by the prestigious D’Ascenzo Studios in Philadelphia,
were donated to various local institutions in 1969. In 1978, RCA commissioned
D’Ascenzo to replicate their original windows which adorn the tower today.
The building has recently been restored and currently houses 341 luxury
apartments.
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Morris County, Mine Hill Township
THE
BRIDGET SMITH HOUSE
124
Randolph Avenue
Open
to Public
Immigrant
Working Women
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Bridget Lockman and
her husband, John Smith, immigrated from Ireland in the 1850’s following
the Irish Potato Famine. They settled in Mine Hill with other Irish immigrant
iron mine workers in a section then known as Irishtown. By the time Bridget
purchased this double house in 1879 for $300, John had been killed in a
local mining accident. She was living on one side raising the two children
while renting the other side to another Irish “widow of the mines” with
six children. Take a unique glimpse into the past of working class families.
Left virtually unchanged since it was built in 1855, the house had a simple
conversion in 1912 to accommodate a single family. Listed on the New Jersey
and National Registers of Historic Places, it represents the last intact
example of worker housing in northern New Jersey. Restored and opened in
1998, the museum is staffed by volunteers on selected dates and by special
arrangement to offer insight into the simple but difficult life of immigrant
working women raising families in the late 1800’s. For
more information, call (973) 366-8768 or write to the Ferromonte Historical
Society of Mine Hill, Bridget Smith House, 124 Randolph Avenue, Mine Hill
NJ 07803.
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Monmouth County, Middletown Township
THOMPSON
PARK,
BROOKDALE FARM
805
Newman Springs Road
Open
to Public
Geraldine
livingston Morgan Thompson
(1872 - 1967)
Social Welfare Reformer
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Brookdale Farm is a
pivotal site in the history and development of Monmouth County, significant
as an evolutionary landscape from 18th-century farm to 19th-century horse
estate to 20th-century public park and for its association with horseman
David Dunham Withers and social welfare reformer Geraldine Livingston Morgan
Thompson. Now the administrative headquarters of the Monmouth County Park
System, the site is the most complete 19th-century horse estate remaining
in Monmouth County, an area long known for the raising and racing of fine
horses. Thompson had a long career of political activism and public service
on behalf of prison reform, public health and juvenile justice in New Jersey,
and was a generous benefactor of psychiatric services and college scholarships
for the needy. Geraldine Thompson was active for many years in the state’s
Republican Party, and, in 1923, became the first female New Jersey delegate
to a Republican National Convention. She shared a great many social welfare
interests with her lifelong friend Eleanor Roosevelt, who visited Brookdale
Farm on several occasions. During her later life she played an influential
role in preserving Island Beach as a state park, and promoted the conser
vation of wildlife habitat. During the course of her long life, Geraldine
Thompson received many awards and honors, including an honorary Master of
Philanthropy degree from Rutgers University in 1931, becoming the first
woman in New Jersey to receive such a distinction.
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Atlantic County, Atlantic City
CONVENTION
HALL
Georgia
and Mississippi Avenues,
Atlantic City Boardwalk
Private
Site
of Miss America Pageant
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Atlantic City’s Convention
Hall is famous for being the site of the Miss America beauty pageant for
most of the years since the building’s completion in 1929, when it was the
world’s largest auditorium. Convention Hall was built when Atlantic City
was at its peak in popularity as a summer beach resort, and the beauty contest
was created in 1921 as an attempt to extend the tourism season beyond Labor
Day. The name “Miss America” had been used by late-19th century illustrators
to depict the ideal American woman. The tradition of beauty contests in
America dates from the 19th-century, when they often were held as part of
carnivals and state festivals. While the multi-purpose structure has hosted
many other important events over the years, including the 1964 Democratic
National Convention when Lyndon B. Johnson was nominated for president,
it is best known for its association with the Miss America contest.
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Bergen County, Alpine Borough
WOMEN'S
FEDERATION
MEMORIAL
Palisades
Interstate Park
Open
to Public
New
Jersey State Federation of
Women's Clubs
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The New Jersey Palisades
section of the Hudson River consists of towering sheer rocky cliffs, waterfalls
and rock pillars. In the early years of the 19th century, some quarrying
began to take place along the Palisades, intensifying after the Civil War
when there was a high demand for concrete for construction. By 1890, citizens
in both New Jersey and New York began to organize in opposition to the further
destruction of the cliffs. In 1894, the New Jersey Federation of Women’s
Clubs joined other interested groups to fight for legislation to protect
the Palisades. In 1900, as a result of the Federation's efforts, New Jersey’s
Governor Foster M. Voorhees and New York’s Governor Theodore Roosevelt formed
an Interstate Park Commission whose responsibility was to acquire land along
the Palisades to preserve the cliffs and shorefront. The Federation assisted
the commission in their fundraising, and the destruction of the Palisades
was halted. This Women’s Federation Memorial, acknowledging the key role
of the organization in saving the Palisades, was dedicated in a ceremony
on April 30, 1929.
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