Joseph Falkenburge House

TRENTON –– The ARC of Cape May County and the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC) were on the 2007 list of 26 statewide projects recommended to receive preservation grants by the New Jersey Historic Trust.

According to a recent press release from the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), the groups’ $50,000 grants were ratified by the Garden State Preservation Trust and must now go before the state legislature for approval.

“The Historic Trust continues to work hard towards preserving our state’s historic treasures,” said DCA Commissioner Joseph Doria. “Historic Preservation Grants will help restore these sites and preserve their historic value for generations to come.”

The New Jersey Historic Trust, a DCA affiliate, administers the grants from the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust Fund, which was created to promote historic preservation and encourage joint preservation efforts by the public and private sectors.

According to Historic Trust board member Jody Alessandrine, of Ocean City, this round of grants, totaling over $1 million, will fund planning initiatives for the state projects, including those for the two local organizations. The Trust also funds capital projects that support ‘bricks and mortar’ repair, restoration and rehabilitation of historic resources for continued active use.

“The ARC project is a preservation-planning study for the organization’s historic headquarters located on Route 47 in Dennis Township, the Joseph Falkenburge House,” Alessandrine said of the 200-year-old brick structure built in a Georgian/Federal influenced style.

The ARC of Cape May County is a private non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote the general welfare of individuals who are developmentally disabled of all ages. The organization offers the following services: community living, crisis-respite homes, employment training and support, in-home respite, recreation, information and referral.

“ARC’s program is a great adaptive use for a historic building,” said Alessandrine, who is also the municipal administrator for Dennis Township.

This would be ARC’s first Historic Trust grant for the Falkenburge House, which has been the organization’s home since 1989.

The MAC grant will fund a detailed HVAC study including schematics for its headquarters, the Emlen Physick Estate Victorian house museum, Alessandrine said.

“The system is needed to protect the house and historic collections there in,” he added.

MAC received previous grants from the Historic Trust for the Physick Estate including one in 2000 for landscape restoration and barrier-free access to the house and another emergency grant for porch repairs after a partial collapse in 2006.

MAC also received over $900,000 in grants in the 1990s for the rehabilitation of the Cape May Lighthouse as well as $600,000 for Fire Control Tower No. 23 in 2004.

Alessandrine told the Herald that he and two other area residents on the Historic Trust’s board – Elan Zingman-Leith, of Cape May, and Daniel Campbell, of Somers Point – lobby for local projects to receive funding.

Other county projects to have received grants in the past include: Cape Island Presbyterian Church, $50,000 in 2005; Franklin Street School, $967,790 from 2001-06; Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum, $672,947 from 2000-06; Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, $336,793 from 1996-2006; and Ocean City Hall, $1,034,716 from 1995-96.

Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com