Advocates hope to save Bellmawr historic house

BELLMAWR - Overlooking the ongoing construction at the interchange that connects Interstates 295 and 676 with Route 42, the Hugg-Harrison-Glover House is newly visible from the highways below.

But state Department of Transportation officials say it won’t be for long: The house, a portion of which dates to 1764, will eventually be demolished as part of the Direct Connection project to reconfigure the heavily traveled interchange.

Camden County historical experts and activists are hoping to save the house, or at least its most historic portion, from the wrecking ball, and are making an appeal not only to the state but also to the Diocese of Camden.

The house, taken last year by the state via eminent domain, has served as the administration building for New St. Mary’s Cemetery since 1923, said Michael Walsh, a spokesman for the Diocese of Camden, which owns the 49-acre cemetery and, until last year, the historic house.

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NJDOT will compensate the cemetery for the demolition and the cost of building a new administration building, Walsh said.

While there is no timetable for the Hugg-Harrison-Glover House demolition, it will happen, according to Steve Schapiro, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT).

“The big piece of the project is connecting 295 more directly” to Route 42, he said. “And unfortunately, the house is in an area where highway needs to be built.”

The Direct Connection project, one of the largest road projects in the state’s history, is expected to be completed in 2021.

“But some of the benefits of the project are being recognized already,” Schapiro said, noting the safer merge from Route 42 northbound to I-295 northbound as one example.

Walsh said the diocese will continue to use the building "for the foreseeable future," adding a new building is still "in the planning stages." The state also took six acres of cemetery land, Walsh noted, but he said no existing grave sites would be affected by the construction.

Preservation advocates say they understand the need for the extensive roadwork, but believe the house can and should be saved, perhaps even moved to a nearby location, and contend the state simply lacks the will to do so.

“It’s a sad state of affairs that authorities who are responsible for carrying out the law and protecting these historical resources aren’t doing their job,” said Robert Shinn of the Camden County Historical Society, which believes the house has been incorrectly deemed ineligible for preservation.

State officials and historical experts disagree over whether the house, which has undergone significant renovations and additions over the years, meets state requirements for inclusion on state and federal registers of historic places.

According to an August 2006 study commissioned by NJDOT and prepared by A.D. Marble & Company of Mount Laurel, the building’s history is “problematic.”

“While the two oldest sections are the Gambrel and 1764 sections, the exact order of construction is debatable,” reads the report, posted on the NJDOT website.

A shed on the east side has been completely rebuilt since the 1920s, according to the report, and a front porch was added to the oldest portion of the house.

“The interior of the house has been extensively ‘modernized,’ with almost all interior detailing obscured behind modern wall and ceiling treatments,” the report adds. “Fireplaces have been sealed and covered up. Some attic details of the 1764 section can be seen, but the roof and crawlspace (of another section) … have been completely hidden by post-1920s construction.”

Still, the report notes, “much of the modernization appears to be reversible.”

In a letter to Diocese of Camden Bishop Dennis Sullivan dated Nov. 27, Camden County Historical Society President Chris Perks offers the organization’s assistance and resources to help save the house, and still give the cemetery a new administration building so the diocese doesn’t have the burden of maintaining the old one.

“We believe it may be possible for the diocese to both obtain a new building for its headquarters and preserve the house on site and, if necessary in the future, to have the house relocated to another location on or off the grounds,” Perks’ letter reads.

“We also believe it may be possible to find a way to either relieve or assist the cemetery with the expense of owning and maintaining the historic portion of the house if that function is determined to be an unwanted and unnecessary cemetery burden.”

The building is more than old, preservationists say: It’s “a very important piece of (what was then called) Old Gloucester and (what is now) Camden County history,” Shinn noted. It was built by descendants of  the Hugg and Harrison families, some of the area’s first settlers. Historians say it is the last known standing structure associated with those families, whose members participated in the American Revolution and were among the area’s first sheriffs, judges and freeholders.

“We believe strongly … that historic buildings such as this house are irreplaceable community assets and that every alternative for preserving them should be exhausted before they are destroyed,” Perks’ letter to Sullivan continues.

“And we believe that preserving the building and the memory of the founders of our county is entirely consistent with the cemeteries’ mission to ‘sacredly bury the dead and bring comfort to the grieving…’ and to ‘bring respectful dignity to the mortal remains entrusted to our care.’”

Phaedra Trethan: (856) 486-2417; ptrethan@gannettnj.com