„V 26_ __ Herald - lantern JMspatch 19 March '66

Ole Gray Hall: Ain't What She Used To Be

By E.J. DUFFY COLD SPRING — Lower Township Council voted 3-2 Monday night against transferring title from township to county for the old municipal hall here. That vote came several weeks after the 1897 landmark was moved north on Seashore Road to the county-owned Historic Cold Spring Village, however. The vote also followed by an hour Council's 4-1 approval of the $5,000 moving bill. Council earlier had adopted a resolution, authorizing the move, and previously approved related moving expenses. Deputy Mayor Pe{®ie Bieberbach voted against introducing Ordinance 86-2 last month, to transfer title, because "It's going to be too expensive." She also voted alone last month against paying $5^000 to move the two-story frame building and $777 to delatch it from a one-story addition in Lower's Public Work's compound. "HOW MUCH HAS THIS ended up costing us?." she asked Township Manager James R. Stump Monday. He cited the moving cost and related charges above. What about the hole in the one-story addition since the old hall was detatched?, Bieberbach asked. Stump^aid he didn't have figures on the cost of repairing the single-floor building. Expecting the total cost of moving the old hall to be "close to $10,000," Bieberbach voted against Ordinance 86-2 joined by fellow Democrats,. Mayor Robert

Fothergill and Councilman Joseph Lonergan Voting to approve the transfer were Republican Councilmen David F. Brand Jr. and Robert F. Conroy. What now? Stump asked Township Solicitor Bruce Gorman, noting Council's approvals last month of the move and its costs. I "IT'S REFUSED." GORMAN said of 1 the title transfer. "The problem here is, the ordinance should have been passed before the hall was moved." I That could have happened last month, ' but crossed wires between the township « and its legal newspaper delayed advertise- ! ment of Ordinance 86-2 so that it couldn't < be scheduled for final action until this * week. "It's still on wheels," Fothergill quipped of the old hall. "We're going to look like idiots," Conroy predicted, stressing Council's earlier votes in favor of the move. Asked about those votes after the meeting, Lonergan said he "didn't like the $5,000 mentioned" in Ordinance 86-2. "I think and I know we (Council) approved payment of that $5,000" he added. "I didn't." Brand predicted Council would wind up paying more from a law suit over the vote. Conroy suggested another vote to avoid that prediction, and in case any Council members had changed their minds. The result repeated the earlier vote.ythough, 3-2 against title transfer.

r" ) "You people agreed that you would spend $5,000 to move it," complained Carl H. Raschke of Villas, a township planner. "You agreed, you agreed," he repeated, charging, like others, that "politics" was behind councils party line negative votes. County officials plan to renovate the old hall into a maritime museum and focal point of a pending Route 9 entrance to the village. Originally built as the meeting hall of a patriotic organization, the structure was the seat of municipal government and courts until a new hall was built in Villas several years ago. The old hall was damaged by arson more than a decade ago.

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Volunteers Wanted COURT HOUSE - Weekend volunteers are needed at Burdette Tomlim Memorial Hospital to escort patients and assist at meal times. A special person is also needed to spend one day a week taking care of the hospital's plants. Anyone who would like to help is asked to contact Bettie Crilly, director of volunteer services, 465-2000. extension 5320

&5SE3SS3SS3S& 1865 Building

(From page 1) HOWELL DECLINED to comment on the "shoddy planning," charge, but told this newspaper that he had been told, by letter from county Planning Director Elwood Jarmar that "there was no federal, state or county historic registration of that building." y Howell said he had asked Jarmer 1 "whether there was any historical rete vance or historic registry, whether there was any intention of the county to assign any historic significance to that building. The reply was 'no,' " said Howell. "So." he said, "we proceeded with our deI sign to demolish the building." "WHAT my LETTER said was that the I building was not on the state or federal I (historic) register." Jarmer told this newsI paper. "I didn't go any further than that. I I am involved with this project only to the ex- | tent that I had to get site plan approvals, not I the technical design." Jarmer told the freeholders last week the I Cape May Court House Neighborhood Asso E ciation is "in the process of trying to put j Court House on the state and federal historic | register." Association sources told this j newspaper the area would include about 100 I buildings in the center of town. Howell said it had previously been his inI tention "to maintain the front of the proj secutor's building just the way it is. from the [ front 20 to 30 feet back." I BUT. HE SAID, he "received direction" j last September from the freeholders "to inI vestigate relocating the surrogate to the I ground level." I That was when he got in touch with I Jarmer. Howefl said. [ Demolishing the building. Howell said, j " was a significant change from the [ original design which kept the facade along E Main Street intact 100 percent." I Said Howell: "1865 is a date, but 'historic j significance' is not related to the age of j building. Architectural significance must be I maintained, but it wasn't because of (three) j additions not in the style or period of arI chitecture of the original buildings. ■'there are A lot of old buildings." I he continued. "If the county wants to save I this for nostalgic or historic relevance, then we didn't know about that." Stevens' "History of Cape May County," I published in 1897, was cited to the freeholders by Somers Corson, acting curator at the county's Historical Museum. That book reported that the Cape May Court House of 1830 " . . .contains a court house of i wood, a jail of stone, fire-proof offices of brick, two taverns, eight or 10 dwellings and | a Baptist church of brick." The fire-proof office was to become the | current Prosecutor's office. Steven's history also commented that I area residents "...are generally as indepenj dent as any others in the state..." THE DELEGATION present to protest I the demolition of the building indicated that character trait hasn't changed. They were I led by Helen Westcott who scolded Freej holder-Director William E. Sturm Jr. for I calling her "Mrs. Westcott" instead of I "Helen." She called the building "unique and usable" and told the freeholders they should have moved their courts complex to Crest Haven and left the old buildings in Court House alone "Don't destroy that building." echoed Fred Metz. "We don't have a thing here for the arts. We have to hang 'em (art) at the hospital. Why not go to the left (of the court house) and tear down the (former) Savings 6c Lx>an?" he asked, "or make a three-story on that?"

CORSON SAID that current copper facade on the Prosecutor's building, which most in the audience referred to by its previous usage as the library, dates to 1905. He argued in favor of keeping the "progression of times of architecture" current- ! Iy on Main Street : the Methodist Church of r 1855, the old court house of 1849, the current Prosecutor Office of 1865, and the court house of 1926-27. "This section of the county seat needs to be preserved," he said. "I say that personally and as a representative of the county Historical Society." "Our original plan was to include that building, to tie in with the court house," said Freeholder James S. Kilpatrick Jr. "It would have ceased to exist as a separate building. We would have taken off the roof, added a second floor and a third-floor capability. "Then." he said, "we discovered the roof is poured concrete and to remove that would cause potential damage to the building." OUR PLANS to proceed must include that building in some way," said Kilpatrick "Otherwise there is insufficent land on Main Street for the courts. We will have to encompass that. I will meet with the architect and your group. I don't know what can be done, but we will try to'save all we can." Architect Howell said he would be meeting with county officials and the concerned citizens "to review the plans. And I will be at the next freeholder meeting < March 20) to state my piece, add information, and be available for questions." During the discussion, freeholders indicated that "in the not too distant future" the current county library office building would be all-library "The courts and court-related will stay here." said Sturm, "and the second-story ( of the library building) and noncourt-related offices probably will move to Crest Haven "That was one reason I voted 'no.' on Burdette-Tomlin having its alcoholism treatment center at Crest Haven," said Sturm. That measure also was opposed by Ralph Evans, but passed 3-2 with favorable votes from Thornton, Kilpatrick. and Herbert Frederick.

Doctor, Lawyer, Necessary 'Evil' COURT HOUSE — Apparently a certain local disdain for the professions of medicine and law prevalent 155 years ago continues today. A group at the freeholder meeting of March II referred to Stevens' (1897) "History of Cape May Count" to indicate the historical significance of the Prosecutor's office, built in 1865 and threatened with demolition. Stevens quoted a writer in 1830 saying of the Court House community : "Until lately they have known little, practically, of those necessary evils of social life, the physician and the lawyer." And during the freeholder meeting, Everett Springer of Cape May Court House offered this quote: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away. What can we find for lawyers?" Present were three lawyers. Freeholder James S. Kilpatrick Jr., County Counsel Harry A. Delventhal Jr.. and special County Counsel for litigation Louis Hornstine They laughed.