— New Jersey preservationists want to re-locate — typically considered a last resort — one of Newark’s last surviving remnants of the colonial era, all to free it from the pounding of 18-wheelers and the roar of Interstate 280 just a scant few feet away.
The circa 1725 Plume House on Broad Street would also be moved to distance it from a planned interchange that would be built nearby.
“It’s not really habitable because of the location, the vibration and the noise,” said the Rev. Wade Renn, whose Episcopal House of Prayer had used the historic homestead as a rectory since 1850.
“DON’T DOOM PLUME. Move it to save it!” read a handmade poster at a May 13 meeting as state officials came to the church to outline the $85 million plan to widen the highway and add ramps at the I-280/Route 21 interchange.
That prospect — still a few years off — fueled Preservation New Jersey’s selection of the Plume House for its 2010 list of the state’s 10 most endangered historic sites and the “rare” recommendation to move the house to a long-vacant grassy lot just north of the church.
“You hardly notice it’s a significant structure. It’s so overshadowed by 280, putting any issue of vibrations aside,” said David Abramson, who as chair of the city’s Landmarks and Historic Preservation Commission has recommended that the state Department of Transportation move the stone Dutch Colonial.
Renn is like-minded. “It would have a much nicer location, visibility and be a better asset to the city of Newark,” Renn said. “Besides, it would be a wonderful project to help celebrate the 350th anniversary of Newark (in 2016).”
The Plume House — its walls and ceilings cracked from high-speed rumblings since I-280’s arrival in 1953 — has witnessed its share of history.
The Plumes were staunch patriots. Once, Ann Van Wagenen Plume was said to have chased away Hessian soldiers she found chopping furniture for firewood in her parlor. By Nov. 7, 1849, the new Episcopal parish of the House of Prayer had its first official service in the Plume House, ahead of the church’s construction the next year.
By 1887, the parish’s fifth rector, the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, conducted experiments in the rectory’s attic, in the process inventing flexible photographic film.
Douglas Eldridge, the man spearheading the movement to save the house as executive director of the non-profit Newark Preservation & Landmarks Committee and a parishioner since 1961, is mindful of all the history in the stone building.
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“I’ve seen a lot of traffic since that time,” Eldridge said as he toured the rectory and sat down at a table in the parlor, the vibrations of heavy traffic clearly felt from an elevated span whose footings are just 4 feet from the foundation.
There are some curious items about the house that even Eldridge can’t explain. In one room — there are 11, plus six fireplaces — is a “death mask” of an unidentified man and a large Bible with an inscription from the nation’s 13th president. “From Millard Fillmore to his parents,” it reads. “It’s just an heirloom,” Eldridge said. “We don’t know why it’s here.”
The state DOT, meanwhile, wouldn’t comment on the logistics or likelihood of moving the Plume House. “We’re really a few years from construction,” said Joe Dee, a spokesman.
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