Gov. Chris Christie Proposes Privatization at Parks and Historic Sites in New Jersey

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey announced expanded privatization efforts at New Jersey’s State Parks and Historic Sites. After my recent panel presentation at the American Association of State and Local History about State Historic Sites and Policy Responses there has been increasing pressure on State-owned parks and historic sites to raise revenue and restructure operations. Some groups have expressed concerns about privatization.

Gov. Chris Christie announces privatization efforts at Liberty State Park

The Administration with the Department of Environmental Protection is looking to boost revenue and reduce expenses. Currently, combined operations cost the state $39 million, but the state only raises $8 million in revenue. That’s a recovery ratio of 20%. DEP announced “Our strategy will enhance the offerings at our parks by expanding services and amenities, resulting in an improved, sustainable visitor experience.” The use of expanded visitor services to raise revenue can add great new opportunities and ensure the continued operation of these important resources in light of significant budget pressures. Check out their full report here.

I’ll keep up to date with any future developments of this important development.

Arrowhead Museum Closing & “Kids Don’t Care About History”

I recently read this article on a museum closure. Unfortunately, some of the sentiments expressed by the owner of this museum are shared by many older volunteers, board members, and community members.  A privately owned museum in Washaba, Minnesota is closing because its owner has decided it’s time to close.

Photo from Winona Daily News

The museum was opened 26 years ago when he ran out of room to store his collection of guns, stuffed animals, and trophies.

Les and his wife, Shirley, will close Arrowhead Bluffs Museum next month after more than 26 years in business. While the lack of visits — and lack of young visitors’ interest — wore him down, he’s mostly closing because what began as a hobby became a full-time job.

The owner added “Kids have no interest in history. They pull out their phones and start texting right away.”

I hear this all too often. Volunteers, older community members, and friends state that young people just don’t care. Nothing could be further from the truth. When kids get a firsthand experience at frontier places like Old World Wisconsin or Lincoln’s New Salem the historical experience is compelling and personal. It’s hands on and authentic.

Unfortunately, while a personal historical collection of artifacts may be interesting to the owner, the wider appeal to kids may not be there. If these kids could go on a trip to Alaska, and the Arizona Desert I am sure they would be far more engaged than seeing dead stuffed animals on the walls of a “museum” secondhand.

What ultimately drives this closure is the truth of when the larger public isn’t as interested in the personal hobby as the owner or volunteer it is hard for some to reconcile. When people blame kids for not being interested in history, it doesn’t address the underlying truth that the experience being offered isn’t compelling, personal, or relevant to the young visitor. When young people don’t eat a certain dish at a restaurant the chef doesn’t say “Young people don’t care about food.”

Old World Wisconsin from http://mcgrathfamilyroadtrip2010.blogspot.com

Historic sites and societies have to work hard every day to craft experiences that are interesting and compelling to visitors, and the work is never finished. Ask any volunteer. Historic sites and societies should work to meet the public where they are, with experiences that are personal, relevant, and compelling.

AASLH Presentation: Policy Responses for State-Owned Historic Sites

I just returned from the American Association for State and Local History Conference in Richmond, Virginia, and it was a huge success! I was so excited to meet so many state leaders, staff, friends-of groups, and history buffs. You can view my presentation here. The presentation was a panel including the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and Heritage Consulting Inc (Donna Ann Harris & Myself). This presentation looks at many of the issues facing state-owned historic sites and some of the ways states have looked to raise revenue, reduce expenses, and restructure operations. I will certainly keep you posted on any interesting developments.

South Street Seaport Museum Merging with City Museum of New York

The financially troubled South Street Seaport Museum is merging with the City Museum of New York. Like other seaport museums, the high maintenance costs and visitation statistics make sustainability a real challenge. Challenges facing Seaport Museums aren’t just limited to New York; here in Philadelphia the Cruiser Olympia was recently added as a real concern by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. That joins ongoing challenges at the Independence Seaport Museum. But that’s hasn’t deterred new ship museums, as the SS United States Conservancy launches another ship overhaul effort.

The South Street Seaport is Struggling

The South Street Seaport is an interesting story, as a pioneer historic preservation effort in the 1960′s that joined a festival marketplace project into the 1970′s. It was a pioneering urban redevelopment project with a variety of public and private partners. The story of shipping and trade for the development of major American east coast cities is an important one, but many of these seaport and waterfront historic sites are struggling for visitors, income, and relevance. As attendance has slipped so has investment, and deferred maintenance has grown substantially, greatly detracting from the visitor experience. On the Olympia, the problems are so bad that water actually drains out of the ship with the tidal action of the Delaware River.

As preservation efforts entered the mainstream throughout the 1980s and 1990s interest moved away from these waterfront destinations. And as shopping moved away from the “mall style” developments in the festival marketplace, and more towards traditional retail “Main Street” patterns, some of these festival marketplaces found themselves confronting vacancy, declining tenant quality, and lower rents. Moreover, some festival marketplaces like Pier 17 lacked the “authenticity” that is such an important part of today’s heritage tourism retailing.

Pier 17 was more like a mall, and doesn't provide the authentic retail experience for today's heritage tourist.

In Philadelphia, the Independence Seaport Museum finds itself outside of the visitor core, isolated by I-95. Many visitors probably never get to it because they don’t leave the historic core. The historic “boat basin” in Philadelphia (part of Ed Bacon’s Plan), was never really integrated into a “surrounding district” in the way the South Street Seaport is. The ships at the South Street Seaport function like architectural features in a high-quality stock of historic buildings, including Schermerhorn Row. It is very scenographic.

The merger of the City Museum of New York with the South Street Seaport is an excellent opportunity to bring new efficiencies, cost savings, and economies of scale to the Seaport. I won’t go into great length about the South Street Seaport Museum’s financial condition, as the New York times details some of the challenges in great detail here.

What surprises me is that the cross-subsidization between the real estate and the museum was never really enough to sustain the effort. Ideally, the rents from the adjacent district should have cross-subsidized the operation of the museum. It should have treated the museum like a public amentity, a park for example. That never seemed to materialize.

I was reassured from these quotes from public officials who seemed to treat the museum as an important public amenity:

New York City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin, who helped broker the agreement — with Robert K. Steel, deputy mayor for economic development, and Seth W. Pinsky, president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation — said a reinvigorated maritime museum downtown would benefit the city. “The East Side of Lower Manhattan really needs a major cultural anchor,” she added.

Re-energizing the Seaport Museum is part of the city’s larger economic development effort in the area. “The Seaport Museum has always been the cultural heart of the South Street Seaport district,” Mr. Pinsky said.

The investment of $2 million dollars from the New York City Economic Development Corporation validates this treatment of the museum as an important public resource. Maritime heritage in East Coast cities is important. It’s the reason that Philadelphia eventually grew to be the second largest English-speaking city outside of London. This maritime heritage distinguishes these cities from others, and offers a unique visitor experience. These cultural resources and historic districts are an essential part of each city’s competitive advantage and historical niche. I hope that the Seaport Museum can continue to be the important fixture that is within the South Street Seaport Historic District.

 

 

Upcoming Presentation @ the American Association of State and Local History Conference in Richmond, VA

I’ll be presenting on public history and historic sites at the upcoming American Association of State and Local History Conference in Richmond, Virginia. Here’s some details from the firm website Heritage Consulting Inc on the two panels.

The American Association or State and Local History annual conference takes place in Richmond VA on September 15 and Heritage Consulting will present on two panels. This is an annual gathering of history leaders from across the country and we are delighted to talk about our work as we have done for the last six years.  This year we are speaking on panels with two different clients on what we think are two very significant projects.

For the last six months we have worked closely with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency on a nationally significant, grant funded project called State Policy Responses for State Owned Historic Sites. At AASLH we will discuss our national research for the IHPA on a variety of state policy responses for states, with a focus on historic sites. Many are facing unprecedented budgetary pressures due to the economic recession and corresponding state budget cuts. Alexander Balloon and Donna Ann Harris will be joined by IHPA agency Director Jan Grimes and Karen Everingham, an IHPA historic site staff member.

States have a continuing stewardship obligation toward their important state-owned historic sites, but many are facing unprecedented economic and political pressure to reduce hours, close sites or shift management responsibility to other entities. Our panel will highlight several of the more innovative actions taken by state governments across the country as states search for new revenues, cost savings, and operations restructuring. We will discuss a series of case studies we developed and specific projects for two IHPA sites: research on expanded programming at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Dana-Thomas House in Springfield IL and feasibility study of a vacant restaurant facility at Lincoln’s New Salem in Petersburg IL. Please join us if you are coming to Richmond. This session kicks off the conference’s educational programming for Thursday September 5 from 8:30AM-9:45AM. Attached are the powerpoint handouts. AASLH State Policy Responses presentation 2011.

Another session that was accepted for the upcoming AASLH conference is about our award winning public history project for Delaware County PA. This session is called Beyond Colonial: Expanding Stories, Promoting Revitalization. See a recent blog post on that session, as well as all the handout materials here. Check them out!

This panel includes our client for this project, Jill Hall, Senior Preservation Planner with the Delaware County (PA) Planning Department, Rich Paul, Chairman of the Delaware County Historical Commission, along with Alexander Balloon a consultant at Heritage Consulting and Donna Ann Harris. This project won the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia Preservation Achievement Award for 2010. Our session begins at 1:30PM to 3:15PM, please stop by if you are in Richmond. Contact us if you would like to learn more about either one of these projects.

In Scotland, Troubled House Museum Looks to Community

Across the Atlantic Ocean a troubled house museum is looking to its community for future direction.

Hunter House Museum in Scotland

The South Lanarkshire Council voted to close the house after facing budget pressure to balance the council’s expenses. The council voted to mothball the building and prepare for a feasibility study for community re-use. The planning process is promising. One member stated:

“We are preparing a feasibility survey how we could get lottery funding and realistically what we can do.

“We have formed a group and will look at different options as there are a lot of legal issues because it is a historic property but it’s a great opportunity for the museum.”

Here’s some news on the developing study. Here’s a survey on their new vision for the house.

New Illinois Main Street Program Website

Check out the new Illinois Main Street Program website! It’s so wonderful that this program is back up and running. The program includes a new logo and graphic identity.

Folk Art Museum Update

Here’s an update on the folk art museum from the New York Times. After defaulting on its bonds, an unprecedented event for New York City’s Trust for Cultural Resources Bonding program, it’s moved back to Lincoln Center and proposed totally dissolving.

I had the pleasure of visiting the American Folk Art Museum and really enjoyed my visit. Folk Art is a very special and uniquely American component of our shared culture. From my previous post there are so many lessons to be learned about over-exuberant projections, beginning construction of a massive expansion without all of the funds required, and just flat out unfortunate timing.

In the article the former curator laments a lack of fundraising, a crucial part of museum operations. But the current director declined to comment on the museum’s woes along with the museum’s board members.

Some lessons to be learned included:

“We relied perhaps too heavily on a survey which said we would benefit from being next to MoMA — our attendance would escalate so much that our admissions would fund the costs of the building,” said Ms. Anderson, the curator who left last year for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “That didn’t happen.”

There’s also great speculation of what will happen to the museum’s former building. There seems to be some speculation that the MoMa may even tear it down in future expansion plans. What a terrible waste of resources if that were to happen.

Senator Coburn’s “Back in Black” Targets Preservation

In an era of fiscal restraint and austerity, the federal government’s involvement in Historic Preservation has come under attack by those wishing to reduce the federal deficit.  Today’s Washington is a place where everyone is “expected to take a hit” from budget cuts, and as preservation advocates we need to be prepared to identify what programs are perhaps not meeting their intended purpose, or not performing to the level we expect.  I am surprised to be one of the early “pro-preservation” responses to his proposal.

I wholeheartedly accept that we need to reduce our nation’s deficit, as do most preservation advocates.  I accept that there may be programs, which are redundant, ineffective, or not living up to their intended outcomes.  But, what I am not willing to accept is a categorical discontinuation of programs that are effective in the name of “deficit reduction.”

Tom Coburn's Back in Black Targets Preservation

Department of the Interior Programs to be Cut or Changed

This report rightly identifies the huge maintenance backlog at our nation’s historic sites and national parks.  With an estimated $8-10 billion dollars of deferred maintenance and critical preservation needs, the Parks Service is in a difficult position to welcome 285 million visitors annually.[1] Coburn’s plan, “Back in Black” asserts that other programs housed within the parks service are “diverting” resources from the core mission of protection and preservation.  The plan posits:

 NPS spends millions each year for private, non-profit, and local government historic preservation efforts.  Though each individual project has merit to its respective community, historic preservation funding for non-federal projects further erodes the agency’s ability to handle its core responsibilities.[2]

I like most preservation advocates completely disagree with Senator Coburn.  Many of our nation’s important historic resources are held outside of the National Parks Service.  Cahokia Mounds, a world heritage side is owned and operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.  Other important historic resources are held in private, non-profit, or government hands.  By allowing other partners to manage these sites, preservation is able to leverage more resources than if they were managed by the parks service alone.  If we moved all of the sites of national historic significance into the hands of the parks service it is possible that the number of parks units could triple or quadruple.  I doubt Senator Coburn would be excited with the prospect of bringing these “off-budget” historical resources “on budget” to the National Parks Service.  I do agree that the maintenance backlog at our nation’s parks and historic sites must be addressed for their preservation and protection.

Cahokia Mounds is a World Heritage Site Administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA)

Senator Coburn points out specific “earmarked” preservation projects like the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, a program providing $2.9 million in grants and resources to historic features along Route 66.  He identifies that it is redundant for the pre-existing Scenic Byway program for the Department of Transportation.  I like Senator Coburn am hesitant to encourage specific set-asides from potentially competitive grant programs for historic corridors and byways.  I am sure that if the Route 66 Corridor had competed it would have been able to win grant funds to support its preservation.[3] A competitive process ensures a level playing field for other historic corridors in American History including the National Road, Pacific Coast Highway, Columbia Road, etc.

Like President Obama’s budget, Coburn proposes ending the Preserve America Program and Save America’s Treasures, saving $300 million over ten years.  He notes that Save America’s Treasures was originally intended to be a “two-year project” for the millennium, and the companion Preserve America came two years after.[4]  This program has not been as successful as hoped, with standards and metrics of success proving to be highly variable from project to project.  But Donavan Rypkema did an analysis of the economic effects of the program and found that of the jobs generated by the program, it only cost the federal government $13,000 per job.  Compare that with the overall stimulus cost of more than $200,000 per job.

National Heritage Areas are also targeted in this report.  The program, started by Congress has grown to include 49 heritage areas.  Originally the program was intended to provide seed money with the ultimate goal of self-sufficiency for heritage areas.  Unfortunately, many areas have failed to achieve self-sufficiency, continuing to rely on federal funding.  The discontinuation of financial support for underperforming areas will result in $174 million in savings over the next 10 years.[5] My advice for National Heritage Areas is to seek diverse sources of revenue and maximize their fundraising efforts, as both Republicans and Democrats have identified the program as a target for cuts.

This report also targets Park Partnership Grants.  This program was an attempt to leverage sponsors for the parks service.  To end this program is counterproductive.  Sponsorship and fundraising can bring many needed resources to National Parks.  If the program is ineffective at securing sponsors and donors then the approach should be reworked.  A proposed cut would save $30 million, but at what cost to sponsors not recruited?[6]  Other organizations and agencies are acquiring sponsors.  I just completed a visit to the new Capitol Visitor Center, and there were many private sponsors of this important project.  Clearly, some organizations are reaching these sponsors and the Parks Service should be no exception.

Ending Preservation Tax Credits

Under the heading “End Special Interest Corporate Tax Breaks” Senator Coburn proposes ending the Preservation Tax Credit and Credit for the Rehabilitation of Non-Historic Structures.  Senator Coburn views these projects as “wasteful” spending:

Millions of dollars in tax benefits were recently used to fund the $27 million development of a beer garden and microbrewery at a former Coca-Cola syrup plant in St. Louis. This included $14.4 million of financing for the project provided through a HUD-insured mortgage.  The project also benefited from $1.25 million in state brownfields credits, $2.8 million in tax-increment financing, and a $5.3 million federal historic preservation tax credit.  The brewery, a beer tasting room and a beer garden were developed in a 12,000 square feet building.  In addition to the brewery there are 77 apartment units along with 16,000 square feet of commercial space available.

The $18-$20 million conversion of Milwaukee‘s historic Loyalty Building into a Hilton Garden Inn is also expected to be financed in part with federal historic preservation tax credits.  The 6-story building was purchased for $1.7 million in March – an amount less than half of the tax credit the developer would receive if the final project cost is $20 million.

A similar $40 million project is expected to utilize these tax credits in Buffalo to renovate the Lafayette Hotel, after it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in August.  The redevelopment project will see the upper floors converted into 115 one and two-bedroom apartments and a 34-room boutique hotel will occupy the second floor.  Prior to the renovation, the building was home to a number of social services organizations that used the rooms for ―short-term emergency housing clients.[7]

This would be a colossal and catastrophic mistake.  Let’s take each of these points one by one.  I am unclear from this section what Senator Coburn thinks about how historic preservation should be used.  It seems that in order to be “historic preservation” a building must be used as a museum.  This approach to pure preservation fell by the wayside in the 1970’s and misses the tremendous impact of preservation in downtowns, special districts, and neighborhoods across America.

In St. Louis, a microbrewery and apartments is a great use for a historic syrup factory, and the photos of the project are outstanding.  A review of the market-rate apartments did not reveal a “luxury” apartment building.  The success of the Temtor mixed-use lofts in St. Louis should be celebrated, not condemned.  In a weak-market city like St. Louis these projects require a great degree of public assistance, it’s basic real estate economics.  When I reviewed how complex the capital source of funds was, the developer here deserves a medal for making the economics of this project work.

The Temtor Lofts Project in St. Louis is an Excellent Adaptive Re-Use Project (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

The Loyalty Building in Milwaukee illustrates again a lack of understanding of the economics of historic real estate development.  The report argues that the acquisition price of the building is too low relative to the tax credit to be received.  This also is incredibly misleading, as the historic tax credit program does not grant any credits on the price of acquiring a building.  It is an investment tax credit, providing a tax credit for the amount of qualified rehabilitation expenses to be invested into the historic building.  If this developer is investing $20 million into the project the amount of jobs and economic activity generated will be significant.  I have talked about how preservation means jobs in many previous posts.  This is something again to be commended, and I am sure construction workers in Milwaukee, another weak-market city, are excited about this prospect.  Also as a preservation advocate myself, it’s a pretty amazing historic building in Downtown Milwaukee.

Photo of the Loyalty Building (University of Wisconsin)

The Lafayette Hotel project seems to espouse that replacing temporary housing for a social service agency with a hotel is a bad use for a building.  What the report fails to mention is that an out-of-town owner who had invested little in the structure, raising a number of concerns from the Planning Board, owned the hotel.[8] The newspaper report does not have positive things to say about this absentee landlord.  The new purchaser is from Buffalo and planning to invest $40 million, removing asbestos, making critical upgrades, and generating jobs in Downtown Buffalo including new retail tenants that are locally owned.

Hotel Lafayette (Buffalo News)

The federal rehabilitation tax credit is an incredible success and an invaluable resource to our nation’s historic buildings.  It has almost universal praise from politicians, businesses, residents, developers, and community leaders.  Some of its ultimate popularity stems from its “bricks and mortar.” Politicians love grand openings, and they love bricks and mortar projects, a physical manifestation of revitalization and success.  The before and after photos of these buildings, grand openings, and celebrations give this program a political strength that most other programs fail to achieve.

Politicians & Community Leaders Love Ribbon Cuttings (Aiken Standard)

The report laments that the rehabilitation tax credit program will “give away” $500 million in federal funds with $400 million for corporations in 2011 and $600 million in 2012.  The program is  not “giving away” anything, as it is a 20% tax credit that leverages investment at a rate of 4 to 1.  Additionally it requires that the rehabilitation be done in accordance with the Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation, ensuring a historically sensitive rehabilitation.  Of course the report conveniently leaves out the “but-for” test; but for this tax credit of $500 million, $2 billion of economic activity and investment in historic buildings would not happen.  These purchases, jobs, and investments create a ripple effect throughout our economy.  In a period of limited economic activity this is a “shot in the arm” for America’s lethargic construction industry.  Additionally, many developers form as corporations to limit their liability, a practice common with business activity.  These are not “corporate giveaways.”

The report claims that the program is “duplicative” with other agencies.  It says:

These tax credits are highly duplicative of numerous other federal grant programs allowing federal funds to be used for promotion of historic preservation, such as the Community Development Block Grant, the National Community Development Initiative, and USDA‘s Rural Development program.[9]

Again, this is misleading.  Community Development Block Grants, the National Community Development Initiative, and the USA Rural Development Program may include limited preservation projects, but that is not their sole purpose.  This tax credit program is a preservation-only program with a preservation-only focus on real estate development.

The last point the report states is perhaps the most misleading.  It claims that the federal program duplicates state tax credits for historic preservation:

 Many states have a similar state tax credit in place, including:

• Minnesota, which has a 20 percent tax credit in addition to the federal tax credit;
• Wisconsin, which has a 5 percent tax credit in addition to the federal tax credit;
• Rhode Island had one that has been at least temporarily discontinued because of fraud and budget concerns;
• Michigan had one that was recently eliminated.[10]

These state programs were added after the federal program, and are a complement to, and not a substitute for the federal program.  These state programs have boosted federal efforts, and leveraged even more dollars, and have not “replaced” the federal program.  See my analysis of Ohio.

Ending the New Markets Tax Credit Program, a Friend of Historic Preservation

“Back in Black” proposes the discontinuation of the federal New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program, a program managed by the Treasury department to provide tax credits for catalytic community development projects.  The NMTC program is not expressly a preservation program, but many preservation projects incorporate the use of these credits in catalytic projects.  I have studied the regulations for this program and they are incredibly complex.  The amount of lawyers, legal structures, and administration involved with the NMTC program is prohibitive for most projects.  The report identified:

These credits have been used to subsidize expensive construction projects like the $116 million renovation of the landmark Blackstone Hotel in downtown Chicago, a Marriott hotel. This project‘s main beneficiary was Prudential Financial Inc., the second-largest U.S. life insurer, which received $15.6 million in New Market Tax Credits.[11]

This is incredibly misleading.  These large financial institutions are project investors, purchasing these tax credits to provide capital to developers of these projects.  Prudential Financial was not the project beneficiary.  This argument would be the equivalent of saying we should not provide tax benefits for 410k retirement plans because the money just goes to MetLife, Prudential, or other big Investment Funds.  Moreover, NMTC credits are allocated on a competitive basis.  The community development institution that thought this was a worthwhile and important project for the community allocated these credits.

Making the Case for Preservation

Preservation advocates cannot allow this short-sighted misinformation to go unaddressed.  Senator Coburn’s plan would do irreparable harm to Preservation in America.  As part of deficit reduction, we should be prepared to identify programs that are not meeting core needs, but we absolutely have to lobby for programs that have been invaluable to preservation, including the Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program.  Most legislators are not preservation experts and may not understand the economic impacts, community development impacts, and policy impacts of their actions.  Advocacy is a crucial part of the education process.

---

[1] Back in Black, “Department of the Interior” p. 9

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid, p. 10

[6] Ibid, p. 11

[7] Back in Black “Reforming Tax Expenditures & Ending Special Interest Giveaways”, p. 10

[8] http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article20023.ece

[9] Ibid, p. 11

[10] Ibid

[11] Back in Black “Reforming Tax Expenditures & Ending Special Interest Giveaways” p. 5

Learning from Whitesbog

Located on nearly 3,000 acres in the heart of the New Jersey Pinelands, a place described as by early visitors as desolate, barren, and unforgiving is Historic Whitesbog Village.  Owned by the state of New Jersey and administered by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as part of the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. Its sandy acidic soil and scrubby environment made it unattractive to early farmers, but out of the Pine Barrens grew a major center of commercial agriculture.

Originally a family owned, cranberry farm founded in 1857, Whitesbog Village became world famous for its contributions to agriculture.  In the early 1900’s Elizabeth White and her father sought to cultivate the wild blueberry for commercial production.  She succeeded, and the farm at Whitesbog grew into a central production center for blueberries and cranberries complete with large-scale production facilities, worker’s cottages, company store, school house, and worker amenities.

Headline of the Philadelphia Evening Ledger March 7, 1917

Whitesbog continued on throughout the 20th century, but as new processes and inventions were developed to harvest the berries, less and less workers were needed, and by the 1960′s the village’s role had faded and the residents numbered only a few.

In 1981, the Whitesbog Preservation Trust a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation was founded, and charged with preserving the village, its buildings, landscapes and its rich cultural history.  The rich confluence of environmental features, history, agricultural operation, and folklife in the Pinelands makes Whitesbog a special historic site with unique challenges and opportunities.

Worker's Cottages Now Preserved at Whitesbog

In addition to preservation activities, Whitesbog offers very active
interpretation to a variety of visitors and interests.  These include:

• Whitesbog Village Tours
• Moonlight Walks
• Tundra Swan Tours (Weekends in December, February, & March)
• Cranberry Industry Tours (Weekends in October)
• Suningive Garden Tours & Nature Walks
• Quarterly Lecture Series
• Annual Blueberry Festival  (Last Saturday in June.  Voted one of the
• best old-fashioned festivals in New Jersey)
• Pinelands Discovery Festival (A celebration of the Pine Barrens, First
• Sunday in October)
• Whitesbog Winter Celebration
• General Store Programming

Heritage Consulting is conducting an Audience Research Study to help Whitesbog improve the  effectiveness of its programs and services. This is a multi-faceted project that includes large-scale survey, evaluation and the development of an ongoing evaluation program at Whitesbog that can be continued in the future.  We will be sure to post updates of this exciting upcoming project.  Learn more here http://www.whitesbog.org/about/about.htm