MIDDLETOWN: GEORGE BOWDEN DIES

George Bowden, right, with Historic Preservation Commission members Charles Nickerson and Michaela Ferrigine in 2016. Below, Bowden spearheaded the borough’s centennial celebration and parade in 2009.(Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

George Bowden, once dubbed “the Energizer bunny” of historic preservation in Red Bank, died at home in Middletown Sunday. He was 92 years old.

Galvanized into action in 2001, after the borough allowed the demolition of an old house on West Front Street, Bowden became a champion for old and neglected structures in town.

Not least of those was the T. Thomas Fortune House, which was resurrected from near-oblivion earlier this year, more than a decade after Bowden and others launched a campaign to save it.

December 11, 2019 - 9:45 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: HPC AIMS TO SAVE DOOMED HOUSE

The Victorian structure, now said to have been built before 1868, is slated for demolition. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj Five months after Red Bank’s planning board approved the demolition of a Victorian house owned by Riverview Medical Center, the borough Historic Preservation Commission is hoping to save it.

Relying on newly assembled information showing the house at 95 East Front Street was older than previously believed — and may have belonged to descendants of a prominent industrialist — the HPC plans to ask the hospital to turn it into a “medical bed & breakfast.”

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July 18, 2019 - 8:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY NAMED

Government consultant Ken DeRoberts will manage the agency. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj The Red Bank council approved two of its own members and five other residents to constitute a new borough redevelopment agency Wednesday night.

April 25, 2019 - 10:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: BUILDING DESIGN TO BE REVISED

Architect Brian Tracy shows the Historic Preservation Commission a revised proposal for a medical office building Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj A modernist office building topped by what looked like an overturned laundry basket won’t be built in Red Bank’s Washington Street Historic District as proposed, an architect said Wednesday night.

But neither, it appears, will his replacement design, which Historic Preservation Commission members still found unacceptable.

December 20, 2018 - 10:20 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: CORNER PROJECT ‘TOO BIG’

The two buildings on the northeast corner of West Front Street and Maple Avenue would be replaced under Mark Forman’s plan. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank’s planning board asked the developer of proposed commercial and residential building at a key corner downtown to make it smaller Wednesday night.

June 5, 2018 - 7:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: LUXURY UNITS, OFFICE PLANNED

The building at the corner of West Front Street and Maple Avenue, and the one next door would be razed for redevelopment. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

A developer has plans to transform a high-profile corner on the edge of downtown Red Bank into ground-floor offices topped by luxury housing, redbankgreen has learned.

Dubbed ‘Rivermark,’ the project would replace two vacant and crumbling buildings that builder Mark Forman said make for a “really terrible” gateway into the the business district.

May 3, 2018 - 12:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: PRESERVATIONISTS CONCERNED

A website posting by the prospective buyer of two Red Bank buildings listed on an inventory of historic properties hints at big changes to come. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank preservationists expressed concern in recent days over the pending sale of two downtown buildings they believe have historic significance.

November 29, 2017 - 7:15 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: FORTUNE HOUSE RESCUE PLAN OK’D

Developer Roger Mumford with an architect’s rendering of the T. Thomas Fortune house as it would appear after restoration. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

A decade-long effort to save an endangered artifact of African-American history cleared a major milestone Thursday night when the Red Bank zoning board approved a developer’s plan to rebuild the T. Thomas Fortune house and create 31 apartments on its one-acre property.

Borough-based homebuilder Roger Mumford, who vowed to restore and donate the house for use as a cultural center before he would seek certificates of occupancy for the apartments, was hailed as the last-chance savior of a vital relic of the civil rights movement that its current owners want to raze. Residents told the board before its vote that Mumford deserved the tradeoff of more than a dozen variances, most of them arising from the apartment plan.

“If a development project has ever given back to the community, it’s this one,” said Kalman Pipo, a member of the borough’s Historic Preservation Commission. “If this project doesn’t go through, we are going to lose this house” to the wrecking ball, he said.

July 22, 2016 - 1:08 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: PRESERVATION EFFORTS LAUDED

The home of Paul and Nancy Cagno, at the corner of Wallace and Mount streets, above, and the circa 1903 mansion that’s now the office of Smallwood Wealth Management, at 199 Broad Street, below, were among the four structures cited. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

199 broad 091515 Three Broad Street buildings and a home in the historic district won kudos from the Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission at a ceremony Tuesday night.

Kicking off what members hope to become an annual series, the commission honored property owners in four categories for “adding to the value of Red Bank by adding to the character” of the town, in the words of Chairwoman Michaela Ferrigine.

September 16, 2015 - 12:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: FOCUS ON FOYER WINDOWS

The foyer of the former If the Shoe Fits store is the last remaining example of Art Deco design downtown, say preservationists. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

[UPDATE: The zoning board meeting on the 18 Broad Street proposal was cancelled. The application was rescheduled for June 18.]

A proposal to turn a former downtown Red Bank shoe store into a restaurant and replace its distinctive curved-glass entryway is slated for review at Thursday night’s zoning board meeting.

Preservationists have raised concerns about the plan for 18 Broad Street, which is located in the historic district, because, they say, it would eliminate the last remaining example of Art Deco design in the commercial district.

May 21, 2015 - 7:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: PHARMACY BUILDING PANNED

The proposed three-story structure, shown above in an architect’s rendering, would be built on a vacant lot between a two-story apartment building and a restaurant on Shrewsbury Avenue, below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

A plan for a small, independently owned pharmacy that doesn’t sell junk food got a warm welcome from the Red Bank Planning Board Monday night.

But the building it would come packaged in, and its impact on area parking, got a chillier reception.

March 17, 2015 - 7:45 am | Comments ()

NJT PLANS REPAIRS, NEW LOOK FOR STATION

NJTransit’s plan includes removal of gingerbread trimming, which historians say is inauthentic. (Click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

It looks as though the Red Bank train station will finally get those long-awaited repairs Historic Preservation Commission members have been clamoring for, and then some.

Commission members, along with Mayor Pasquale Menna, met with New Jersey Transit officials Thursday to go over a multiphased plan that will overhaul the deteriorating Victorian-style station and restore it to its former glory.

December 11, 2009 - 6:45 am | Comments ()

PRESERVATION GROUP GETS SPOTLIGHT

Historic Preservation Commission members Ed Zipprich, Michaela Ferrigine and George Bowden outside a old house on Washington Street. (Click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

It took a couple of years of legwork and hustle, but the efforts of the Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission paid off in June when the Borough Council passed an ordinance designating the Washington Street District as the borough’s first residential historic zone.

What they’ll receive on behalf of the borough tonight is like, well, the slate roof on a gingerbread Victorian.

Commission chairman George Bowden, Councilman Ed Zipprich and others are scheduled to appear at the Monmouth County Planning Board‘s annual awards ceremony at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel tonight.

They’ll be there to collect a Planning Merit Award, an honor given to towns that the board feels have made significant and positive impacts to their respective communities, said Laura Kirby, assistant planner for the county.

September 16, 2009 - 1:21 pm | Comments ()

PRESERVATIONISTS DEMAND STATION FIXES

Peeling paint and rotting wood at the Red Bank train station have preservationists worried about “demolition by neglect.” (Click to enlarge)

Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission has gone on the offensive against New Jersey Transit, owner of the borough train station, for what it calls apparently “intentional” lack of maintenance.

The agency’s failure to replace a failing asphalt shingle roof or do basic painting on the circa 1875 structure constitutes “demolition by neglect,” leaving the building in “such a deteriorated state that Transit will insist they have no other option other than to demolish the structure,” the commission says in a letter presented to the borough council Monday night.

August 12, 2009 - 7:04 am | Comments ()

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Search Results for: Michaela Ferrigine

MIDDLETOWN: GEORGE BOWDEN DIES

RED BANK: HPC AIMS TO SAVE DOOMED HOUSE

RED BANK: REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY NAMED

RED BANK: BUILDING DESIGN TO BE REVISED

RED BANK: CORNER PROJECT ‘TOO BIG’

RED BANK: LUXURY UNITS, OFFICE PLANNED

RED BANK: PRESERVATIONISTS CONCERNED

RED BANK: FORTUNE HOUSE RESCUE PLAN OK’D

RED BANK: PRESERVATION EFFORTS LAUDED

RED BANK: FOCUS ON FOYER WINDOWS

RED BANK: PHARMACY BUILDING PANNED

NJT PLANS REPAIRS, NEW LOOK FOR STATION

PRESERVATION GROUP GETS SPOTLIGHT

PRESERVATIONISTS DEMAND STATION FIXES