Conversations just starting on senior housing at site that houses graves
NORTHFIELD — Joan Pullan Brennan does not want to see anything built on the potter’s field across from her home on Dolphin Avenue and intends to push back against any plan to do so, but the county says it has no intention of allowing construction atop graves.
A single mention about an upcoming meeting among members of City Council, Atlantic County and the Diocesan Housing Services Corp. of the Diocese of Camden to discuss the potential for senior housing on county property was enough to spark her outrage and that of others in the area.
“We are really, really concerned,” Brennan said.
Mayor Erland Chau said during the City Council meeting April 19 that he received a letter from Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson inviting city representatives to a meeting to discuss the possibility of a senior housing complex on county property, part of which served as a burial ground originally known as the Atlantic County Almshouse Cemetery and the Bakersville Cemetery. It was used for people who could not afford a burial in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many were patients at the neighboring asylum, which has since become county buildings.
“It is really not right that they are trying to use this property for something that is not intended to be built upon,” she said of what is now known as the Atlantic County Burial Ground, between the county-owned Stillwater building fronting Shore Road and Meadowview nursing home property.
Brennan is the daughter of Joyce Pullan, a longtime area historian and member of the Northfield Cultural Committee who passed away in 2020. Pullan, Roy Clark and Eleanor Webb of the Cultural Committee compiled a book printed in 2018 with the names of 547 people buried in the field, but the true number is reportedly more than five times that.
Brennan said the only recorded burials were those who lived in the Almshouse but that people “were bringing bodies from all over the county because it was the only burial ground we had.”
She said as residents of the Almshouse died, staff members would just take them out to the back yard and bury them and that there is no way of knowing without extensive radar scanning where the bodies are located.
Brennan said she attended the Atlantic County Board of Commissioners meeting April 19, when she raised the issue of the burial ground.
“They said they’re going to put it way back in the field. I said, ‘We don’t know where these people are buried. How would that make a difference?’” Brennan said. “Let’s be honest, we have no idea.”
Brennan said her mother first got the idea to compile a list of names of those buried in the graveyard when the county was constructing a parking lot in 2013.
“I’m going to see if I can make this some sort of historical site, to stop them from trying to do anything else,” Brennan said.
She said Pullan, 92 when she died, was considered the county historian for years.
“She knew everything about everything. I said the minute that she passed away they would start doing something and it took less than two years,” Brennan said.
She said she feels “like it’s part of my responsibility as a Pullan” to protect the graves of past residents.
“This is where we were raised. My father owned a business for a long time,” Brennan said. “This town means so much to all of us, we could have family members that are buried there for all we know.”
County Administrator Jerry DelRosso said an inquiry was made regarding senior citizen housing on part of the county property, which stretches from the bay to across Shore Road and Route 9.
“We showed them the best place to build it and they wanted it in another location. We said we won’t do anything without talking to Northfield, have a conversation with the city to see if they will even allow us to do it,” DelRosso said.
He said a delegation from Northfield — which consists of City Council President Tom Polistina, Councilwoman Carolyn Bucci and Councilman Dave Notaro — was to meet with representatives of the county and Diocesan Housing Services Corp. of the Diocese of Camden on April 26.
DelRosso said it is believed that the cemetery is outlined by trees on the property and close to Dolphin Avenue.
He noted the book put together by Pullan, Clark and Webb contains the names of 547 people but said there are about 2,700 bodies buried on the property.
He said the issue arose in 2013 when the county was building the transportation lot on the property.
“They checked everything before building and did not find anything,” DelRosso said. “The bottom line is, we told them in no way are we building near the cemetery. If that happened to be the best place, they would do a radar sweep.”
He said the Diocesan Housing Services Corp. is looking at no more than 70 units, adding that the county planning department would ensure any traffic impact would be minimal.
The Diocesan Housing Services Corp. operates about 800 affordable housing units, mostly for seniors.
City Council President Tom Polistina said it is the very first step in a long process and that if anything were built the city would take steps to lessen the effect on the neighborhood.
“I understand it’s on a busy street and I don’t want anything that’s going to be a detriment,” he said. “We will take information as we get it.”
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
