By BILL BARLOW /Special to the Sentinel
TUCKAHOE — Bob Holden and other members of the Historical Preservation Society of Upper Township still believe there will be a museum in Upper Township.
But it will not be in the former city hall on Mount Pleasant Avenue as had long been hoped.
The cost of the needed renovations and upgrades are far too high, township officials told Holden. The death knell for the proposal came when the Cape May County Open Space Fund declined to pay for any portion of the work.
Both Holden, a longtime advocate for the proposal, and Upper Township Mayor Rich Palombo said the cost to get the building into shape to allow its use for public access would well exceed $1 million.
“We can’t come up with that money, either,” Holden said he told Palombo in a 2020 conversation.
Members of the society are discouraged, he said, but have not given up on the idea of a historical museum for the township.
“I’ve always said, ‘if you build it, they will come.’ It’s like the Field of Dreams,” Holden said.
The location of a future building remains uncertain, however.
“We’re looking at options. A new building may be more reasonable,” Palombo said in a separate phone interview. “It depends on where it’s going to be located.”
According to Palombo, the former town hall would require extensive work to meet current standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other requirements.
In 2018, the township spent about $38,000 on a contract to remove asbestos from the building, a step that needed to be taken no matter what the building’s future use may be, or even if it is ultimately demolished.
Built in 1908, its first use was as the Upper Township High School. The names of generations of local high school students remain visible, scratched into the red bricks of the building’s façade. The two-story building served as a school until a sending district was approved with Ocean City upon the completion of Ocean City High School in 1924, according to a local history Holden prepared.
That sending district arrangement remains in place.
The building served as Township Hall from the 1950s until the completion of the municipal building at 2100 Tuckahoe Road in 1994. It saw a few uses since then, including a stint as a railroad museum, but has been empty for years on a quiet side road near the Upper Township Dog Park.
There have been a few informal discussions about the building, and on potential sites for a new building for a museum, Palombo said, but in 2020, the matter was not a priority. COVID-19 and the local response was a far more pressing issue, and the pandemic also made every task take longer, meaning addressing other issues was also delayed. The reassignment and rescheduling of staff — both to allow for required distancing and to cover shifts when someone tested positive — was a new and time-consuming matter, he said.
“COVID took priority,” Palombo said.
Settling the zoning for the former BL England electricity-generating station was also a major issue for 2021, he added, including the consideration of declaring the sprawling site an area in need of redevelopment.
The township has supported historic preservation, Palombo said, citing the preserved Gandy House, the train station in Tuckahoe and the historic Friendship School, a one-room schoolhouse on Route 9. But he said there would likely be little appetite on Township Committee to approve any plan that would put a large burden on taxpayers.
“It’s time to start looking at it as we start looking at budgets,” Palombo said. “It’s something that has to be grant-driven.”
Holden said the historical society has always had a good relationship with the township, working together on the operation of other preserved historic buildings.
The organization has already spent $10,000 on architectural plans for the layout of a museum. He said the township has indicated a new building could be built to the same dimensions so that the design could still be used.
He would like the township to consider a bond to cover the cost of constructing a new building. The society already has a great deal of material and artifacts on hand, he said, and he’s eager to find a showcase. For instance, someone donated the daybook ledgers from a store in downtown Tuckahoe from decades ago, listing customers and sales, along with prices. In one, a loaf of bread is a nickel.
“The books are an absolute joy,” he said.
When a museum is constructed, Holden said, more people are likely to come forward with donations.
“I remain optimistic,” Holden said. “I’m just really hopeful that once this COVID thing works out that we can meet with the mayor.”
As for the former Township Hall, reports are that the building itself remains in good shape, with a solid roof, and is now asbestos-free. Even if it cannot be used as a public space, Palombo said it may be of use for storage or additional offices for township employees.
Any use would cost money, because the interior appears to be essentially gutted. There are no plans to demolish the building. But Palombo wants to put it to some use.
“We’re certainly not going to keep a building in place just for the sake of keeping it there,” he said.
