By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
SOMERS POINT — “We want to turn a frog into a prince,” Donna Mohr said.
The head of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission was referring to Somers Mansion, the oldest home in Atlantic County that was built by Richard Somers, the city’s founder.
The building has overlooked Great Egg Harbor Bay for 300 years but was largely neglected and ignored, despite commanding such a magnificent view and place in local history.
The property was in the family’s hands through 1937. Several years later, coinciding with a project by the Works Progress Administration that returned it to its original Colonial style, the state took ownership.
Under the oversight of the State Park Service, its deterioration — both physical and in terms of interest — continued unabated.
That is until three years ago, when the nonprofit Patriots for the Somers Mansion formed and began raising money and interest and making repairs to the property.
The group took it one step further and became an Officially Recognized Friend of the Organization, a legal step that allows it more access to the property and to use grant funds.
The momentum has continued with help from the city, which recently approved applying to the New Jersey Historic Trust for funding to design improvements to the site, including turning the annex into a meeting room with an ADA-compliant bathroom and replacing the historic captain’s walk.
Inside the building, there are two small rooms that are in the annex that was added to the back where the conservator spent time — a sitting room and a bedroom. The group plans to remove the wall between the rooms to create an educational center.
“We could do a lot more there that would be cultural and educational,” Mohr said.
Given her background as a teacher and curriculum instructor with the Somers Point School District for 40 years, Mohr and the group hope to get local history back into the curriculum.
The schools used to teach the history of Master Commandant Richard Somers, who was killed during the Barbary Wars, and his connection to Stephen Decatur and the formation of the U.S. Navy.
An education center would provide space for a living history presentation in the historic building.
The group also wants to create videos explaining the history of the home and its contents, with notes on different artifacts, to make it more interesting to visit.
“We will be able to put something together that makes you want to go there,” said Greg Sykora, vice chairman of the Patriots, adding that he expects it to cost about $250,000 to do everything the group wants to do.
Mohr said when those kinds of improvements are completed, the group will want someone operating the site more than the limited hours the state was manning it. She said the group plans to write a presentation and train volunteers to talk about the mansion’s history when visitors arrive. Sykora suggested working with Shore Medical Center and its network of volunteers to find the right person.
Mohr said the group is really interested in getting the captain’s walk rebuilt because tourists were once able to walk out on it and get an amazing view of the bay, wetlands and barrier island of Ocean City in the distance.
“The trolley tours would stop there and we would be able to walk out on that second-floor balcony,” Mohr said. “We certainly want to reconstruct that.”
The beams that can be seen extending from the building that once supported the captain’s walk run straight through and out the other side and will have to be replaced according to historic guidelines, she said.
Mohr said she hopes the improvements generate more interest in the city’s history and lead to a domino effect.
“You go through little dribs and drabs every once in a while but all of a sudden you’ll get a big spurt,” she said. “If two or three or four things are all happening at the same time, there is a momentum that’s built that’s contagious.”
Jim Rutala, the city’s planner and grant coordinator, agrees with Mohr that improvements at Somers Mansion could lead to greater things for the city.
“It’s a neat building and it’s been ignored for many years and now there is a real focus on it and it can be something much bigger than the Somers Mansion,” Rutala said. “The county has the historic society right there as well, so it’s developing into a little museums row.”
He said every little step can ultimately lead to something better.
“It takes time,” Rutala said, noting it took decades for Cape May to get to the point where it’s at now. “They’ve always kind of paid attention to their history, which makes it an interesting place.”
He said fixing up the mansion “demonstrates credibility” and helps efforts to get more grants in the future, noting the city will be going back to the New Jersey Historic Trust for construction dollars.
“If the design is done with their grant money and it’s something that they are aware of and that they support, the logical next step is to fund the construction,” he said. “In the grant world, the people that are giving out the money want to see things happen. Doing design is fine but they would like to see the finished product.”
Mohr said the finished product could be a viable cultural resource for heritage tourism.
“It could be the key to heritage tourism in Somers Point, and because now the historic district includes the mansion and goes beyond City Hall and down to the bay, it would be the initial point of the district,” she said.