Community Corner
County Recieves History Award
Morris County Preservation Trust is honored by state group
The Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund program was honored by Preservation New Jersey at its annual preservation celebration on Friday, March 2 at the Mansion at Bretton Woods in Morris Plains.
Freeholders Gene Feyl and Ann Grassi and Ray Chang, director of the Morris County Preservation Trust, accepted the award on behalf of the board from Lawrence E. Plevy, event chair and vice present of the organization’s board of directors.
The county received the Sarah P. Fiske Legacy and Leadership Award, for its Historic Preservation Trust Fund Program. According to the Preservation NJ program brochure, the county was honored “for long-term leadership, education and commitment to the preservation of Morris County’s historic treasures for the people of New Jersey. Morris County’s investment in its past, through its Historic Preservation Trust Fund, consistently delivers historic preservation success stories that celebrate heritage wile creating jobs and leveraging private investment and tourism dollars. The program is a model of the potential of historic preservation when backed by a supportive, enthusiastic leadership and public.”
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Plevy said the annual gala is the most positive event the organization holds each year. “We’re only here because someone has preservation in their blood.”
In 2002, the freeholder board voted to include historic preservation in the county’s open space budget. Since then, it has awarded 200 grants for a total of $15.5 million to more than 70 sites in 32 of the county’s 39 municipalities.
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A slide show of some of these sites preceded the award. They included the Ford Faesch House in Rockaway Township, Craftsman Farms in Parsippany and the former Palace Theatre, now the Growing Stage in Netcong.
The Mansion at Bretton Woods is another Morris County historic site.
It was built in 1894 by financier Oscar Coles Ferris and his wife, Louise. It is based on the design of the Ford Mansion in Morristown because Louise was a granddaughter of Jacob Ford.
Ferris and Ford jointly helped to create the First Bank of Morris County and sponsored many other business ventures at the turn of the 20th Century.
The Mansion was named in honor of the international monetary conference in New Hampshire in 1944 that established the gold standard.
