By Michelle Paulus, Eric Feingold, Jillian Reese, Emily
Hopkins, and Britney Schline
Oysters, a timber framed elephant, and friendly new faces!
We didn’t know what to expect coming to our inaugural Vernacular Architecture Forum
meeting, but we certainly couldn’t have predicted that it would include all of
these. Who knew Down Jersey had so much to offer?
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| Ambassador Award winners explore Down Jersey |
This year the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum
Studies, a partnership between the New York State Historical Association and
SUNY Oneonta, was the recipient of an Ambassadors Award from the VAF, which
allowed five current second-year students to travel to the annual meeting
outside of Atlantic City from May 7-10.
SUNY Oneonta provided additional funding to facilitate the trip through
a generous Course Enhancement Grant to Dr. Cynthia Falk for her class American
Material Culture II.
Our experience began at Wednesday’s opening reception at Stockton
College where we were warmly welcomed by the College’s officials, keynote speaker
Dr. Bernard Herman, and many a VAF veteran. After enjoying appetizers and
cocktails we were beginning to feel part of the VAF family.
Though Thursday started early it was well worth waking at
the break of dawn. After a scenic bus ride we took the chance to stretch our
legs and explore the quaint historic village of Greenwich. We discovered the
Quaker Meeting House and broke its gender boundaries, chatted with some locals
at the historical society and prehistoric museum, and took in the multiple
eighteenth-century houses. After Greenwich it was on to Mauricetown where we
were greeted with some amazing chicken salad and warm hospitality. After lunch,
local homeowners kindly allowed us to voyeur through their homes and climb into
their cupolas to enjoy panoramic views. As the sun came out, we walked the
dykes along the Burcham Farm and enjoyed more cupola views at the East Point
Lighthouse, taking in the beauty of the Delaware Bay. The evening concluded
with three courses of oysters and live music at the Bayshore Discovery Center
in Bivalve by the water.
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| Copperstown Students visit Lucy the Margate Elephant |
We slept in a whole half an hour later on Friday and started
out despite the fog. By far a favorite stop of ours, we climbed inside Lucy the
Elephant and walked along the beach just outside Atlantic City. After meeting
Lucy we moved onto the beautiful Woodbine Synagogue and then to the unique
South Seaville Camp Meeting. We explored the tiny and brightly painted
Victorian cottages of the late nineteenth-century Methodist camp community and
met residents still carrying on the summer tradition. In the afternoon we made
our way into the twentieth century at the Rufwud Cottage before moving onto Historic
Cold Spring Village where we enjoyed cocktails while exploring its collection
of historic structures before dinner in the Grange Hall.
Saturday’s paper sessions challenged us to think in new ways
about historic preservation and the study of architecture. We pondered
monuments and Confederate memory, the segregation of New Jersey schools, and
lost neighborhoods of Montreal. All tied together a common theme of using
historic preservation to highlight and construct the stories of historically
underrepresented groups.
