Why Support this House?
This house will serve a public benefit as a Welcome Center. Visitors will get a taste of Salem history via exhibits and literature. It will augment the presence of the Salem County Historic Society Library and Museum on Market Street, serving as a unique place where underrepresented histories such as Salem’s rich African American story can be told. To encourage tourism is to promote economic benefits.
This house will serve as a preservation trades training ground. Students will gain practical experience helping to restore this house under the newly forming traditional building arts training program that will be located in the restored 1926 J. C. Penney Building on East Broadway. Emphasizing the uplift of local, underserved youth, the program will provide a workforce with marketable skills that our historic buildings need.
This house is architecturally significant. This Federal-style house contributes to the character and integrity of the Broadway Historic District, which is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. Broadway Historic District is a prime cultural asset and visitor attraction in Salem. Sarah’s house stands near the western terminus of the district, where such an improvement can make a large impact on the public perception of the city and its welcome.
This house has a high degree of architectural integrity. Over its 192-year life, original doors, windows, shutters, roof dormer window, staircase, wood trim, fireplaces, flooring, and plaster walls largely survive to express its architectural character. Alterations over time have not been that extensive, so the house is an ideal candidate for a historic rehabilitation. It possesses authenticity, so would make a fine example to be open to the public.
This house is part of Salem’s Quaker story. The Nicholson sisters were Quakers, members of the Salem Religious Society of Friends, whose ancestors Samuel and Ann Nicholson arrived at Salem on the ship Griffin with the colony founder John Fenwick in 1675. Fenwick initiated an influx of English Quakers into West New Jersey to provide a sanctuary from oppressive treatment in England. Thus, the town of Salem was the first permanent English settlement in the Delaware Valley. Among the Nicholson family who journeyed with Fenwick was the young boy, Abel. The sisters of 1830 were the great-granddaughters of Abel and his wife Mary, whose 1722 house in Elsinboro is listed as a National Historic Landmark for its exemplary patterned-brickwork architecture. Sarah and Ann carried on a Quaker family tradition of likewise creating plain but respectable architecture in brick.
This house was built by women. Two women, Sarah Nicholson Allen and her sister Ann Nicholson, planned, paid for, and made the decisions about what its architecture would express. Though not the largest or elaborate of houses, it expressed the latest in gracious style and the best workmanship of the time. There were never many houses built by women, so when we learn about them, we uncover the works of a historically marginalized group, and are moved to celebrate their agency.
HELP US RAISE $60,000 NOW
The Sarah Nicholson Allen house, the west side of a twin brick dwelling in the Broadway Historic District, is in dire need of restoration after deferred maintenance and sitting vacant for over 10 years. After acquiring the property, the City of Salem offered it to the ad hoc Sarah Nicholson Allen House Committee to restore on behalf of the City. Our plan is to use it as a Welcome Center to introduce visitors to Salem’s historic sites.
Now is a window of opportunity. At this time, we propose to undertake most of the immediate exterior work recommended in our 2022 Preservation Plan & Feasibility Study with a Preserve New Jersey capital grant. First, preparing the grant application will begin in early 2023 at a cost of $3,500. In April we will submit a grant request of $150,000 to pay for a $250,000 project, using our 2022 expenditure of $44,760 for the preservation plan to reduce our required match of $100,000 to $55,240! This credit is only available this year, so for this to work, we need to have the $55,240 match in hand by end of March 2023 to fully advantage our application. Anyone wishing to give but not able to provide cash until later can write a letter of commitment.
What is the work? This first phase of construction will be work items categorized our Plan as immediate: restoration of the chimneys, foundation walls, frame walls, front door and door frame, eaves and trim, and replacement of the entire roof.
Our accomplishments:
- June 2021 – Won a Certified Local Government (CLG) Historic Preservation grant for a Preservation Plan & Feasibility Study for the house
- December 2021 – Hired HMR Architects to prepare the plan
- June 2022 – Applied for project authorization for a roof stabilization project
- August 2022 – Preservation Plan & Feasibility Study completed
- September 2022 – Won approval for the roof stabilization project
- November 2022 – Applied for a non-matching Emergency Intervention grant to pay for roof stabilization
- December 2022 – Won the Emergency Intervention grant for roof stabilization
Next steps:
- January 2023 – Apply for a non-matching CLG grant to pay for the preparation of construction documents for the Phase I Immediate exterior work
- January 2023 – Begin the roof stabilization contract
- April 2023 – Submit a Preserve New Jersey capital grant application for the Phase I Immediate exterior work
- December 2023 – Bid, hire an architect, and begin preparation of construction documents for the Phase I Immediate exterior work
- 2024 – Complete construction documents, bid, hire a contractor, and begin construction for the Phase I Immediate exterior work
Why Support this House?
This house will serve a public benefit as a Welcome Center. Visitors will get a taste of Salem history via exhibits and literature. It will augment the presence of the Salem County Historic Society Library and Museum on Market Street, serving as a unique place where underrepresented histories such as Salem’s rich African American story can be told. To encourage tourism is to promote economic benefits.
This house will serve as a preservation trades training ground. Students will gain practical experience helping to restore this house under the newly forming traditional building arts training program that will be located in the restored 1926 J. C. Penney Building on East Broadway. Emphasizing the uplift of local, underserved youth, the program will provide a workforce with marketable skills that our historic buildings need.
This house is architecturally significant. This Federal-style house contributes to the character and integrity of the Broadway Historic District, which is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. Broadway Historic District is a prime cultural asset and visitor attraction in Salem. Sarah’s house stands near the western terminus of the district, where such an improvement can make a large impact on the public perception of the city and its welcome.
This house has a high degree of architectural integrity. Over its 192-year life, original doors, windows, shutters, roof dormer window, staircase, wood trim, fireplaces, flooring, and plaster walls largely survive to express its architectural character. Alterations over time have not been that extensive, so the house is an ideal candidate for a historic rehabilitation. It possesses authenticity, so would make a fine example to be open to the public.
This house is part of Salem’s Quaker story. The Nicholson sisters were Quakers, members of the Salem Religious Society of Friends, whose ancestors Samuel and Ann Nicholson arrived at Salem on the ship Griffin with the colony founder John Fenwick in 1675. Fenwick initiated an influx of English Quakers into West New Jersey to provide a sanctuary from oppressive treatment in England. Thus, the town of Salem was the first permanent English settlement in the Delaware Valley. Among the Nicholson family who journeyed with Fenwick was the young boy, Abel. The sisters of 1830 were the great-granddaughters of Abel and his wife Mary, whose 1722 house in Elsinboro is listed as a National Historic Landmark for its exemplary patterned-brickwork architecture. Sarah and Ann carried on a Quaker family tradition of likewise creating plain but respectable architecture in brick.
This house was built by women. Two women, Sarah Nicholson Allen and her sister Ann Nicholson, planned, paid for, and made the decisions about what its architecture would express. Though not the largest or elaborate of houses, it expressed the latest in gracious style and the best workmanship of the time. There were never many houses built by women, so when we learn about them, we uncover the works of a historically marginalized group, and are moved to celebrate their agency.
