CAPE MAY CITY – The city has long been one of America’s premier summer resort towns. It is also, since 1976, a designated National Historic Landmark, a showcase of Victorian-era architecture that preserves and renders accessible to the public a past period with all of its grace and elegance.
Recently the city further enhanced that standing with an amendment to its National Landmark Status that gives long-overdue recognition to the city’s African American heritage. According to Mayor Zach Mullock and Historic Preservation Commission Chair Warren Copeland, it was the first successful amendment to a national landmark status in the county.
A letter confirming the acceptance of the amendment into the national registry of historic places came from the federal Department of the Interior’s National Park Service in September. Earlier, in July, the same amendment, a 150-page document submitted by the city, was listed in the New Jersey Registry.
Among the most visible projects undertaken by the city to preserve its African American heritage have been the restoration of Howell House and its new role as the Harriet Tubman Museum, the revitalization and repurposing of the historic Franklin Street School – a previously segregated facility for African American students – as a branch of the county’s library system, and the restoration of the AME Church following a fire that destroyed parts of the structure.
A discussion of the successful amendment was part of the Dec. 17 meeting of the City Council, a meeting at which the council also honored with a proclamation the retiring chair of the Preservation Commission, Copeland, with Mullock presenting him with the keys to the city.
Copeland joined the commission in 2007 and became its chair in 2011. According to Mullock, he played a critical role in developing a corrective action plan that, when implemented, removed Cape May from the federal list of endangered national landmarks.
Copeland recommended at the Dec. 17 meeting that the council create a task force whose purpose would be to make material on the African American heritage in Cape May “available and understood” by residents and visitors. He said he would like to see an effort to bring this “important community back to life.”
The city’s website contains a story map of African American heritage sites from 1846 to 1948, sites that “had a foundational impact on the evolution of Cape May and its cultural heritage.” It can be accessed here.
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