Cedar Bridge Tavern....1938 and today

[Teegate]

All,

I was again roaming through the Library of Congress website and found a 1/28/1938 photo of the Cedar Bridge Tavern. The photographer was named Nathanial R. Ewan who took an extraordinary amount of photo’s of buildings around the state. Along with many of the photo’s is something quite remarkable....detailed drawings and floor plans of them, the Cedar Bridge Tavern included. Looking them over I was able to compare photo’s that I took of the inside of the tavern when Ben and I was invited in by the homeowner. Obviously, that leads to a somewhat different form of “Then and Now” photo’s that hopefully I can do justice to.

Cedar Bridge Tavern 1938 and 2003 taken at slightly different locations. Compare the upstairs windows.

The floor plans show the bar and the stairs leading upstairs to the second floor. The tavern today still has the original bar depicted in these plans. If you are facing the bar the curved stairs are just to the right of them past a doorway. Notice the spiral stairs in the drawing and in the photo of Ben’s legs. Also notice the bar.

The bar

The curved stairs

Here is the link to the photo’s and plans. Click on the icons on the left to view them all.


http://tinyurl.com/337lxm


BTW, the stairs are so narrow that the present owner cut a large hole in the side of the house to get his furniture into the rooms upstairs.

And notice the bar is the same one as the one in my photo above.

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

Where ye be going boys? Hanover Furnace you say? Or was it Biddle's Mills?

Tain't fit for man nor beast tonight! Have a spot of apple jack. That'll be 4 cents boys, cash on the bar!

(did they say cents way back then?)

Great photos Guy. Very interesting as always.

 

[woodjin]

That was great Guy, thanks for posting!

 

[Jerseyman]

Guy:

Looks like you found the HABS/HAER documents at the Library of Congress website. As part of his role in the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), Nat Ewan took many photographs of historic buildings, particularly, but not limited to, Burlington County. The New Jersey State Archives had digitized his two albums of photographs and these images are available at:

http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/guides/pewan001.html

You'll find many images of interest at this site. If you continue exploring the HABS/HAER site at LoC, you will unlock a whole world of many buildings long since gone. The only disappointment concerning the HABS initiative, undertaken as a make-work project to employ professionals during the Great Depression, is the vast quantity of historic buildings ignored by the surveyors that no longer stand today. A HABS survey would have made information about them much more accessible. One other item of note: for the surveys completed during the 1930s, be careful when reading the documentary history associated with the surveys--some of the "historians" used in this work were way off the mark in obtaining accurate documentation!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[lost soul]

Nice find and very interesting. I love those twisting stairs commonly found in 18th century homes.

 

[Teegate]

Thanks Jerseyman.

If anyone wants to see more of Nathaniel R. Ewan's photo's on the Library of Congress website, go to the below link and do a search for Nathaniel R. Ewan.

The photo's and sketches are at the icons at the top at each photo site.

http://memory.loc.gov/pp/mdbquery.html

Guy

 

[Teegate]

Speaking of Cedar Bridge, I found these photo's on the state site that Jerseyman mentioned above.

Here is a photo of the Cedar Bridge Fire Tower. It was not dated but there are some clues. The tower is the 60 foot type which the original tower was. If you remember it was located on the road to Cedar Bridge on the highest point of the road. The foundations are right along the road which if you notice they are. You can see a telephone pole on the left along the road.

So I would conclude this is a rare photo of the original one at the original location.



Aerial of the Cedar Bridge Fire Tower.

Jerseyman, the site says there are 6 photo’s. Unfortunately, there is only one. On some other series that was missing photo’s I was able to change the name of the photo’s in the URL up one number and they were available. For example 001.jpg to 002.jpg. But on this one that did not work. There are no more photo’s. So, from experience have you ever been able to get them to add the other relevant photo’s to the site? I contacted the webmaster to see if for some reason they were just not added properly.



Also, I found this photo of Swamp Pink from 1933 but as one would expect it was in B&W. How frustrating that must have been for the photographer!

And also I found these photo’s of a different tower. The second photo is quite interesting. What tower do any of you think it is? I suspect it is one that is no longer around because none of them are that close to the road anymore except the one now called Cedar Bridge. At least the ones I have visited are not that close.

BTW, there should have been three photo’s with this one also but there was not.

Guy

 

[Teegate]

Also they have a photo of what they call "Anderson's Tree Frog".

http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/images/senpa001/SENPA001-PineBarrens001.jpg

Anyone know if this is the "former" or "correct" name of the Pine Barren Tree frog?

Guy

 

[Jerseyman]

Speaking of Cedar Bridge, I found these photo's on the state site that Jerseyman mentioned above.

Jerseyman, the site says there are 6 photo’s. Unfortunately, there is only one. On some other series that was missing photo’s I was able to change the name of the photo’s in the URL up one number and they were available. For example 001.jpg to 002.jpg. But on this one that did not work. There are no more photo’s. So, from experience have you ever been able to get them to add the other relevant photo’s to the site? I contacted the webmaster to see if for some reason they were just not added properly.

Guy

Guy:

I suspect that the number of images represent the total number in that folder within the box and the scanned image only represents a selected number of images. However, I will contact my friends at the Archives to see what the problem might be!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[ChrisNJ]

I love that Guy, thanks a lot for the post.

Funny how poor the carpentry work is on the left side as it appears the addition is sinking away from the rest of the house.

I love that old bar and cabinets

 

[BEHR655]

I love that Guy, thanks a lot for the post.

Funny how poor the carpentry work is on the left side as it appears the addition is sinking away from the rest of the house.

I love that old bar and cabinets

If you study the photos you will see there is not much difference in the foundation from 1938 to 2003.
Also, I looked at that first photo several times before I noticed the two people in it.

Steve

 

[Teegate]

If you look at the high resolution photo of it you can see the man on the porch quite well. The other man on the right looks like he is holding or carrying something.

 

[Teegate]

Also interesting...if you look over the floor plans there apparently is another building on the property that was used as a bowling alley. It also says there is evidence that cars were stored in that building also.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displ...00014r.tif,00014a.tif&title=&displayProfile=0

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

Also they have a photo of what they call "Anderson's Tree Frog".

http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/images/senpa001/SENPA001-PineBarrens001.jpg

Anyone know if this is the "former" or "correct" name of the Pine Barren Tree frog?

Guy

The latin name for the PB tree frog is Hyla Andersoni.

 

[Teegate]

The latin name for the PB tree frog is Hyla Andersoni.

So it is one and the same then. Thanks Bob. I figured you would know the answer. I was just waiting

Guy

 

[jokerman]

Beck states in More Forgotten Towns that there was another building and a chicken coop across the road from the house, the former which contained a bowling alley and other recreational things to entertain guests at the hotel.

 

[Teegate]

Beck states in More Forgotten Towns that there was another building and a chicken coop across the road from the house, the former which contained a bowling alley and other recreational things to entertain guests at the hotel.

Now that you mention that I remember it. I should have looked over the chapter.

Thanks Jokerman

Guy

 

[lost soul]

There is an active tower in Blue Anchor Right on the side of Rt. 73. I can't be sure if this is the tower. The road appears to be paved so it must be a main road, and most of the trees around it are hardwoods. Also looking at the shadow from the truck I would say the road runs north and south which would fit. And it also has an interesting stair design the landings are in the corners same as the Blue Anchor tower..

 

[Teegate]

There is an active tower in Blue Anchor Right on the side of Rt. 73. I can't be sure if this is the tower. The road appears to be paved so it must be a main road, and most of the trees around it are hardwoods. Also looking at the shadow from the truck I would say the road runs north and south which would fit. And it also has an interesting stair design the landings are in the corners same as the Blue Anchor tower..

I wrote the lookout historian I know and he wrote this:

The photo of the tower with the Willys Jeep pickup in the foreground I've seen before in a Forest Fire Service publication, I believe it to be the Mizpah fire tower on route 40 in C Divison.

Guy

 

[jokerman]

Thanks for posting the links and the photos. I find myself staring at that old photo and being amazed that this stagecoach hotel, in that area of oblivion, somehow managed to remain in place. Even better, it hasn't been remodeled too much and even has the original bar and cupboards. Amazing. BTW, my Mother noticed that the upper clapboards on the left side of the house are arranged vertically and the older ones were horizontal, so maybe that's where he opened the side of the house or perhaps the clapboards were replaced. She also noted that the house appears to have three (3) seams that may represent different periods of construction. The left side looks somewhat different, but not sure if this is the case.