Pomona Hall

Last updated
Pomona Hall
HABS-NJ,4-CAM,4-1-edit.jpg
Location map of Camden County, New Jersey.svg
Red pog.svg
USA New Jersey location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationPark Boulevard and Euclid Avenue, Camden, New Jersey
Coordinates 39°55′51″N75°5′40″W / 39.93083°N 75.09444°W / 39.93083; -75.09444
Area0 acres (0 ha)
Built1726
NRHP reference No. 71000499 [1]
Added to NRHPAugust 12, 1971

Pomona Hall is a colonial mansion located at 1900 Park Boulevard and Euclid Avenue, in Camden, Camden County, New Jersey, United States, that operates as a museum by the Camden County Historical Society. The first building on the site was constructed in 1718, [2] while construction of the more substantial mansion house was started in 1726, with later additions made in 1788. It is not known when the house was first called Pomona Hall; but it is marked on Hill's Map of Philadelphia and Environs, published in 1809. [3]

Contents

Historical data

Joseph Cooper Jr., who built the first part of Pomona Hall, was the son of Joseph Cooper Sr., and the grandson of William Cooper, who came to the American colonies from England in 1676 or 1679. He settled first at Burlington, moving to Pyne Point in 1681. Here he purchased a tract of three hundred acres from the proprietors and from the Indian chief Tallacca. On June 12, 1697, Joseph Cooper Sr., purchased a tract of four hundred and twelve acres from Abraham and Joshua Carpenter along the south branch of Cooper's Creek. This tract was conveyed to his son Joseph Jr., on December 16, 1714. Initials on the north chimney breast indicate that Joseph and Mary Cooper built that portion of the house in 1726. Joseph Cooper died in 1749. The property passed to his younger brother, Isaac. [3]

Joseph Cooper was a member of the New Jersey General Assembly from Gloucester County from 1760 to 1749. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin mentions him as one of the friends he acquired during his stay in Burlington. The memorial and the record of the Friends Meeting of Haddonfield says of him:

"He was an exemplary friend, and serviceable amongst us in many respects, careful to rule in his own house. He departed this life about the first of the eighth month 1749, having express‘d little before that he had done justly, loved mercy, and hoped that he had been careful to walk humbly.

The next owner of Pomona Hall was Marmaduke Cooper, Isaac's son. Marmaduke, although a Quaker (Religious Society of Friends), took part in the struggle between the mother country and the colonies before the war started. He was a member of the Committee of Observation for Gloucester County and a member of the Committee of Correspondence. When the Philadelphia Meeting of Suffering advised all Friends to be conscientious objectors, he withdrew from all activities.

In 1788 Marmaduke built the south portion of Pomona Hall. The marking on the breast of the other chimney indicates that Marmaduke and Mary Cooper were the builders. This later portion conforms to the architecture of the rest of the house. The addition is clearly shown by the vertical joint in the brickwork on both front and rear walls close by the hallway doors, and also by the headings of the cellar windows, the older part was crudely arched by a single row of bricks while in the newer section keyed stone lintels are used.

The north wall of the hallway was one of the original outside walls; it is carried to the roof beams. The partition walls running laterally between the front and the back rooms on the north side of the house furnish the support for the ceiling rafters of the attic rooms. The woodwork of the older part of the house is marked by severe simplicity and symmetrical lines. The newels are plain; the balustrades are gracefully turned and fastened by wooden pegs. In the original living room, which is on the left side of the hallway, is a fireplace which originally had a facing of blue tiles.

Architecture

Pomona Hall has been restored to its appearance during the American Revolution. It has been called the "finest example of a Georgian style plantation house in New Jersey." [2]

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) conducted a detailed survey of the building in 1936, creating architectural drawings and photographs of the existing conditions and gathering documents about the history of the building. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ford Mansion</span> United States historic place

The Ford Mansion, also known as Washington's Headquarters, is a classic 18th-century American home located at 30 Washington Place in Morristown, New Jersey that served as General George Washington's headquarters from December 1779 to June 1780 during the American Revolutionary War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilson Eyre</span> American architect

Wilson Eyre, Jr. was an American architect, teacher and writer who practiced in the Philadelphia area. He is known for his deliberately informal and welcoming country houses, and for being an innovator in the Shingle Style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Blount Mansion</span> Historic house in Tennessee, United States

The Blount Mansion, also known as William Blount Mansion, located at 200 West Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, was the home of the only territorial governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount (1749–1800). Blount, a Founding Father of the United States, a signer of the United States Constitution, and a U.S. Senator from Tennessee, lived on the property with his family and ten African-American slaves. The mansion served as the de facto capitol of the Southwest Territory. In 1796, much of the Tennessee Constitution was drafted in Governor Blount's office at the mansion. Tennessee state historian John Trotwood Moore once called Blount Mansion "the most important historical spot in Tennessee."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty Hall (New Jersey)</span> United States historic place

Liberty Hall, also known as the Governor William Livingston House, located on Morris Avenue in Union, Union County, New Jersey, United States, is a historic home where many leading influential people lived. It was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in 1938. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark on November 28, 1972, for its significance in politics and government. It is now the Liberty Hall Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Brown House (Providence, Rhode Island)</span> Historic house in Rhode Island, United States

The John Brown House is the first mansion built in Providence, Rhode Island, located at 52 Power Street on College Hill where it borders the campus of Brown University. The house is named after the original owner, one of the early benefactors of the university, merchant, statesman, and slave trader John Brown. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968. John Quincy Adams considered it "the most magnificent and elegant private mansion that I have ever seen on this continent."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chew-Powell House</span> Historic house in New Jersey, United States

The Chew-Powell House is a historic building in the Blenheim section of Gloucester Township in Camden County, New Jersey. It was built in 1688 by James Whitall. The Chew-Powell-Wallens Burying Ground, next to the house, is considered to be the oldest cemetery in the township, and it reportedly contains the remains of early settlers, soldiers of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and Leni Lenape Native Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Pleasant (mansion)</span> Historic house in Pennsylvania, United States

Mount Pleasant is a historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, atop cliffs overlooking the Schuylkill River. It was built about 1761–62 in what was then the countryside outside the city by John Macpherson and his wife Margaret. Macpherson was a privateer, or perhaps a pirate, who had had "an arm twice shot off" according to John Adams. He named the house "Clunie" after the ancient seat of his family's clan in Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bristol County Jail</span> United States historic place

Bristol County Jail is a historic jail at 48 Court Street in Bristol, Rhode Island, and home to the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society.

John Cooper was a political leader of the American Revolution in New Jersey. He was likely the main author of the New Jersey Constitution of 1776, and served as one of the first judges of Gloucester County. An outspoken abolitionist, Cooper called for New Jersey to end slavery immediately, and argued against a more gradual approach to emancipation. A Quaker who was disowned by the Society of Friends for his political actions during the revolution, he was likely buried in the Quaker cemetery in Woodbury, New Jersey, in an unmarked grave. He was the estranged younger brother of Quaker abolitionist David Cooper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillips Mansion</span> Historic house in California, United States

The Phillips Mansion is a Second Empire style historic house in Pomona, Los Angeles County, California. It was built in 1875 by Louis Phillips, who by the 1890s had become the wealthiest man in Los Angeles County. Situated along the Butterfield Stage route, the Phillips Mansion became a center of community activity in the Pomona and Spadra area. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, making it among the first 25 sites in Los Angeles County to be so designated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Hill Manor</span> Historic house in Maryland, United States

Rose Hill Manor, now known as Rose Hill Manor Park & Children's Museum, is a historic home located at Frederick, Frederick County, Maryland. It is a 2+12-story brick house. A notable feature is the large two-story pedimented portico supported by fluted Doric columns on the first floor and Ionic columns on the balustraded second floor. It was the retirement home of Thomas Johnson (1732–1819), the first elected governor of the State of Maryland and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. It was built in the mid-1790s by his daughter and son-in-law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acorn Hall</span> Historic house in New Jersey, United States

Acorn Hall is an 1853 Victorian Italianate mansion located at 68 Morris Avenue in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 3, 1973, for its significance in architecture. It serves as the headquarters of the Morris County Historical Society, which operates Acorn Hall as a historic house museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Le Roy House and Union Free School</span> Historic buildings in New York, United States

The Le Roy House and Union Free School are located on East Main Street in Le Roy, New York, United States. The house is a stucco-faced stone building in the Greek Revival architectural style. It was originally a land office, expanded in two stages during the 19th century by its builder, Jacob Le Roy, an early settler for whom the village is named. In the rear of the property is the village's first schoolhouse, a stone building from the end of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gov. Charles C. Stratton House</span> Historic house in New Jersey, United States

The Gov. Charles C. Stratton House, also known as Stratton Hall or Stratton Mansion, is located at 538 Kings Highway, near Swedesboro, in Woolwich Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States. The house was built c. 1794 and documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in 1936. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 29, 1973, for its significance in architecture and politics. The house was the home of New Jersey Governor Charles C. Stratton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Cooper House</span> Historic house in New Jersey, United States

Joseph Cooper House is located in Camden, Camden County, New Jersey, United States. The house was built in 1695 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 14, 1973, for its significance in architecture. A fire, about 2005, destroyed the roof. The ruins of the building are planned to become a pavilion in the surrounding park.

Thomas Carpenter was an early American glassmaker and devout Quaker who, at significant spiritual and personal risk, found an important way to assist the American Revolutionary War, serving in the militia and the New Jersey Continental Line as what would today be called a logistics officer and earning the title of "Fighting Quaker." After the war, he contributed significantly to the rise of New Jersey glass production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Decatur Button</span> American architect

Stephen Decatur Button was an American architect and a pioneer in the use of metal-frame construction for masonry buildings. He designed commercial buildings, schools and churches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey; and more than 30 buildings in Cape May, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allee House (Dutch Neck Crossroads, Delaware)</span> Historic house in Delaware, United States

The Allee House is a historic home located on the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, near Dutch Neck Crossroads, overlooking the fields and marshes of Kent County, Delaware. It is believed to have been built in about 1753 by Abraham Allee, Sr., son of John Allee, who purchased the land in 1706 and 1711. The Allees were descended from French Huguenots who moved to New Jersey in 1680, then settled in Delaware. The original spelling of the Allee surname is d'Ailly. Abraham Allee served as a member of the Assembly in 1726, was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1738, and was Chief Ranger for the county in 1749.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Cooper House</span>

The Benjamin Cooper House is an 18th-century farmhouse and ferry house in Camden, New Jersey, in the United States. It is located at Erie Street in the Pyne Point neighborhood in North Camden. It was originally built in 1734 and served as ferry stop as well as residence. It later was a hotel and entertainment venue. The building suffered extensive damage in a fire on Thanksgiving Day 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Pool Hall, Llanvetherine</span> 17th century mansion

Great Pool Hall, Llanvetherine, Monmouthshire is a mansion dating from the early 17th century. Its construction is unusual in that it is built around a timber frame, unlike the more common stone construction of houses of this date and location. It is a Grade II* listed building. The associated gate piers and garden walls, and the separate barn have their own Grade II listings.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. 1 2 "Pomona Hall: Eighteenth century mansion". Camden County Historical Society. Archived from the original on 1 October 2010. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 Williams, AIA, Seymore. "Pomona Hall, Park Boulevard & Euclid Avenue, Camden, Camden County". Historical American Building Survey (HABS). Retrieved 23 May 2010.

Bibliography