Dennisville Historic Home Owners Association Historic District Re-Survey Page

Expansion of Historic District Update - July 24, 2016

The State Review Board for Historic Sites recommended at their March 10, 2016 meeting that the Dennisville Historic District (Boundary Increase) be placed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The district was listed in the State Register on April 15, 2016 and in the National Register of Historic Places on June 21, 2016.

Expansion of Historic District Update - September 30, 2015

In September 2013, this consultant submitted the completed resurvey forms to the Dennisville Historic Home Owners Association. This submission included base forms for historic properties in Dennisville, those lining Rt. 47 up to Jake’s Landing Road, and for properties within South Dennis. A total of 134 properties north of Dennis Creek and 100 properties in South Dennis were examined. In addition to the survey forms, Berkey also submitted a report that summarized the area’s history, contained recommendations for an expanded historic district in Dennisville, and recommended that South Dennis should be a separate historic district.

Based on Berkey’s recommendations, DHHOA approved in June 2014 the writing and subsequent submission of a National Register nomination that expands the current district to include properties north of Rt. 47 (but stopping at Ludlam’s Mill Pond) along with additional documentation.

Ms. Berkey submitted the nomination to the State Historic Preservation Office in July of 2015. It will be presented to the State Review Board for Historic Sites at their next meeting to be held in Trenton on Thursday, November 12th, 2015.

Dennisville, NJ - August, 2011

In early 2011 the Dennisville Historic Home Owners Association commissioned a resurvey of the Dennisville Historic District. Since the original survey in 1987, further research has been done and new information has come to light concerning many of the historic properties in the district. Possible future encroachments upon or near the current district boundaries have encouraged the DHHOA to pursue these clarifications and lay the ground work for a possible expansion of the Dennisville Historic District or the creation of a new or adjunct Historic District to include the immediate surroundings.

Below you can read more details from the proposal of "Joan Berkey, Historic Preservation Consultant" with whom the DHHOA has contracted to perform this re-survey.

PROPOSAL TO PREPARE A NOMINATION TO THE STATE AND NATIONAL REGISTERS OF HISTORIC PLACES
Expansion of the Dennisville Historic District With Revised Documentation, Dennisville, New Jersey

Submitted to: Dennisville Historic Home Owners Association June 16, 2014

Statement of Purpose:

Dennisville, an unincorporated village in Dennis Township, Cape May County, New Jersey contains a historic district that was placed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1987. The district contains 63 buildings (mostly houses) which are located mostly within the confines of the village. For various reasons, several historic buildings within the town as well as "outliers" located further north, west, and south of the village were excluded from the historic district.

In 2011, Michael Conley and Joan Berkey began an intensive level survey that examined 134 buildings and sites in and near Dennisville (on the north side of Dennis Creek), in addition to 100 buildings and sites in South Dennis on the south side of Dennis Creek. The purpose of the survey was to determine the logic and feasibility of expanding the present Dennisville Historic District to include historic buildings along State Route 47 as well as several on other nearby streets, in addition to those historic buildings within South Dennis to create one, larger historic district.

Berkey determined that the potential exists for two separate historic districts, one for Dennisville and one for South Dennis. The State Historic Preservation Office previously determined that a small district comprised mostly of archaeological sites exists at Dennis Creek landing; that same office also determined that a historic district exists in South Dennis but cautioned that its boundaries had yet to be determined.

The survey showed that an additional 50 buildings/sites can be added to create an expanded Dennisville historic district reaching north to Jake’s Landing Road and including buildings on Tyler and Fidler Roads, possibly one on Academy Road, and several on Route 47 in the village.

Berkey discussed the potential expansion of the Dennisville Historic District with Bob Craig who runs the National Register program at the State Historic Preservation Office. It was his opinion that the district has great potential to be expanded and that the entire nomination should be updated and re-written because the 1987 nomination contained only brief information about each specific building. He also stated that the narrative statement of significance should be revised and updated since we propose to nearly double the size of the district in terms of numbers.

Joan Berkey, historic preservation consultant (hereafter referred to as "consultant"), proposes to prepare a nomination to the State and National Registers for an expanded and revised Dennisville Historic District, a project that would be sponsored by the Dennisville Historic Home Owners Association.

The consultant anticipates that she will be able to begin the project in January/February of 2015. The nomination will be completed and mailed to the State Historic Preservation Office approximately 3-4 months after the start of the assignment.