PHOTO TOUR OF A HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S HIDDEN SPACES
Behind the Ropes in a Colonial Mansion's Cellars and Attics
Photography by Hoag Levins
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November 15, 2009
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CAMDEN, N.J. -- Pomona Hall, the 283-year-old colonial home that is the centerpiece of the Camden County Historical Society's three-building headquarters complex, revealed its secret places last week. A special "Behind the Ropes" tour offered access to the spaces the mansion's many visitors never get to see.
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Along with routine stops, such as the bedroom of Hannah Cooper (above, left), visitors got to climb into the building's attics. There, a stairway (above, right) leads to a lookout window which, during the Revolutionary War, provided a view of British troop movements along the nearby Cooper River.
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Constructed nearly three centuries ago, Pomona Hall's labyrinthine cellars have walls two-feet thick and tunnel-like spaces (above, right) that were used for food preservation and storage. Museum Director Sarah Hagarty (outstretched hands and gray sweater) leads one of the tours.
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Other sections of the cellar are large storage areas (above, left) for some of the Society's thousands of artifacts ranging from a John Philip Sousa-era tuba to 18th-century farm implements and tools. One of the more unusual items (above, right) is a portable grain mill that was transported from farm to farm in the early 19th-century.
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Even larger subterranean spaces underlie the adjacent Society buildings. Visitors got to browse through collections (above, left) of antique rifles, Civil War sabres, and artifacts from everyday life and commerce over the last 300 years. One section contains hundreds of pre-electric lighting devices such as these 19th-century glass oil lamps (above, right). |
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Above, left, Curator of Maps, Len Irwin (white beard and striped sweater) leads a tour through the Society's underground conservation center. The newspaper collections there go back to the early days of the region's printing presses and include publications like this 1891 edition (above, right) of the local Temperance Gazette.
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Elswhere in storage, the lifesize bust of a 19th-century Camden notable peers from a lower shelf (above, left). In the Society vault, (above, right) are collections of the autograph books that were the rage of 19th-century society. On this page are the signatures of retailing magnate John Wanamaker and famed African American education leader Booker T. Washington. |
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Visitors found the storage rooms to be treasure chests of the fascinatingly obscure. Above, right, is a ceremonial pitcher from Camden Lodge No. 15 of the Free & Accepted Masons. During the 19th-century, the group met in a Masonic Hall at Fourth and Market Streets in Camden. Another massive stone sign (above, right) once marked the Fifth and Arch Streets site of Camden's Weccacoe Fire Company. The organization was created in 1830 as the country's first paid fire department. Initially, its name was Fairmount Fire Company but it reorganized and renamed itself Weccacoe in 1848. Weccacoe is a Lenape Indian word meaning "pleasant place." |
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HoagL@earthlink.net
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