Tag: Historic Places

Griggstown's Delaware and Raritan Canal Lock

Griggstown Lock on the Delaware & Raritan Canal is about one kilometre south of the Griggstown Causeway and about 7.4 km, a 10-minute drive from my home in Skillman. The Kingston Lock is approximately 7.4km to the south. The Millstone River runs more or less parallel to the D&R Canal, with many more twists and turns along the way. I captured this set of images with my Fujifilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 vintage lens, a recent purchase, using an in-camera Kodachrome II film simulation recipe. Except for perspective correction, all of the images are otherwise untouched straight-out-of-camera.

The asphalt, crushed stone, and dirt surface of the Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park Trail, part of a transportation corridor between Philadelphia and New York, follows the Delaware & Raritan Canal towpath that dates to the early 1800s. The New Jersey portion of the trail starts in Trenton. It runs along the Delaware River for almost 117 kilometres before ending at Landing Lane, just north of George St. in New Brunswick on the outskirts of Rutgers University. The trail follows the outer eastern edge of the Princeton University campus and passes through Kingston, Griggstown and East Millstone. The waterway is tree-lined, supporting many types of wildlife, including bald eagles, herons, ospreys, and smaller bird species. Walleye, bass, and shad thrive in the Delaware Canal.

Points in Griggstown or Princeton offer canoe rides along the water route. During heavy rains, parts of the trail become impassable from floods. Flooding effectively cuts me off from areas of New Jersey to my east and north, especially if the Millstone River is also flooded.

This is a second entry for Frank Jansen's <a href="https://dutchgoesthephoto.net/2019/08/13/tuesday-photo-challenge-lock/ class="u-in-reply-to">Tuesday Photo Challenge - Lock.

Griggstown Delaware Canal Lock — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.001 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Griggstown Delaware Canal Lock — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.001 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Griggstown Delaware Canal Lock — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.002 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Griggstown Delaware Canal Lock — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.003 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Griggstown Delaware Canal Lock — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.004 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Griggstown Delaware Canal Loc k— FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.002 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Bridgetender's House — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.003 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Delaware Canal Trail — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.001 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Delaware Canal Trail — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.001 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Delaware Canal Trail — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.005 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Griggstown Delaware Canal Lock— FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.008 sec at f/5.6, ISO 800, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019
Fishing for Bass — FujiFilm X-T2 + Soligor 35mm f/2.8 Wide-Auto M42 @ 35 mm, 0.003 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, ©Khürt L. Williams, Aug 17, 2019

Fort Hancock and Sandy Hook Proving Ground National Historic Landmark

For this challenge, I decided to visit Fort Hancock and Sandy Hook Proving Ground National Historic Landmark in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. I drove up to Ocean Avenue from Asbury Park, New Jersey. The road is lined with the beach homes of the wealthy. I imagine it was like driving down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California. I don't know. I've never been to Beverly Hills.

To enter New York Harbor, ships need a deep channel. Until the 1900s, that meant sailing next to the shore of Sandy Hook. This gave the small peninsula a big role in the safety and defence of New York Harbor for more than a century before Fort Hancock was built.National Parl Service

Fort Hancock Museums in Monmouth County, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (16 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), © Khurt-Williams

Fort Hancock is a former United States Army fort at Sandy Hook in Middletown Township, New Jersey. The coastal artillery base defended the Atlantic coast and the entrance to New York Harbor, with its first gun batteries operational in 1896. Between 1874 and 1919, the adjacent US Army Sandy Hook Proving Ground was operated in conjunction with Fort Hancock. It is now part of Fort Hancock Memorial Park. It was preceded by the Fort at Sandy Hook, built 1857–1867 and demolished beginning in 1885. Wikipedia

Kessler Road and Hudson Road at Fort Hancock Museum in Monmouth County, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (55 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), © Khurt-Williams
Fort Hancock Museum in Monmouth County, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (55 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), © Khurt-Williams

I arrived in the Fort Hancock, and Sandy Hook Proving Ground National Historic Landmark and drove slowly along Kessler Road looking for an interesting subject. As I expected most of the crumbling buildings had been fenced in. The buildings are favourite subjects for photographers and curious visitors, who have in the past entered the premises and bee hurt. Many of the buildings are unsafe. I turned on Hudson Road and parked in the back of one of the Bachelor Officers' Quarters.

Bachelor Officers' Quarters at Fort Hancock Museum in Monmouth County, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (16 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), © Khürt L. Williams

The fort was decommissioned on December 31, 1974. Since then, most of Fort Hancock has served the public as the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area. The remainder of the peninsula serves as U.S. Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook.

While the recreation area is well maintained, the former buildings and officers quarters are in disrepair. The weather has battered the buildings making them uninhabitable.

Fort Hancock Museum in Monmouth County, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (16 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), © Khurt-Williams
Bachelor Officers' Quarters at Fort Hancock Museum in Monmouth County, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (16 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), © Khürt L. Williams
FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (35.3 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), © Khurt-Williams
FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (30.2 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), © Khurt-Williams
Fort Hancock Museum in Monmouth County, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (26.6 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), © Khurt-Williams

Trash is your inspiration. Tell a story or create something beautiful.

Image submitted in response to Dogwood Photography’s annual 52-week photography challenge.

South Branch School House, Branchburg, Somerset County

South Branch School House, Branchburg, Somerset County, New Jersey

Constructed in 1873, the South Branch School House in Branchburg Township is a one-room building in the Victorian-Italianate style of architecture. From 1873 to 1950 it educated children in grades 1 through 8.

In 1848, Henry Barnard published School Architecture, which offered designs and ideas for model schoolhouses. Following his advice, schools were built with rectangular plans on raised foundations, with the gable end would serving as the front. The longer side walls featured multiple double-sash windows, and the classrooms offered high ceilings. Up until shortly after the Civil War, their style and manner of construction mirrored churches and meetinghouses.

South Branch School House | FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 16 mm

Students faced a windowless wall at the back. The school also incorporated a raised platform at one end for when the classroom was used for assemblies. The South Branch School House was one of the first in the area built expressly as a tuition-free public school following the New Jersey Free School Act of 1871. With a room size of about 24 or 25 feet square the school was designed to accommodate 50 students.

Writing in the 1874 Annual Report of the New Jersey Department of Education, State Superintendent of Education Ellis Apgar wrote:

Every school should be well furnished. Everything added to make the schoolroom comfortable, convenient, and attractive, facilitates the work of education. A teacher cannot be expected to do good work without the proper tools. The desks furnished the children should be of the most approved style; they should have folding seats, so as to allow of freedom of motion in marching, callisthenics, and general exercises. Settees placed in front of the teacher's desk are convenient for recitation purposes. The teacher's desk should be neat and substantial, having at least six drawers in it. There should be three or four chairs, a thermometer, an eight-day clock, a small globe, a call bell, and other conveniences for teaching.

South Branch School House | FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 16 mm

Peak attendance at the school hit 95 in 1875. Due to declining enrollment, in 1950 Branchburg Township built a new built a consolidated elementary school and use of the Little Red School House dropped even further.

In 1963, the Branchburg Board of Education sold the schoolhouse to Branchburg Township, and work was begun on a restoration project to coincide with the township's tercentenary. Closing in 1965, the South Branch Schoolhouse was the last one-room school in use in Somerset County. Restoration worked continued into 2005, when the school was placed on the state and national registers of historic places.

The famous opera singer, Anna Case, attended the school in the late 1890s.

South Branch School House | FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 16 mm

I shot from a tripod and bracketed my shots. The Classic Chome Fujifilm Film Simulation preset was applied to each image and the images combined in Photomatix Pro. The Natural filter was applied in Photomatix Pro and the resulting image was imported back into Adobe Lightroom for further adjustment.

Sources

South Branch School House, VisitSomeresetNJ.org, Somerset County, https://visitsomersetnj.org/fun-somerset-nj/south-branch-school-house/
Greg Gillette, South Branch Schoolhouse, My Central Jersey, 7:00 a.m. ET May 25, 2017, https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/view-from-hillsborough/2017/05/25/south-branch-schoolhouse-2/102137624/
Kelly, Somerset County's Last One-Room Schoolhouse: South Branch, The History Girl, Kelly, 2015⁄02, https://www.thehistorygirl.com/2015/02/south-branch-schoolhouse-nj.html