Campaign launched to preserve Fortune House
Preservation group calls for museum and cultural center
BY MELISSA KARSH
Staff Writer

Preservationists want the historic T. Thomas Fortune House in Red Bank to become a museum and cultural center.

RED BANK - Preservationists, including members of the borough's west side community, have launched a letter-writing campaign to preserve the T. Thomas Fortune House as a cultural center and museum.

The T. Thomas Fortune House subcommittee of the Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission (RBHPC) has started writing letters to raise awareness about the pending sale of the Fortune House and the need to preserve it.

The letters are going out to media outlets across the country, including significant African American periodicals, the National Black Caucus and black fraternities and sororities, according to an e-mail sent by subcommittee chairwoman Gilda Rogers.

The subcommittee was formed July 25 and consists of west side residents including Rogers, a journalist and educator, and Rev. Terrence K. Porter, the senior presiding pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church.

The committee is trying to "drum up consciousness and awareness" about the house and its cultural significance to not only the African American community but to all the residents of Red Bank, according to Rogers.

"We are trying to preserve or make aware the cultural component of the home as well as preserving the architecture and develop it into a cultural resource center and museum that reflects the history of Red Bank," said Rogers. "We don't have anything like that right now in Red Bank and I think it's something that is sorely lacking."

Rogers credited RBHPC chairman George Bowden with spearheading the crusade to raise awareness about the T. Thomas Fortune home which, she said, has been well received by African American congregations on the west side.

The project will be discussed at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) 32nd Annual Convention and Career Fair, which runs from Aug. 8 to 12 in Las Vegas, according to Rogers.

"Being brought to NABJ it gives us some national attention," said Rogers. "Right now the issue is just raising awareness because a lot of people do not realize it [the Fortune House] even exists."

After months of negotiations, a local group has signed a contract to purchase the T. Thomas Fortune House at 94 Drs. James Parker Blvd.

However, the contract to purchase the historic house was missing a signature from one Vaccarelli family member as of last week.

"The buyers are a group of locals, a well-respected group who have a past history of successful development," said Geoff Brothers of Brothers Commercial Brokerage, Red Bank, who is handling the sale. "The intent is to work with Preservation New Jersey and the borough to try to facilitate creating a development on the site that would accommodate low-income housing."

"The intent is to preserve the house and include it in the development," he said. "That will require the cooperative effort on the part of the borough, Preservation NJ and all involved."

Brothers did not disclose the sale price, but said the property is listed for sale at $1.5 million.

The sellers of the circa 1883 structure include Vaccarelli family members James and his brother and sister-in-law, Tony and Sue Vaccarelli. The Vaccarelli family once operated a bakery on the site.

"As far as preserving the house I think it should be up to the buyers of the place," said James Vaccarelli. "Personally, the Vaccarelli family have no intentions of tearing it down. It'd be nice to preserve it. We have no problem if the new buyers want to preserve it. It is going to be entirely up to them."

Although it had been reported in the local daily press, according to the borough building office, no demolition permits have been issued for the structure.

Preservation NJ named the T. Thomas Fortune House as one of the 10 Most Endangered Historic Sites in New Jersey in May. The Fortune House, on the borough's west side, was chosen because it has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is associated with African American history in New Jersey, Preservation NJ executive director Ron Emrich explained.

"The Fortune House's one-acre lot, the largest in the area for many blocks, is extremely attractive to developers. We call on the municipal governing body, business leaders, and others to find an adaptive reuse for the building, which could become the centerpiece of the spread of revitalization from the downtown to the west side," Preservation NJ's Web site states.

Nationally prominent journalist T. Thomas Fortune bought the house (which was built around 1883) in 1901, where he wrote and edited from home and commuted to New York roughly once a week, according to Preservation NJ.

In 1884, Fortune founded The New York Freeman, which was renamed The New York Age in 1887.

Fortune's tenure at The New York Age for over 20 years established him as the leading African American journalist of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Under his editorial direction, the paper became the nation's most influential black paper and was used to protest discrimination, lynching, mob violence and disenfranchisement (RootsWeb).

Fortune co-founded the Afro-American League in Chicago in 1890, which was a precursor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Fortune was born a slave in Marianna, Fla., on Oct. 3, 1856, and was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.