“Four Centuries in a Weekend” Program at the Oswald J. Nitschke House to Celebrate
Living History Program to Feature Colorful Characters from Kenilworth’s Past and Introduction to Garden-to-Table Foodways Demonstrations.
Visitors to Kenilworth’s historic Oswald J. Nitschke House (c. 1880) at 49 South 21 Street on October 15 and October 16 will meet colorful characters from the late 1800s local building boom that brought acclaimed builder James Arthur (1866-1931) and other tradesmen to the Kenilworth area (then known as New Orange). An exhibition, “James Arthur – The Story of 100 Houses in 100 Days,” featuring some neverbefore- shown historic photographs, brochures and artifacts, will be on display in celebration of the 150th anniversary year of Arthur’s birth.
Visitors also will be able to preview the newly installed “Teaching Gardens” at the Nitschke House, which have been created, in large part, with funding generously provided by the Merck Foundation, and to observe cooking demonstrations that show the importance of home food gardens in the lifeways of the Nitschkes and other late 19th-century immigrants.
The planned program at the Nitschke House will be presented for the general public between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on October 15 and from noon to 5 p.m. on October 16, during Union County’s annual historic sites tour, “Four Centuries in a Weekend.” Admission is free. The site is equipped with an elevator and is fully accessible.
The featured James Arthur exhibition at the Nitschke House is being made possible in part by a 2016 HEART (History, Education, Arts Reaching Thousands) Grant from Union County. Funding for other aspects of the site’s weekend program is being provided, in part, by the Kenilworth Municipal Alliance Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
During “Four Centuries in a Weekend,” visitors to the Nitschke House will be able to view the building’s five historic rooms, which are authentically furnished in the 1905-1934 period (the time of Kenilworth’s first wave of suburban development when former Mayor Oswald J. Nitschke made his greatest contributions to its growth), as well as its exhibition center, the venue for an ever-changing array of year-round historical and cultural exhibits. For further information, please call 908-709-0434.
The Kenilworth Historical Society saved the Nitschke House, home of former Kenilworth Mayor Oswald J. Nitschke (1867-1934), by moving it in 2003, following Dr. Jerome Forman’s donation of the building to the Society, to its present location (land acquired with the help of the Kenilworth Veterans Center and a New Jersey DEP Green Acres grant).
The Society’s project to restore the Nitschke House for transformation into Kenilworth’s first “living history” museum and cultural arts center and to add an elevator to the site, has been funded, in large part, by historic preservation/rehabilitation grants awarded by the New Jersey Historic Trust, New Jersey Cultural Trust, Preserve Union County Grant Program, Union County Community Development Block Grant program, E.J. Grassmann Trust, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, Schering-Plough Corporation, the Merck Foundation, numerous individual, corporate and institutional donors and grant makers, and with financing assistance from ConnectOne Bank. Connolly & Hickey Historical Architects (Cranford) designed the elevator addition, as well as the plans for the building’s exterior and interior restoration, and Wagner Construction (Kenilworth) and Straightline Restoration and Construction, Inc. (Cranford) carried out the most recent interior restoration and elevator construction plans, respectively.
The Nitschke House project was recognized by the State of New Jersey with a 2008 New Jersey Historic Preservation Award and most recently was cited as one of six “success stories” statewide in the 2011-2016 New Jersey Historic Preservation Plan, “Preserving New Jersey’s Heritage: A Statewide Plan.”
Now that major restoration work at the Nitschke House site has been completed and an official Certificate of Occupancy has been granted, plans for a Kenilworth Heritage Walkway featuring engraved commemorative pavers sponsored by local donors are in the process of being implemented.
