In Fair Haven, Moving On - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/26njH...

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In Fair Haven, Moving On

Jill C. Becker for The New York Times

Winifred Robards, 90, of Fair Haven, fears that she or her two sons may have to sell the home where she has lived since the age of 3, when her mother died. By BILL FINLEY
Published: March 26, 2006 Sign In to E-Mail This Printer-Friendly

FAIR HAVEN WINIFRED ROBARDS has lived in a modest house on the banks of the Navesink River here for 87 years. Her family has been here since 1855, the year her great- grandfather, a free black man named Charles Williams, built the home.

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But these days, Mrs. Robards says she is not sure how much longer she can stay. She is 90 now and might need to move into an assisted-living facility. Then there is the problem of her property taxes $24,000 a year not easy to come up with, especially on a fixed income. Some day, probably in the not-too-distant future, Mrs. Robards or her two sons will sell the light blue wood-shingled Colonial that looks out on one of the borough's many boat launches. Then it is likely to be torn down and replaced by a home easily twice its size. In 2005 alone, according to town records, 10 houses were torn down and 13 new ones went up. A new home, sitting on one of the most desirable spots in Monmouth County, directly across the Navesink from Jon Bon Jovi's mansion, will be worth millions. An affluent family in all likelihood a white one will move in and another important piece of the long and rich history of one of the most important black enclaves in New Jersey will have fallen. In 1960, when Fair Haven had a population of 5,678, there were 448 black people living here, most of them middle class and many of them descendants of freed slaves who helped settle Fair Haven. By 2000, according to the United States Census Bureau, the borough, which had grown slightly, to 5,937, had just 243 black residents. Over the last six years, the black population has probably shrunk even more. "The town has become less diverse," said Mayor Joseph J. Szostak, who noted that sharply rising property taxes "are a real problem."

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In Fair Haven, Moving On - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/26njH...

" I wish I knew what to say to the black folks who are moving away," Mr. Szostak added. "I am on a fixed income myself, and I don't know how much longer I can afford to live here." Indeed, black Fair Haven is fading away, as an aging population, whose offspring have largely moved away, wrestles with high property taxes and the increasing affluence of a town where few people, black or white, can afford to live. "It would make me very sad to no longer have this family live here," said Mrs. Robards, who moved into the Williams house, then inhabited by her grandparents, when she was 3 years old. "The lawyer told me someone would come in and tear the house down and build a house more suited to the river. You feel so connected to a house when you've lived in it for so long." There was a time, more than a decade ago, when Mrs. Robards's house would have sold for a reasonable price to a family that would have been happy to live in it. But Fair Haven has changed drastically in recent years. In 1992, direct ferry service from nearby Highlands and Atlantic Highlands to Lower Manhattan was initiated, making this obscure town an attractive place for wealthy Wall Street people to buy their sprawling slice of the American dream. Once a working-class town, Fair Haven has become a prototypical affluent white suburb, filled with S.U.V.'s and million-dollar homes. Relics of a Bygone Era "This is the perfect gentrification storm," said James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, who is an expert on the changing demographics of the state. "Fair Haven is between Rumson, historically a powerful home of elite, and Red Bank. Red Bank had been a fading manufacturing market center that has, all of a sudden, been reborn as a hot place. With Fair Haven sitting between those two towns, it was almost foreordained that it would gentrify." Sitting in her home a relic of Fair Haven's bygone era Mrs. Robards said she believed that Charles Williams had worked on an estate in Rumson, but she was not sure why he had settled in Fair Haven. It might have been that he felt comfortable in what was one of the centers of black life in 19th-century New Jersey. Although not nearly as much a part of the economy or culture as it was in Southern states, slavery was visible throughout much of New Jersey before it was abolished in 1846. According to the educational Web site slaveryinamerica.org, the earliest written record of enslaved Africans in New Jersey was in the mid-1600's, when 60 to 70 slaves worked on a plantation in Shrewsbury, a town that then encompassed the existing borough of Fair Haven. One of the first ironworks in the New World was built nearby in 1665 on the Pine Brook River in what is now Tinton Falls, according to the Historic Preservation Commission of Tinton Falls, and 70 to 80 slaves were brought in as laborers. A mix of slaves and freemen continued to produce the iron until 1844, when technological advances rendered the ironworks obsolete. It is believed that blacks first settled in Fair Haven because land was available there at reasonable prices and was near Rumson, where many of them worked on the estates of some of New Jersey's wealthiest families. One such estate was owned by Gen. Clinton Bowen Fisk, who, after the Emancipation Proclamation, was Abraham Lincoln's choice to run the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. "They had to live somewhere," Mr. Hughes said, "and they probably weren't welcome in Rumson." Separate Churches and Schools According to research by Timothy McMahon, a Fair Haven town historian who died last year, the first black church in Fair Haven opened in 1833, 28 years before the start of the Civil War. By 1858, Fair Haven had a second black church and a "Free African School."

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In Fair Haven, Moving On - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/26njH...

Fair Haven's second black church, renamed the Fisk Chapel when it was rebuilt in 1882, was paid for by General Fisk and is still open today. These days, on most Sundays there are no more than 35 people attending services at Fisk Chapel, though it was not always that way. "It's sad to see," said 99-year-old Ethel Armstrong. "Even in 1974, when the new church was built, we had a large congregation. There are so few people coming now." The school attended by the town's black students from kindergarten through eighth grade, eventually known as the Fisk School, was still in operation until the mid-1940's, and many of the borough's remaining black residents studied there. "We were resigned to it, going to our own school," said 74-year-old Arthur Berry, a lifelong Fair Haven resident. "As far as education goes, we had no problems when we moved on and went to the integrated high school in Rumson. We were ahead of the white kids. That's because our teachers were better than theirs." Raymond Taylor, 83, who also attended Fisk, and other longtime residents said that although blacks and whites went their separate ways in the past, there was never any racial tension or any reason for the blacks to feel uncomfortable. "Blacks have a habit of sticking together in their community, whether they look poor or what," Mr. Taylor said. "They carry their history with them. There are very few whites in this town who can track their history back in the town like the blacks can." Mr. Taylor came to Fair Haven at the age of 2 to be raised by his aunt, Ella Bailey, who he said was the first black graduate from Red Bank High School, in 1882. He said his ancestors were former slaves from Manalapan who bought land in Fair Haven in the 1800's. Today, Mr. Taylor and his wife are the last African-Americans living on a street that used to be predominantly black. With his children no longer living in town, his house, which has been in his family for more than 115 years, is another that may eventually be torn down. Jesse Harris, 70, and his wife, Marcelline, 65, live on Browns Lane, a one-block-long street toward the east side of town. Mrs. Harris is a direct descendant of the Brown family, for whom the street is named. The Browns settled on the street in the 1830's and took up virtually the entire block for nearly 130 years. Now, just two homes on the block are occupied by black families. Members of the Brown family and other black residents of Fair Haven clashed with the forces of change in 1999 when a white family was permitted to build over what many believed was once a black cemetery. "There was quite a bit of outrage over this and a number of heated discussions with the zoning commission down at town hall," Mr. Harris said. "We couldn't stop the steamrollers from rolling in. It's done now. There's nothing we can do about it." A Vanishing Culture The Historical Association of Fair Haven was determined to prevent a similar fate from befalling the original Fisk Chapel, which opened in 1882 and was the primary black church in town and the center of black social life. In 1974, the church became too small for its sizable congregation, and a new Fisk Chapel was built. The borough took over the old chapel, renamed it Bicentennial Hall and used it for about 25 years as a community center before closing it. With the building vacant and in disrepair, the Borough Council was prepared to demolish it despite its place on the state and national registers of historic places. "I'm not sure how much the commission cared about its historical significance," said Pat Drummond, president of the Historical Association. "They just saw this as on opportunity to make a quick buck for the town."

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In Fair Haven, Moving On - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/26njH...

But members of the Historical Society successfully fought the move, and have raised $400,000 for the building's renovation, which could begin this year. It was a significant victory, but not something that can reverse an inexorable trend. Fair Haven is moving on, and its black residents, though disappointed, are largely resigned to the situation. Among those who remain, there is little anger or finger-pointing. Harold Albert was born in Fair Haven 77 years ago and has lived here his entire life, with the exception of the 10 years he spent in Tinton Falls. His house was built in 1865 by his great uncle Nathan Williams, the son of Charles Williams, and descendants of the Williams family have lived in it ever since. Because the house is not on the river it is worth less than Mrs. Robards's house, and the property taxes are not quite as exorbitant. Still, they are enough that Mr. Albert and his wife, Jeanette, say they will eventually have to move. "Yes, it's upsetting to me that our black culture is disappearing," Mr. Albert said. "There's nothing that can be done about it now. I pay $8,000 a year in property taxes, and I'm retired and on a fixed income. That's hard to afford. I've always wanted to die in this house. I don't think that's going to happen."
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