Woodbury Bird's Eye View Map - 129 Years Later

Since discovering the delicately hand illustrated O. H. Bailey "Bird's-Eye-View" Map of Woodbury, N.J. from 1886, I have often wondered what those lovely views outlining the map look like today. After some research and some quick Google and Bing Mapping, I had the answer. Presented here, without comment are the scenes as they look today from the exact vantage point wherever possible.

Draw your own conclusions... unfortunately you don't see a lot of adaptive reuse through the years but rather a good amount of tear-downs. Thankfully a few buildings remain to this day - exactly 9 out of 26 shown here.

Click or download for larger images...

Please note this is the original location of the Constitution building
which later moved a few doors to the left and which is currently still standing

Green Hotel STILL Threatened!

Update: It's gone.

http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2015/04/pre-demolition_work_underway_at_green_hotel.html

http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2014/08/woodbury_approves_demolition_of_victorian-era_green_hotel.html

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URGENT!!

Holy Angels Parish overseen by the Diocese of Camden will yet again attempt to apply for demolition for the historic Green Castle Hotel located at 85 Cooper Street in Woodbury, NJ. Your help is needed! The last thing Woodbury needs is more surface parking!

You will have an opportunity to speak out against this intended action in person at the following times:

Holy Angels Parish will appear before the City of Woodbury's Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) on 8/13/2014 at 7pm.

HPC's decision is then turned over to the joint Planning/Zoning Board which will meet on: 8/20/2014 at 7pm.

Please also consider sending polite but firm emails to the City of Woodbury Mayor and Council stating that you are against demolition:

Mayor: Bill Volk Tracey L. Parker	BVolk@woodbury.nj.us (856) 845-1300 ext. 137 Tparker@woodbury.nj.us
Lester Lockman	LLockman@woodbury.nj.us
Danielle Carter	DCarter@woodbury.nj.us
David Trovato	DTrovato@woodbury.nj.us
Theodore Johnson, Jr.	TJohnson@woodbury.nj.us
William H. Fleming	BFleming@woodbury.nj.us
Heather S. Tierney	HTierney@woodbury.nj.us
Richard Hock	RHock@woodbury.nj.us
David Swanson	DSwanson@woodbury.nj.us

In addition please contact the Parish and Diocese and tell them you are against demolition:

Holy Angels Parish

64 Cooper Street

Woodbury, NJ

08096

Phone: 856-845-0123 

Fax: 856-845-7409

Email: mail@holyangelsnj.org 

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Diocese of Camden 

631 Market Street

Camden, NJ 

08102 

Phone: 856-756-7900 

Fax: 856-963-2655

and of course

Bishop Dennis Sullivan
510 Cooper Street
Woodbury, NJ
08096

Tell the Catholic church that they should be more concerned with building communities and not in tearing them down! "Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set." - Proverbs 22:28

Green's Almanac Precursor, Daily Advertiser 1877 FOUND!

A recent donation from a Green-relation estate clean-out has revealed a heretofore unknown precursor to the popular August Flower almanac. Before Woodbury's multimillionaire, G.G. Green, introduced the world to his patent medicine remedies by way of his colorful August Flower almanacs, shown above, it is now known that he first experimented with a newspaper format. The first of his almanacs appeared under the title Green's Pictorial Almanac and began publication on September 1878. The newly discovered Daily Advertiser Vol.1, No.1 predates Green's almanac format by nearly a year, with a publishing date of February 22nd, 1877.

U.S. Patent Image

This is the only known issue and the fact that it resembles a common daily newspaper of the time probably had more to do with a clever advertising technique than any desire on the part of the firm to continue regular publication. In any case, the newspaper format was switched over to the colorful almanac, which by 1878 was beginning to grow in popularity and usage for other patent medicine firms. Green's almanac was printed in-house at his Green Avenue, Woodbury, NJ laboratory utilizing his nine printing press fleet (see image below). It proved so popular for him that he took out a patent for the publication in 1882. In 1883 alone, five million copies of his almanacs printed in English, German, French, and Spanish were distributed worldwide. As a result, Woodbury's Post Office ranked seventh in the state for postal revenue. Not bad for a small (but growing) rural community at the time.

Green's Laboratory Printing Room

Editions of the August Flower almanac are routinely found worldwide in academic library and museum collections pertaining to early American ephemera and advertising and this recent discovery is an important part of the U. S. patent medicine advertising timeline. Given its current deteriorating condition and being the only issue in possible existence, it is important that this undergoes professional conservation treatment. As always, if you'd like to donate towards the conservation, collection, and digital preservation of any historic item pertaining to Woodbury this can be done easily via our PayPal donation link to the left. For now, the pre-treated Daily Advertiser has been digitally scanned and we here at the VGPS proudly present this exciting publication for your enjoyment below.* Not to be missed is the Woodbury is Looking Up article found on page three. This virtual tour of 1877 Woodbury clearly describes the notable buildings and surroundings up and down Broad, Delaware, Cooper, Euclid and Evergreen and features the old Colonial-style Gloucester County Court House, Woodbury Town Hall and more. Download and view the following images on your computer for easier reading.

For a more comprehensive chronology for the Green's August Flower Almanac visit: 

An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine and Health Reform 

August 1878 announcement of new almanac publication

* These images are property of the Village Green Preservation Society and may only be used for educational purposes or personal use. A credit statement and link attributing the Village Green Preservation Society, Woodbury, NJ must appear alongside any reproduction.

Paschal Medara: Woodbury's Victorian Architect

An original envelope showing the inscription of Allen & Medara

Not much is known about Woodbury's own 19th century architect and builder, Mr. Paschal Medara, yet some of his wonderful buildings still inspire us today. He was described in 1910 as "an architect of rare ability" having planned the city's "most prominent buildings." Even to this day anyone who passes through Woodbury has most likely laid eyes on his creations in the form of the Green Opera House block on Broad (recently restored by RPM Development) and the Green Laboratory on Green Avenue (Woodbury Mews). Medara's other buildings that have been lost to the ages continue to live through historic photographs and lithographs and have appeared worldwide in 19th and 20th century issues of Green's August Flower Almanac.

Odd Fellows Hall

In the mid-1840's, Paschal's father, Jacob was involved with Woodbury in part as a building committee and was responsible for the erection of the now demolished Odd Fellows Hall formerly on Cooper Street. Perhaps it was through this involvement that his son became interested in the creation of grand civic buildings roughly 30 years later. Whatever the case, Paschal Medara came to be - one could consider- the personal architect to Woodbury's multimillionaire family, the Greens. Having designed both Lewis and George G. Green's palatial mansions (pictured below) he also designed, among many others, the lab and opera house, as mentioned above and most likely the Merritt's Drugstore corner building commissioned by G.G. How this relationship with the Green family developed is unclear but records show interestingly enough that both Medara and G.G. Green were in Company E, 6th Regiment of the National Guard; Medara a Corporal, G.G. a Captain (later Colonel). According to New Jersey Civil War Gravestones website, Paschal Medara was also a Union Civil War US Navy Seaman who served aboard the USS Catskill.

A feature on Medara in the 1878 issue of the Green's Almanac

Paschal Medara's obituary notice in the Jul 30 1910
issue of the Woodbury Daily Times

Paschal now lies quietly beside his mother and father (Lydia Ann Dilks and Jacob R. Medara) in the Mantua Cemetery, his accomplishments nearly forgotten. Although very few associate his name with the buildings, I like to think that he would be happy to know that his laboratory and his opera house have been restored in recent years, much to the pride of his old hometown.

Paschal Medara's gravestone

Let's take a look at some of his astounding creations:

Medara's Gray Towers mansion for G.G.Green
Learn everything about the mansion HERE

Medara's Gray Towers is featured in the seminal reference book:
A Field Guide to American Houses

Medara's Italianate mansion for Mayor Lewis Morris Green

Medara's Laboratory for the Greens.
It was a state of the art lab/factory with bottling rooms, printing press, offices, etc.

... and don't forget the grand stable house in the rear of the lab

Medara's Opera House block.
He may have designed the church in the rear as well

Medara's Drugstore Corner Block

Medara's architectural creations live on
through the MANY Green Almanacs
and August Flower sales materials

Result of True Merit