The iconic wooden welcome arch that stood for a time at the entrance to Lincoln Park at 7th Terrace will be making a comeback, thanks to planning being done by the folks at the Neighborhood Preservation Program, a program administered by the NJ Department of Community Affairs.
The arch was dismantled in the early 1930s when the White Horse Pike (Rt. 30) was widened but has remained a treasured memory of the city’s residents.
The City Council Thursday, June 8 gave NPP Coordinator Karen Adams the go-ahead to start the regulatory process needed to ensure a smaller replica of the arch gets built on a city-owned parcel in the middle of the 100-block of Philadelphia Avenue. The city took ownership of the parcel after a major fire about 10 years ago burned the old Ed & Rick’s grocery and deli.
The NPP is turning the vacant lot in the heart of the downtown business district into a gathering place for residents to enjoy community events, concerts, movies and more, and has named it “Archway Greene.”
The improvements, which the NPP hopes to fund with a $250,000 grant, include 12 public parking spaces at the rear of the property, including one that will be available to serve those with disabilities, a raised stage area, lighting, native landscaping, and an open green space.
The council previously provided the approval for the city’s grant coordinator to apply for the American Rescue Plan grant being administered by the DCA. If the grant is not approved, the NPP has funding available to implement the improvement over the next three years.
Archway Greene was designed by architect Benjamin F. Risley Jr. of the Scott Taylor Design Group of Egg Harbor City.
The NPP will now seek the approval of the NJ Pinelands Commission to begin the project.
The NPP is a grant-funded program dedicated to neighborhood preservation and revitalization activities that support housing and economic development activities. The DCA provides $125,000 a year for a five-year period to implement economic development activities that revitalize neighborhoods.
The EHC NPP is also forwarding a façade upgrade program for downtown business owners, has purchased planters and flowers to beautify the Philadelphia Avenue streetscape, and is working to upgrade First Responders Park on the northwest corner of Philadelphia Avenue and Route 30. That project includes adding trees, a flagpole area and a “center of place” sign that spells out Egg Harbor City along the existing curved hardscaped fence.
For more information about the NPP and Archway Greene, contact Karen Adams at [email protected].
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