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Fund for Roosevelt, Inc.
(4) New Deal Nursery 12.4 Acre Meadow (2003) - Summary (3) Erosion Control and Wetland Restoration (with Borough Environmental Commission (2002-2006) (2) Score Sheet for the Fund's
Second Farmland Project: (1) Score Sheet for the Fund's
First Farmland Project: Link to photograph by Louise Rosskam of our logo tree on the southern farm ca. 1989
Monmouth Conservation Foundation continues to make a very important contribution to the success of the first preservation project of the Fund for Roosevelt. We extend to them our sincere thanks for their support and trust. Frankly, they took a risk on us. The MCF view of their support is described in the Fall/Winter 2000 issue of their newsletter, Green Spaces. We encourage our supporters to learn more about and to support MCF. MCF can be contacted at (732) 671-7000 or, by letter, at P. O. Box 191, Middletown, New Jersey 07748. Monmouth County Agriculture Development Board (MCADB) - praises innovative preservation by Fund for Roosevelt in the Spring 2001 issue of their newsletter ECO-LOGIC.
About the Fund for Roosevelt - Roosevelt (Monmouth Co.) is the only municipality in New Jersey that is, in its entirety, a registered National and State Historic District. At present, Roosevelt is a town of about 340 homes and less than 1,000 people. It was established in 1936 as a utopian experiment of the New Deal era. We are small enough so that we don't have mail delivery. We walk or drive to the post office every day. The post office, the deli, and the bulletin board between them are the main means through which news of the community is exchanged on a daily basis...births, marriages, deaths, politics, school affairs, and our future as a town. Because of the innovative "greenbelt" design of the Borough, our town fits in among existing wetlands in such a way that we can walk a "block and a half" from practically any house in town and be in wetlands habit of the New Jersey threatened Wood Turtle (Clemmys insculpta) or the New Jersey threatened Blunt-lobed Grape Fern (Botrychium oneidense). The farmland in the Borough was part of its orginal design and is called out explicitly in the documentation of our National Historic Site status. Hence, the farmland in the Borough should, to the greatest degree possible, remain farmland. The wetlands should be protected similarly -- to the greatest extent possible, and a stewardship program for the wetlands and forests should be established. Without our Roosevelt Public School, we would cease to be a viable town and slip away into a "bedroom community with a history." The members of the Fund for Roosevelt, Inc. and our active contributors want to preserve our history, our natural environment, and our town's future as a real community. We want to preserve those things that make Roosevelt Roosevelt. To learn more of the Borough's social, cultural, and artistic history and of its current commitments to education, preservation of open space, and the arts, view the subpages of this site dedicated to the natural, historic, and social resources of our town - the only municipality in New Jersey that is, in its entirety, a registered National and State Historic District.
News Highlight (19 December 2000)
Gov. Whitman with "Mr.
L." and his fifth grade students at Roosevelt Public
School, 19 December 2000. Jersey Homesteads National and State Historic District, 22 December 2000 -- images of the Historic District in the snow -- Empty Box Brook, Roosevelt Cemetery, Roosevelt Woodland Trail. In July, 2001, the Fund lost a beloved friend, supporter, adviser, and trustee -- Judith Trachtenberg, Esq. The New Jersey Center for Non-Profits issued the following statement: "Judith
Trachtenberg "It is with unspeakable sadness that we announce the passing of Judith Trachtenberg on July 6, 2001. "Judy was affiliated with the Center for over 16 years, first as a staff member and then as attorney-consultant, providing legal and management assistance to newly forming and established non-profit organizations. She also maintained a private legal practice in Roosevelt, NJ. "Judy was a passionate activist who brought warmth, humor, integrity and a strong sense of social justice to every aspect of her life. The existence and well being of thousands of thriving non-profit organizations in New Jersey are a direct result of her efforts. She served on the boards of many organizations, including the Roosevelt Arts Project, the Fund for Roosevelt, New Jersey Policy Perspective, Mercer Street Friends, and Storytelling Arts. She was deeply involved with many others, including the Housing and Community Development Network and Legal Services of New Jersey, which awarded her its Equal Justice Medal in 1995 in recognition of her dedication. The Center for Non-Profits owes its continued existence to her tremendous knowledge, loyalty and strength. Words cannot fully capture all the lives she touched and the immeasurable difference she made to the people of New Jersey. We mourn the loss of a colleague, mentor, advocate, teacher, and close friend. "Donations in her memory may be sent to the Fund for Roosevelt, P. O. Box 404, Roosevelt, NJ 08555, or Canine Companions for Independence, P. O. Box 446, Santa Rosa, CA 95402-0446. "Persons wanting more information can call the Center at 732 227-0800 or check our [Center for Non-Profits] website at njnonprofits.org." This tribute also appeared in the newsletter of the Center for Non-Profit Corporations, Front & Center, Summer 2001 issue. Our local weekly newspaper's tribute to Judy can be found on our most recent "What the Press Says" page. In mid-January, 2001, the Fund lost an endlessly optimistic friend, trustee, and exuberant supporter, Sol Libsohn. Sol was a man filled with so much joy and enthusiasm for life that it was uncontainable and was always spilling out around him. A child, a fresh fig, a tiny spring flower, a fern successfully transplanted to his eclectic garden, an old jazz record, a new recording of Handel quartets, or preservation of his home town, all these received the bounty Sol had to give. Sol was a great photographer with an uncanny eye for human emotion and a firmly founded social conscience. He photographed for the Works Progress Administration; was a member of the Film and Photo League (later, the Photo League), called the only U.S. organization "worthy of mention as being dedicated to social photography," and the first teacher of photo-technique at the Photo League School (1938); was part of an amazingly unfettered team of photographers working with Roy Stryker for, among other organizations, Standard Oil and the Pittsburgh Photographic Library; was a teacher of art and photography; and, when he could no longer steady a camera, became an abstract painter. Many times his friends have waited alertly for the next words when Sol began, "I have a bright idea." Confidence? The man was loaded with it. He is said to have had impeccable taste in all manners of design, to have been able to select clothes unerringly for friends and family, and to have made the best rice pudding in town. Some Links: "Food for New York" photos (1938) - this link is to the first of fifteen pages of Sol's photos; movement between pages is controlled at the bottom of each page. Portrait of Lewis Wickes Hine (1930's). The Chelsea Document (1940). Museum of Modern Art "The Image of Freedom" competition (1941). Federal Government's accusations against the Photo League (1947). Pittsburgh Photographic Library photos (1950). (27 January 2001)
"Did you know?" - a
sampling of facts about an extraordinary town.
Photo
demonstrating the pleasures of appraising farmland
adjacent to wetlands...
Revised 24
August 2004. |
save remaining open space
in the Borough of Roosevelt
Former New Jersey
Gov. Christine Todd Whitman preparing to speak at the
signing of a New Jersey Farmland Preservation
Appropriations Bill, 19 December 2000 in the Roosevelt
Public School. The bill completed appropriation of state
funding for completion of the Fund's first 240 acre
preservation project and introduced new methods of
government-nonprofit partnering for farmland
preservation. In the background left to right, Secretary
of Agriculture Art Brown (partially hidden); Rodham E.
Tulloss, President of the Fund for Roosevelt; and
Assemblyman Joseph Malone.
Two Executive
Committee Members of the 
