Herman Hotel - Built in three sections

Title:
Herman Hotel - Built in three sections

Description:
Herman Hotel that burned down in 1989. In 1987 I interviewed local New Jersey historian Budd Wilson. He explained that the Herman City Hotel was built in three sections "west", "center" and "east"). At the time, he explained the history of its construction as follows: In 1750 Nicholas Sooy built a house on the Mullica River in the area of Green Bank, Burlington Co., NJ. An addition (the center section) was built on it circa 1840s. In 1869, a glasshouse was built just to the east of the property. The Koster family purchased the Sooy house and built another addition (the eastern section) on it. The western end of the hotel is the oldest section. He based this order of construction on the papers of architect G. Edwin Brumbaugh. There is controversy about this. The family said the center section was the oldest. In 1987, I met a Mark Andrews of Mt. Holly, NJ who did amateur excavation of the fill around the foundation. Andrews also used the door locks to date the structure. He said the center section was the oldest. Andrews and I visited Budd and presented him with with this new information. Budd recently told me, that the trim features (including the chair rail mentioned in my Herman City Hotel 6 video) indicates that the first floor of the center section appears to be the oldest section. Regardless of the order of construction, by 1869 when the Kosters arrived, the three-section 18-room property became known as the Herman City Hotel and provided some lodging and bar entertainment for the glasshouse workers (there was also a boarding house for the workers). The glasshouse and Herman City were the hopes of Brooklyn and Egg Harbor investors for a community clustered around the glasshouse and hotel. The glasshouse failed during the Panic of 1873. Herman City also folded and many of the buildings soon disappeared. Joseph Wharton, ex-Mayor of Philadelphia and entrepreneur, purchased most of the land that was Herman City. After 1873, the house remained the homestead of the Koster family until January 1984 when the last resident died. I brought much attention to the property in 1987 as a Drexel student producing a research video documentary on the town. I conducted interviews and videotaped the area extensively from January to June 1987. On March 2, 1987, local resident, archeologist and historian Charles "Budd" Wilson toured the house with me on video. First 10 seconds of this video is silent. Copyright TechnerVideo all rights reserved. To see the whole series, go to the Herman City playlist http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=DB24F67CCF55C5D8

Author:
TechnerVideo

Tags:
Herman, Hermann, Hotel, Wilson, Koster, Mullica, Jersey, History, Pine, Barrens, Pineland, Piney, Andrews, Excavation, Brumbaugh,