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“The Point,” a historic Black neighborhood in Haddonfield, is now among the more than 400 historical designations in the borough.
A Friday ceremony at Ellis and Potter streets celebrated the unveiling of the historical marker design that will be installed later this year by the New Jersey Historical Commission. “The Point” is also among the first 51 destinations that will be part of the state’s Black Heritage Trail.
The ceremony was part of a series of events organized by the Preserving Black Haddonfield History Project as part of the borough’s official pre-Juneteenth celebration. After the ceremony, there was a walking tour featuring 12 sites in the neighborhood.
On Saturday, a screening of a docu-series featuring first-hand accounts of “trials and triumphs” from “The Point” will take place at Kings Road Brewing Company on Kings Highway East. In the evening, an “American Bandstand-style” Sadie Hawkins dance party and barbecue will take place.
“The Point” is a stop along New Jersey’s Black Heritage Trail
Signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in September 2022, the Black Heritage Trail program was created to boost Black history, heritage and culture while highlighting sites through historical markers.
“The Point” was nominated in the initial nominating round in March 2024.
“We had our advisory committee review all of the nominations that were submitted, and we ultimately were able to provide these to the commissioners for the New Jersey Historical Commission,” said Dr. Synatra Smith, project manager with the historical commission.
The historic neighborhood joins other sites across the state, from Bergen County to Cape May. Among the sites are the Borough of Lawnside, Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson and Franklin Street School in Cape May, plus two sites honoring Thomas Mundy Peterson in Middlesex County.
Peterson was the first Black person to vote after the passage of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It was ratified in February 1870.
“He was from Metuchen, and he voted in Perth Amboy. So, we’ve got markers going in both sites for him,” Smith said.
The commission is going through a second round of nominations, with more historical sites expected to be announced in September.
The process is rigorous, according to C. Adrienne Rhodes, co-founder of the Preserving Black Haddonfield History Project.
“We had to name several primary and secondary sources. This is not something that the Historical Society is doing lightly,” she said. “In addition to identifying those sources, we had to do an annotated bibliography. It’s a very complicated process, but we stuck to it.”
Last year, Rhodes’ organization installed two historical markers recognizing Haddonfield’s Black history for the first time since the borough was founded in 1713.
Rhodes, who is also a member of the WHYY Community Advisory Board, said the marker for “The Point” is the first one from the state recognizing the borough’s Black history.
“There are over 400 historic designations in this borough. None of them were black. And now we’re going to have one at ‘The Point,’” she said.
