AUGUSTA HILL ROAD BRIDGE HAER No. NJ-85 (Bridge D-7) Spanning the east branch of the Paulins Kill at Augusta Hill Road Augusta Sussex County New Jersey PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY National Park Service Northeast Region U.S. Custom House 200 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD AUGUSTA HILL ROAD BRIDGE HAER No. NJ-85 (Bridge D-7) Location: Carrying Augusta Hill Road over the east branch of Paulins Kill approximately one hundred feet southwest of the intersection of Augusta Hill Road, Plains Road, and United States Route 206, Augusta, Frankford Township, Sussex County, New Jersey. UTM: 18.522630.4552770 Quad: Branchville, New Jersey Date of Construction: circa 1886 Present Owner: Sussex County Administration Building Plotts Road Newton, New Jersey 07860 Present Use: Vehicular bridge. Significance: The Augusta Hill Bridge is significant as one of the few remaining bridges designed by the I. P. Bartley Bridge Company of Bartley, New Jersey. The Augusta Hill Road Bridge is a typical example of a late­ nineteenth century steel Pratt, pin-connected, half-hip pony truss bridge. The Augusta Hill Road Bridge has been determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Project Information: This documentation was undertaken in January 1993 in accordance with a Memorandum of Agreement between the Federal Highway Administration and the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Officer as a mitigative measure prior to bridge replacement. Glenn A. Ceponis Historic Preservation Group Kise, Franks, and Straw Philadelphia, PA Augusta Hill Road Bridge (Bridge D-7) HAER No. NJ-85 (Page 2) The Augusta Hill Road Bridge is located in Augusta, Frankford Township, Sussex County, New Jersey. Augusta is approximately two miles south of Branchville and six miles north of Newton, the county seat. Augusta Hill Road provides a transportation link between County Route 519 and United States Route 206. The bridge carries Augusta Hill Road over the east branch of the Paulins Kill River. The bridge is located approximately one hundred feet southwest of U.S. Route 206 and approximately two hundred feet northeast of an abandoned railroad right-of-way. The immediate area surrounding the bridge is rural in- character comprised of scattered houses and farmland. Most notable is the Gustin/Bray House, a historic inn (currently a private residence) dating to the eighteenth century, located directly in line with Augusta Hill Road on the northeast side of U.S. 206.1 Frankford Township lies within the west central portion of Sussex County. It encompasses varying topography, including a portion of the Blue Mountain Range along its northwest border. Despite its relatively rough and uneven terrain, the township has remained fertile and highly productive agriculturally. Much of the agricultural economy centered on the production of dairy products, including butter and milk; however, fruits and grains were also prevalent crops.2 Much of Augusta's early success can be traced to its proximity to well-traveled roads. The earliest known roadway within Frankford Township connected Balesville in Hampton Township to Deckertown (Sussex) in Wantage Township. Augusta Hill Road comprised a portion of this roadway through Augusta.3 It is unclear whether Augusta Hill Road forded or bridged the Paulins Kill in Augusta, however, the road's relative importance may suggest the existence of an early bridge at the site. The Morris Turnpike (currently U.S. Route 206) was the earliest turnpike in the area. Completed in 1807, it extended from Long Bridge in Frankford north to Rainsville in Sandyston Township. The turnpike took advantage of a natural cut through the Blue Mountains at Culver's Gap in Frankford Township. The route continued on into Pennsylvania at Milford. The Dover turnpike combined with the Morris Turnpike less than a mile east of Augusta at Ross's Corner.4 The location of these turnpikes and roadways proved advantageous to Augusta's settlement and development. By the beginning of the nineteenth century Augusta was noted as the center of Frankford Township's commercial interests.5 The area's first resident, Hugh Hagerty, settled in the area around 1750. Following Hagerty's death, John Gustin, another early resident of Augusta, purchased Hagerty's land. In 1795 Gustin constructed an inn and tavern on the property. The building still stands (1993) at the north corner of the juncture of Augusta Hill Road, Plains Road, and U.S. 206. Gustin had extensive land holdings in the area. He also managed a successful fulling-mill, store, ashery, and established Augusta's first post office. John Bray purchased 1Kate Gordon, Sussex County Arts and Heritage Council, The 1991 Historic House Tour of Sussex County (Newton, NJ: Sussex County Arts and Heritage Council, 1991), np. 2John Barber and Henry Howe, Historical Collections of the State ofNew Jersey (New York: S. Tuttle, 1844), 464; James P. Snell, History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881), 390. 3snell, Sussex and Warren Counties, 392-93; Culver Brook Restoration Foundation, Historical Architectural Survey of Frankford Township and the Borough ofBranchville, Sussex County, New Jersey. Survey on file at the Office of New Jersey Heritage, Trenton, New Jersey, 9. 4snell, Sussex and Warren Counties, 393 and insert map. Ssnell, Sussex and Warren Counties, 390; Culver Brook Restoration Foundation,Architectural Survey of Frankford Township, 12. Augusta Hill Road Bridge (Bridge D-7) HAER No. NJ-85 (Page 3) Gustin's inn in 1824. The inn and tavern functioned as one of the station stops for the Newark and Owego stage. Prior to his purchase of the tavern, Bray worked as a drover and his inn later became a rendezvous for drovers passing through the area. The building remained in use as an inn into the twentieth century when it was converted to a residence.6 Development in Augusta occurred principally along the Morris Turnpike, though growth also took place along Plains and Augusta Hill Roads.7 By the 1840s Augusta, which remained largely an agricultural community, contained a Presbyterian church, and fifteen to twenty dwellings. By this date Branchville, located approximately two miles north of Augusta, had begun to eclipse Augusta as the township's residential, commercial, and industrial nucleus. First settled in the late seventeenth century, Branchville had superior opportunities for the development of water-powered industries, with approximately 300 feet of developable fall within a two-mile stretch. Branchville experienced considerable development beginning in the 1830s, and by the 1840s supported a population of approximately 200 inhabitants.8 Industries in Branchville during the 1840s included grist and saw mills, cloth-dying and dressing establishments, a weaver, cooper, blacksmith, and cabinet maker, as well as a carriage manufactory.9 Establishment of a railway into Branchville insured the village's continued dominance of the township's economy. Schemes for the construction of a railroad across Sussex County began as early as 1836; however, this and other early railroad ventures did not materialize. A charter for the Sussex Mine Railroad was granted in 1848 for Cooper and Hewett's Andover iron mining operations. The railroad connected Cooper & Hewett's various mining operations to the Morris Canal at Waterloo. In 1852 Newton residents in neighboring Hampton Township petitioned the railroad, renamed the Sussex Railroad in 1853, to extend its line north to their community, and in 1854 the Sussex Railroad reached Newton. In 1866 William Bell, of Branchville, began securing right-of-way for the northern extension of the Sussex Railroad from Drake's Pond through Lafayette into Branchville. On July 3, 1869 the extension to Branchville became operational.IO Completion of the railway had dramatic effects on Branchville. Over sixty new buildings were constructed in the town during the next year. Despite the railroad's passage through Augusta, and the erection of a train station there, local development was now firmly centered in Branchville. Augusta declined rapidly and by 1881 few vestiges remained of the once thriving community.11 Augusta's decline continued into the twentieth century. By 1901 Augusta's population numbered only seventy-five. Augusta's only industrial plant consisted of a cream separating business producing paper sizing from waste curds and converting whey into milk-sugar.12 The plant stood southwest of the Augusta Hill Road Bridge across Augusta Hill Road from the railway station. By the early twentieth century two railroads served the area; the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western (Branchville Extension) and the Lehigh and New England Railroad (Swartswood Junction). By 6Gordon, Historic House Tour, np; Snell, Sussex and Warren Counties, 399. 7G. M. Hopkins, Jr., Map of Sussex County, New Jersey (Philadelphia: Carlos Allen), 1860. 8Barber and Howe, Historical Collections, 465. 9Ibid. lOA.Van Doren Honeyman, Northwestern New Jersey: A History of Somerset, Morris, Hunterdon, Warren, and Sussex Counties (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1922), 578-79. llsnell, Sussex and Warren Counties, 399. 12New Jersey Buteau of Statistics, The Industrial Directory ofNew Jersey (Trenton: Bureau of Statistics, 1901), 25-26. Augusta Hill Road Bridge (Bridge D-7) HAER No. NJ-85 (Page 4) 1927 Augusta's population had further declined to approximately fifty-six, while Branchville had grown to approximately 590.13 Farmers and transportation companies began demanding improved roadways within Frankford Township during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. By 1881 Frankford Township created forty-seven road districts and allocated $1,800 for road improvements.14 Augusta Hill Road played an important roll in the area's transportation network as both an access route to the Morris Turnpike and as a through route to Deckertown. Bridging the Paulins Kill along Augusta Hill Road may have been a direct response to the demand for better area roadways. The Augusta Hill Road Bridge is a four panel, steel, half-hip, Pratt pony truss highway bridge.