Bridgeton Main Street Association Invites Public Into Homes, Historic Sites For Holiday Tour

By: Gavin Schweiger, Follow South Jersey Assistant Editor

BRIDGETON ­— The Bridgeton Main Street Association hosted its annual Holiday House Tour on Saturday, December 6, where 18 locations in the city opened their doors to the public.

For $10 a ticket, people walked down East and West Commerce Street and surrounding streets, visiting historic landmarks, and other businesses and non-profits.

Each host offered something different to guests, whether it was food, drinks, antique and history displays, or a party.

“I want other people to experience the gems in our town,” said organizer Stefanie Modri.

Some places opened to show off the long and storied history of Bridgeton, like the Olde Brearly Lodge. Built in 1797, the lodge is the oldest continually used Masonic lodge, where Masons still meet to this day.

Other locations along East Commerce Street included the Bridgeton firehouse, the “Pocket Park,” Gallery 50, and non-profits such as United Advocacy Group and Hopeloft — which owns Follow South Jersey.

On West Commerce Street, people visited sites like Potter’s Tavern, First Presbyterian Church, and many of the houses.

Many were historic homes such as the Laura M. Elmer House, built in 1873 and now owned by Helen Conner. Conner decorated the house with Christmas lights and classic decorations, and a portion of her angel collection.

Conner would buy angels for her mother when she saw them in stores. When her mother died, Conner got the angels back but bought more over time when they reminded her of her mother. By her count a few years ago, she had around 300 angels.

The Hann and Moore House, built in the 1800s and now owned by Flavia Alaya and Sandy Feddema, holds a vast collection of items, each one with a story that Feddema recited by heart.

Retired engineer Jeff Fogg also set up in the Hann and Moore House, outside of which is the “Great Ironstone Wall of Bridgeton.” A historic wall, it fell in 2018. Fogg and Feddema set off on a years-long mission to clean up and rebuild the wall. Fogg recounted the story in detail during the tour.

Other homeowners, though not in as historic of homes, decorated and opened their properties for the public to gather. These included the Wilks Mesias House and the Bloomfield Minch House.

The last stop on the tour was the Ayars Taylor House, owned by Richard Ayars and Mark Taylor. It has a fully decorated Christmas tree in every room, among the nutcrackers and other decorations throughout the home.

Before becoming a stop on the tour, Ayars thought he couldn’t be a part of it until another homeowner asked him to join.

“I was like, ‘I don’t have a historic house,’ and this is kind of the 1950s rancher. They’re like, ‘yeah, I don’t care. You do a lot of decorating,’” Ayars said. “This bathroom has a tiny little tree in it and it’s a little bathroom.”

132 people bought tickets for the tour, according to Modri. Most visitors were local, though some came from Atlantic County, Delaware, and one even from Virginia.

Many had positive feedback for the tour.

“It’s amazing. The history, just the community. Just being able to go into people’s homes,” said Annabelle Hernandez, a Bridgeton native and eventgoer. “People’s homes are private…it’s not something that you really see here in this city, it’s really nice.”

Joan Riley, from Camden County, went on the tour with friends. They like visiting different communities and doing house tours when they can.

“It’s a festive fun thing to do during the holidays,” Riley said.

Some, according to Modri, had difficulty understanding how the tour worked.

“So, one of the feedback points that I got was that my website needs to be more informative because people were like, ‘do I walk this? Is it a bus? Do I drive it?’ And ‘is this the outside of the house, the inside of the house?’” Modri said.

Other issues came up as well. There were originally 20 locations to visit, but two had to close off “due to illness.”

For next year, Modri has ideas to spread the word farther and have some of the homes between sites on the tour decorated “more than usual” and display signs with their history to have more for visitors to see during their time.

Despite some challenges, she thought the day went well.

“Everyone coming on a house tour is great,” Modri said. “They’re curious, they’re interested, and you never know what you’re going to get on a house tour.”

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