Nick Seifert has been hired after previously serving as band director at Immaculata High School in Somerville, N.J.

WARMINSTER, PA —William Tennent High School has a new director for its marching band.

The Centennial School District has announced that Nick Seifert, who hails from Bridgewater N.J., has been hired after previously serving as band director at Immaculata High School in Somerville, N.J.

In his prior position, Seifert directed the Spartan Marching Band, three in-school concert bands, assisted with Jazz Band and Pit Orchestra, and advised the Tri-M Music Honor Society, school officials said.

Under his leadership, the Spartan Marching Band made an exciting entrance to the NJMBDA circuit, finishing in the Top 5 out of 25 competing bands in the state, and capturing the BOA Piscataway Regional Class A Championship.

Seifert graduated from the University of Notre Dame with majors in saxophone performance and biological science. He studied saxophone with Wade Armentrout and conducted with Dan Stowe.

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He was involved throughout with the Band of the Fighting Irish, performing with the Marching and Pep Bands, Symphonic Winds, Jazz Bands, Saxophone Ensemble, and on the annual Concert Band Tour.

For his service to the band, he was awarded the Notre Dame Outstanding Band Member Award in 2020, school officials said.

Outside of school, Seifert is an active director, performer, and arranger.

He is in his second season playing lead mellophone in the DCA World-Class Champion Hawthorne Caballeros. Seifert also serves as director of Somerset Hills Harmony, a mixed A Capella and competitive Barbershop Chorus.

Seifert is also a long-time handbell musician, performing with church choirs, collegiate handbell ensembles, and at nearly a dozen local festivals.

He is a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society, Handbell Musicians of America, the National Association for Music Education, Phi Beta Kappa, and has served on the board of the New Jersey Marching Band Directors’ Association.

School officials said Seifert is currently teaching biology at the Solebury School. He is excited to be able to inspire students through both of his passions: science and music.

Seifert lives in Stockton, N.J., and when at home, he enjoys riding his bike along the river and paddle-boarding down the canal.

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By Richard K. Rein

PublishedApril 14, 2022 at 10:56 PM

Last UpdatedApril 14, 2022 at 10:56 PM

If there were any confusion about the Princeton Theological Seminary’s plans for its Tennent-Roberts-Whiteley campus on Stockton Street just north of Hibben Road, the matter was cleared up on April 14 with a matter of fact statement from the Seminary.

“Consistent with the Seminary’s long-range plans and anticipated facility needs, the site will no longer be used for Seminary housing or office space after June. The Seminary recently filed an application with the Municipality to proceed with the removal of the buildings on the site.”

The Seminary statement came from Beth DeMauro, the interim director of communications, in response to a query from TAPinto regarding a letter sent by a neighborhood opposition group, Princeton Coalition for Responsible Development (PCRD), to the Princeton Planning Board attorney. In the April 12 letter, the PCRD charged that the Seminary, “with no public notice, . . . has filed plans to demolish the historic buildings on the Tennent-Roberts-Whiteley campus.”

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The PCRD cited the municipality’s designation of the Tennent campus as an area in need of redevelopment and what the PCRD viewed as a promise that it would be kept involved in the redevelopment process. “We view the demolition of these buildings, whose historic significance was recognized by PTS’s own historic preservation consultants in their February, 2009, Historic Preservation Planning Study, as being every bit as much a part of the redevelopment process as constructing new buildings.”

The PCRD just several weeks earlier had called for the town to rescind that area in need of redevelopment designation. Having already spent about a year and a half unsuccessfully negotiating with the neighbors over its own proposal for developing the site, the Seminary may have decided that it needed to move ahead with its plan for the campus, which it has contracted to sell to Herring Properties, a Princeton-based developer.

The Seminary April 14 statement continued: “The Seminary conducted an extensive study of the buildings on the site in 2018 as part of its proposed plans to build new student apartments, concluding that the adaptive reuse of the existing structures and upgrade to current standards was not viable.

“After more than a year of site planning and engagement with the town and neighbors, the Seminary announced in 2019 that the increased cost estimates, due to additional requests that came out of the engagement process, made the project no longer financially viable and put the property on the market.

“The property has been under contract to local developer Herring Properties since January, 2021, when the contract was publicly announced.

“The buildings on the Tennent-Roberts-Whiteley property are in declining condition and are no longer sufficient to the Seminary’s residential needs. All of our students can be accommodated in the newly renovated and restored Brown Hall, as well as the Seminary’s other existing apartments.”

Jamie Herring, the contract purchaser, has said that the area in need of redevelopment designation is important to his plans for a development with an affordable apartment component that, he said in a 2021 interview, “would be the first ever approved in the western side of Princeton,” with large tax revenue from a site that had previously been tax-exempt.

The municipality has its own reasons for wanting to maintain the site as an area in need of redevelopment. That designation would give the town the power to mandate 20 percent of the housing units as affordable. It could also pave the way for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), which would yield more tax revenue in the municipal coffers than regular property taxes, which are shared with the county.

Who will make the next move remains to be seen. But the wrecking crew is one group to keep on the radar.

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The Rolf Bauhan-designed buildings on Stockton Street are scheduled for demolition. A neighborhood group wants them saved. Photo Credit: pcrd.info

By TAPinto Staff

Members of the Princeton Coalition for Responsible Development (PCRD), neighbors of the Princeton Theological Seminary who have been opposed to the Seminary’s plans to redevelop its Tennent-Roberts-Whiteley (TRW) campus at the corner of Stockton Street and Hibben Road, have started a petition in their attempt to thwart the planned demolition of the buildings.

After lengthy negotiations between the Seminary and the neighbors over plans to build student housing on the site, the Seminary finally concluded that it would instead sell the property to Princeton-based developer Jamie Herring. With the property under contract to Herring, the Seminary announced earlier this month that it was planning to demolish the buildings at the conclusion of this academic year in June.

That has prompted this petition from the PCRD:

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Princeton is known for its many attributes, among which are the primary entrances or “gateways” into town. The significance of the gateways is underscored by the Master Plan, which recommends that these gateways of “exceptional visual and historic significance” be enhanced and protected.

One of Princeton’s most notable gateways, the Tennent-Roberts-Whiteley (TRW) campus of Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) is currently at risk of being razed. The TRW campus, located across from Morven at the corner of Hibben Road and Stockton Street, is the subject of a petition filed by PTS for an administrative waiver to demolish the three buildings, which were designed in part by noted Princeton architect Rolf Bauhan. Bauhan, one of the most prolific Princeton architects of the 20th century, was the first M.F.A. graduate of Princeton University’s School of Architecture. One of the TRW buildings pre-dates Rolf Bauhan's work, having been built in 1820s.

To Date:

- No formal notices of the reasons for demolition have been made available to the residents of the Mercer Hill Historic District and other neighborhoods that surround the TRW campus;

- No responses to neighbors’ repeated requests for dialogue with PTS have been forthcoming;

- No invitations for conversations between the affected neighbors and the presumed developer have been answered;

- These buildings are slated to be demolished with no articulated plan for the property. We ask the town to meet with us so we may present a plan for adaptive reuse. And

All appeals to the Town for transparency as to plans and process have been rebuffed.

Please sign our petition asking for information and an opportunity for dialogue with the Town and affected parties before the destruction of one of Princeton’s historic gateways becomes an inevitability.

Please share the petition with others, write letters to the Mayor and Council and send letters to the editor of local newspapers.

For additional information and updates, please consult our website: www.pcrd.info.

The neighbors’ group has argued previously that the site’s designation as an area in need of redevelopment should be rescinded. But Herring, the developer, has maintained that the designation is important to his plans, including the inclusion of affordable housing at the site -- see this April 14 TAPinto article.

According to the neighbors’ website, www.pcrd.info, “demolishing these buildings without discussion around the historical importance of these properties and their potential to be developed with adaptive re-use would be a great loss to the community and removes an important option as part of any Area in Need of Redevelopment (ANR) plan, should the ANR remain in place.

“As of now, there is not an approved development plan in place. It is not clear if the buildings are demolished as to what condition the site will be left in or for how long? A lack of administrative review presumably leaves this decision up to PTS.”

The Seminary, in a statement in response to the neighborhood group, confirmed that it had “recently filed an application with the municipality to proceed with the removal of the buildings on the site.”

But the Seminary offered a different version of the past events, particularly with respect to :”the neighbors’ repeated requests for dialogue referred to in the petition:

“After more than a year of site planning and engagement with the town and neighbors, the Seminary announced in 2019 that the increased cost estimates, due to additional requests that came out of the engagement process, made the project no longer financially viable and put the property on the market.

“The property has been under contract to local developer Herring Properties since January, 2021, when the contract was publicly announced.

“The buildings on the Tennent-Roberts-Whiteley property are in declining condition and are no longer sufficient to the Seminary’s residential needs. All of our students can be accommodated in the newly renovated and restored Brown Hall, as well as the Seminary’s other existing apartments.”

MANALAPAN - Sunlight streams through the wavy-glass windows, illuminating Old Tennent Presbyterian Church’s resplendent interior. From the towering pulpit to the ancient Communion table once used by Lenape Indians, little has changed since the cornerstone was laid in 1751.

“It’s probably 95 percent original,” said the Rev. Douglas Hughes, pastor of the church.

This triumph of preservation is Monmouth County’s oldest house of worship. On Easter Sunday, just as they have since King George II signaled his approval (his portrait hangs near the entrance), congregants will gather to celebrate the most important day on the Christian calendar.

You’d never know the agony that took place here during late June 1778. Unless you lifted the pew cushions.

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“On this particular seat we have a bloodstain,” Hughes said, pointing to a faded, fist-sized blotch on the wood of a pew two rows from the back.

The church served as a field hospital during the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Monmouth, which took place just down the road. It’s documented that Alexander Hamilton, then a Continental Army officer, visited the church to comfort wounded soldiers who were strewn across the pews after the stalemate against the British.

On behalf of the History Channel, New Jersey native and ancient forensics expert Michelle Sivilich conducted DNA testing on the stain in 2004 and the results were inconclusive (DNA is fragile and does not survive well when exposed to the environment).

A nearby pew bears a significant nick in its edge.

“A surgeon took off part of the seat while he was lopping off an arm or a leg,” Hughes said.

You can read about history in books, but there is nothing like sitting on the same wood where an exhausted patriot bled or ascending the pulpit where fire-and-brimstone revolutionaries preached.

“It’s is extremely well-preserved,” said Gail Hunton of the Monmouth County Park System, which bestowed the oldest-church distinction after extensive research. “When you go inside, you really feel like you are stepping back into the 18th century. Let’s give a shout-out to the congregation there; they have done a great job of taking care of that building.”

Old Tennent Church traces its roots to 1692, when Presbyterians who fled religious persecution in Scotland cobbled together enough money to purchase the land and build a log cabin just a short gallop from Freehold’s emerging population center. A bigger building went up in 1731, and two decades later the current church rose in a manner that must have dropped the jaws of passers-by.

“Most churches were very much smaller and simpler; they were traditional meeting houses with little ecclesiastical ornament,” Hunton said. “This church sort of broke the mold. It really does introduce the high Georgian style, which became the prevailing architectural style. So not only is it the oldest extant church building in the county, but it’s also the most important from an architectural point of view.”

Capacity is listed at 400. There are two levels. The gentry sat downstairs in pews reserved for a fee of 10 or 11 pounds per year (the equivalent of roughly $4,000 today). Upstairs went visitors, indentured servants, Native Americans and slaves.

Even before the Battle of Monmouth, the church was a hotbed of civic unrest. Its fourth pastor, William Tennent Jr., asked to be buried “somewhere where the British will never find me,” Hughes said, “because they would dig up rabble-rousers and desecrate their remains.”

Tennent is interred 6 feet under the church’s main aisle.

Other notable wartime figures are buried just outside, like executed militia commander Joshua Huddy and Capt. Henry Fauntleroy. The latter was slain during the battle by a cannonball, several of which turned up on the grounds over the years. A handful are preserved in a display case inside the church.

The fire that ravaged 800-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday is a harsh reminder how fragile our historic places can be.

“Whenever there is a disaster like this, it’s really a wake-up call to not only beef up our fire protection, but also to remember these resources are irreplaceable,” Hunton said. “You can rebuild something, but it’s not the original structure. It reminds us that these buildings are treasures and mean a lot to people.”

Old Tennent Church is mostly wood, and no open flames are allowed — including candles. Renovations are performed with great caution (a heating system was installed in the 1950s, replacing a handful of pot-bellied stoves). An adjacent schoolhouse burned down in 1903, but Hughes said the church never endured a major fire.

“We are very proud of the history and traditions here, but we want to make sure the church keeps going,” Hughes said.

As with many churches, membership has declined over the years. Hughes said Sunday services typically draw 30 to 50 people, although he’s expecting a big crowd for Easter’s 11 a.m. service. Those who do come regularly are invested in Old Tennent’s preservation, just like their predecessors.

“Some very forward-thinking church members started an endowment fund in the late 1800s to keep the building going,” Hughes said. That fund now runs well into the seven figures.

Even subtle changes are carefully considered. A few strides outside of the church’s entrance stands a towering dead tree.

“There was a Sunday School meeting underneath that tree as George Washington’s soldiers walked by, heading to the battle,” Hughes said. “We’ve talked about, should we cut it down, should we not cut it down?”

It’s still there, because preservation starts with a mindset. Hunton said 20 percent of the historic buildings documented during a 1980 Monmouth County survey have been lost. Efforts to protect the past are being stepped up by government agencies and nonprofits, but "we need to do more,” she said. "We really do."

This is Hughes' fourth year as pastor, and he goes out of his way to accommodate curious visitors. Explaining his enthusiasm for the church's history, Hughes draws on a metaphor that the farmers who built this place would have fully understood.

"There are still times," he said, "when I feel like a pig in a mud puddle."

Jerry Carino is news columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

MANALAPAN – Plans for improvements to a 3-mile-long corridor on Main Street/Tennent Road in Manalapan are continuing to take shape, but work on the project is not expected to begin prior to 2022.

The project was discussed during the Nov. 26 meeting of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders in Freehold Borough.

Main Street/Tennent Road is a county road (Route 3) and the freeholders are undertaking the work. Improvements will be made between Route 527 (Millhurst Road) and Kensington Drive/Woodland Circle.

On Nov. 26, the county’s governing body passed a resolution that authorizes CME Associates of Parlin to provide additional engineering services at an increased cost of $899,976 regarding final design of the project.

According to the resolution, the freeholders previously authorized a contract with CME Associates to provide engineering services in connection with the final design of road improvements to Main Street/Tennent Road. The maximum expenditure was not to exceed $1.5 million.

However, during the design of the proposed improvements, it became necessary to provide additional engineering services for the realignment of Craig Road and the reconstruction of Bridge MN-52, additional cultural resource and historic architectural studies requested by the State Historic Preservation Office (relating to Monmouth Battlefield and the Old Tennent Church cemetery), and the efforts to secure federal funding for construction and construction administration services of the project, according to the resolution.

Those services were not anticipated in the original CME Associates scope of work and the firm requested an additional $899,976 to provide the required unanticipated design services.

According to the resolution, the county engineer reviewed the firm’s proposal and recommended that the additional authorization be granted. The freeholders voted to authorize the requested funding and authorized CME Associates to perform the additional work as outlined in a proposal dated Oct. 25, 2019.

The revised authorized expenditure for the firm’s services is now $2.4 million.

Monmouth County Engineer Joseph Ettore said Craig Road will be realigned to improve safety at its intersection with Tennent Road. He said the county plans to apply for federal funding through the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. Work on the project could commence in 2022, Ettore told the freeholders.

Previously, the freeholders authorized the acquisition of right-of-way for the construction of the improvements. The freeholders authorized the expenditure of $850,000 for title searches, appraisal and legal services, and compensation for the acquisition of the needed properties.

County officials previously said that due to the length and scope of the project, the improvements will be constructed in three phases to minimize the overall disruption to traffic on Tennent Road.

The purpose of the project is to relieve congestion and improve the safety along Tennent Road for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians, according to county officials.

Plans are to widen Tennent Road to provide a 36-foot-wide typical section south of the Craig Road intersection and a 40-foot-wide typical section north of the Craig Road intersection. These sections provide one 12-foot-wide travel lane and either a 6-foot or an 8-foot wide shoulder in either direction, according to a press release.

The preferred alternative includes the replacement of eight bridge/culvert structures, the installation and/or reconstruction of five intersections that have a traffic light, the reconstruction of an at grade railroad crossing, utility relocations, storm water management facilities and the design of additional features such as a guide rail, curbing, drainage and lighting, according to the press release.

Additional turning lanes, the upgrading/replacement of existing traffic signal equipment and traffic signal timing improvements are proposed at the Millhurst Road (Route 527), Freehold-Englishtown Road (Route 522), Craig Road and Taylors Mills Road intersections with Tennent Road. A new traffic signal is proposed at the intersection of Tennent Road and Church Lane, according to the press release.