Sep 16, 2021
Shrewsbury Historical Society to Install National Register Marker on Sycamore Avenue
By Lori Draz
The Shrewsbury Historical Society received a grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, based in Syracuse, New York to install a National Register Marker to acknowledge the Shrewsbury Historic District’s achievement of being placed on the National Register in 1978. The sites identified are Allen House (c. 1710), Christ Church Shrewsbury (c.1769) and the Wardell House (c. 1764). These historic buildings are clearly recognizable at the intersection of Sycamore Avenue and Broad Street (Route 35), commonly known as Shrewsbury’s Four Corners. The marker will soon appear on the south side of Sycamore Avenue in front of the Wardell House which has been integrated into The Shrewsbury Municipal Complex.
This marker will join others currently in place within the confines of the “Four Corners,” including the Harriet LaFetra (1823-1906) and three plaques on Patriot Isle commemorating and honoring the fallen Shrewsbury veterans from the US Revolutionary War, US Civil War, World Wars I and II and the Vietnam conflict. Other adjacent plaques include a marker erected in 1935 by the Monmouth Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to commemorate the large sycamore trees which have long been associated with Patriot Isle and for which the street is named. The Sycamore Marker became encased in one of the stately sycamore trees which fell victim to disease and had to be removed. An additional memorial marker fronting the east side of Patriot Isle honors Elizabeth “Betty” Clark. She was a police crossing guard for 20 years who gave her life on March 30, 1995 while crossing school children at this intersection.
Former Shrewsbury Mayor and current President of the Shrewsbury Historical Society Don Burden commented, “These plagues respectively recognize and honor significant events and individuals that will forever remain a part of Shrewsbury’s history. The plaques and markers inspire our younger citizens to seek additional information about the historic whens and whys of what they honor and the history displayed within Shrewsbury’s Four Corners.”
