Testing out a new space for Dover's art scene
[Photo credits: Glad Marketing LLC, AutoHD Creative Studios, and Fresco Arts Team] Ever since we decided to seriously explore the option...
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THE RICHARDS BUILDING
1 West Blackwell St.
Dover, NJ 07801
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Chris Murphy
- Jun 19
- 1 min
Looking for your ideas - Community Mural Project
As discussed in previous blog posts, we are seriously exploring how to create a community art space in the basement of the Richards...
202 views1 comment
Chris Murphy
- May 27
- 1 min
Bunting for Memorial Day - restarting the tradition
We've always loved the old photos of the Richards Building festooned with bunting for Memorial Day parades, and this year we determined...
142 views1 comment
Chris Murphy
- Apr 24
- 2 min
A makeover, and so much more...
Our plans for the Richards Building took a step forward recently when our proposed facade improvements, as seen in the rendering above,...
778 views3 comments
Chris Murphy
- Mar 20
- 1 min
Lunch counter mysteries...
Where was the Newberry's lunch counter? And what did it look like? (And is it coming back??) To be clear, this picture shows a different...
283 views1 comment
Chris Murphy
- Feb 22
- 1 min
Goodbye Awning! (And Goodbye Pigeons??)
It has been a quiet couple of months, but we have a variety of work planned for this spring. First up, next week(!) we will start...
553 views3 comments
Chris Murphy
- Oct 18, 2023
- 1 min
Launching pad to US Supreme Court
Many thanks to friend of the building Rob B, who gave us the heads up that, in 1882, a young lawyer named Mahlon Pitney appears to have...
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Chris Murphy
- Oct 13, 2023
- 1 min
Surprise windows!
As noted earlier, one of our current projects is trying to uncover the original brick walls by removing plaster and other finishes that...
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Chris Murphy
- Oct 11, 2023
- 1 min
Trolley Car
This great old colorized postcard shows Blackwell Street with the trolley cars of the Morris County Traction Company prominently featured....
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Chris Murphy
- Oct 9, 2023
- 1 min
Elsewhere in Dover...
Not everything we find comes from 1 West Blackwell Street. We've also found: Matchbook from Crescent Grill on East Dickerson Street....
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Chris Murphy
- Oct 6, 2023
- 1 min
Tobacco! (And its side effects)
Our findings certainly support the idea that people used to smoke alot -- in multiple locations, we have uncovered different tobacco...
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Chris Murphy
- Oct 4, 2023
- 1 min
Before the Richards Building
We stumbled across this old picture in an old newsletter from the Dover Area Historical Society, where it was described as the oldest...
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Chris Murphy
- Oct 2, 2023
- 1 min
Column drama
When we started removing interior finishes in the retail space along Blackwell Street, there were three very attractive exposed columns,...
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Chris Murphy
- Sep 29, 2023
- 1 min
JJ Newberry's in the house
JJ Newberry's was located in the Richards Building for roughly 50 years, so it is not surprising to find a bunch of artifacts from the...
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Chris Murphy
- Sep 27, 2023
- 1 min
Dover, NJ - Steel town
This is such an interesting picture, because it is a reminder that even though iron and steel brought Dover great wealth, it couldn't...
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Chris Murphy
- Sep 26, 2023
- 1 min
More interesting finds
As we continue to clean out the ground floor retail spaces, we've come across a couple more interesting features. As we removed drywall...
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- Sep 19, 2023
- 1 min
A message from George Richards
As we took down the ceiling in our ground floor retail space, we found a reminder of who built the building... written on a 100 year old...
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- Sep 5, 2023
- 1 min
Recycling
In the process of uncovering over a century of finishes and accumulated junk, we are generating a lot of waste. As a result, we are...
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- Sep 5, 2023
- 1 min
Interesting surprises
As you can imagine, when a building is over 100 years old, there are many layers of finishes added over the years that cover up the...
41 views0 comments
Chris Murphy
- Aug 22, 2023
- 1 min
Welcome to the Richards Building blog!
We certainly appreciate that this building, with its central location in Dover’s downtown and its rich history, holds a special place in...
48 views1 comment
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