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With PorchFest, Bordentown will be Stepping Into Spring By JAsMiNe lee Leon Stanley thinks that after the pandemic that plagued our society into isolation for the past two years, it was about time to come back together. What could be more inviting than a day filled with music, food trucks and shopping in Bordentown’s welcoming community? The first ever PorchFest will be a free event scheduled to be held on Saturday, April 30 from noon to 5 p.m., rain or shine. The event, a production of Bordentown Arts, will feature different types of musicians, who will be playing on their front porches or on the porches of other residents throughout the city. There will be a large variety of musical genres featured, from jazz to folk to rock. Musical talent showcased will include younger folks, such as high schoolers, and others as old as 70. Anyone, regardless of whether they are local or regional is welcome to participate, whether they want to perform or feature their porch for another musician. “I’m aware of other PorchFest in other parts of the state and always thought it looked like a
cool and interesting idea and when I heard Bordentown was having one I was very excited and I decided right away I was going to apply to host and play. For me, this is like a holiday because when you play in a band you meet a lot of other musicians and you make a lot of friends who are also musicians,” said Jaime Parker, a musician a member of the band Alpha Rabbit. The Bordentown resident is planning to be a part of PorchFest this year. The Downtown Bordentown Association will also be hosting an event, known as Stepping into Spring, on the same day. PorchFest will go hand in hand with this event, inviting attendees who are walking around on their way to or from PorchFest to stop by at one of the food trucks on Farnsworth Avenue and grab a bite to eat. Local retailers may also be open with stands along the streets to allow people to potentially buy some of the things they sell within their stores. Many specific details of PorchFest were still being ironed out at press time. Stanley is president of Bordentown Arts, the nonprofit See PASSAGE, Page 10
The former gardener’s house at the Point Breeze estate in Bordentown is the subject of intensive restoration work by the D&R Greenway Land Trust.
Point Breeze Gardner’s House to undergo extensive restoration By DAN AUBrey “It’s still a work in progress,” cautions D& R Greenway executive director Linda Mead as she begins a one-on-one tour of the 1820 building known as the Gardener’s House. The only remaining structure built by the former King of Spain and brother to Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Bonaparte,
on what had been his Point Breeze estate on a Bordentown bluff, the building is currently undergoing Greenway-funded renovations to open it to the public. The environmental and land stewardship organization claimed ownership of the building in a 2020 joint partnership with the State of New Jersey and the City of Bordentown to
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purchase the property from its former owner, Divine Word Mission, for $4.2 million. The action saved the historic property from development. Leading into the kitchen area that was last used two years ago by a few retired Catholic missionary priests, Mead points to a circa 1830 Morris Tasker wall oven, which provides a good See GARDNER, Page 12
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