Architecture Alums Redesign Historic Church for New Harriet Tubman Museum
Cape May's new Harriet Tubman Museum, which is hosting virtual openings this year due to COVID-19 and plans to open conventionally in spring 2021, has a touch of Highlander inside.
The museum in June 2019 hired Fulcrum Design Group, owned by Hillier College of Architecture and Design alumni Paul and Cassandra Farnan — who both graduated with Bachelor of Architecture degrees in 2013 and married in 2018 — to plan and draw improvements to a 19th-century parish house formerly associated with the adjacent Macedonia Baptist Church.
Agreeing to help with the museum’s architectural redesign on a volunteer basis was an easy decision for Paul, raised in Cape May, and Cassandra, whose great-great-grandfather was from Africa. They felt even stronger about it as the Black Lives Matter movement accelerated.
And so, "Knowing the purpose of this [museum] program and what it was to be, that was enough for us," Paul Farnan said. "We participated in a Black Lives Matter march and vigil for George Floyd on June 6. ... It's important for us to keep that spirit alive down here. Some of the perception, and some of the thinking and ideology in South Jersey, is not necessarily in line with the rest of the state. That's what makes this all the more important."
"Taking that opportunity as a minority woman, I was compelled to help in any way possible for this project," Cassandra Farnan added.
The museum structure at 632 Lafayette Street was originally a private home built around 1800. The surrounding neighborhood blends several generations and functions. It thrived as a free Black community throughout the 19th century. Tubman worked in local hotels as a summertime cook from 1850-1852. It's still debated by historians whether she also raised funds from vacationing Northern abolitionists and actively planned local stops on the Underground Railroad. Around the corner is the segregation-era Franklin Street School, built for African-American students in 1927, now slated for renovation as a library and community center. All around are modern homes, offices and stores.
While the building itself survived Cape May's revitalization period in the second half of the 20th century, its interior was gutted by a developer who once intended to purchase it. That gave the Farnans an opportunity to redesign it for the needs of a museum, rather than work around rooms intended for residential purposes. They added structural supports below the first floor, which will hold the weight of a 9-foot-tall, 2,400-pound Harriet Tubman statue called The Journey to Freedom. They also planned galleries and a two-story-tall exhibit area, along with conference space, while advising museum chairman Bob Mullock about changes to avoid in keeping true to the original building. Initial exhibits will focus on Tubman’s life, slave artifacts from Africa and the Civil Rights era.
Paul Farnan cited Associate Professor Darius Sollohub as a major career influence from NJIT. Paul stayed in Newark a few extra semesters to earn a master's in infrastructure planning. Cassandra Farnan cited former adjunct professor Nathan Hume as one of her influences, who taught her to ask “Why not?” when faced with challenges.
The museum, recently featured in Smithsonian magazine, will also display a charcoal drawing of Tubman by Haitian-American artist Schuller Ojentis, of Maplewood, who died in 2018. He was an NJIT classmate and close friend of the Farnans.
"He was one of the most positive people we knew. He would be ecstatic knowing that his artwork is in a museum, for sure, especially one like this. And I think during this time, socially, nationally, he would 100% be someone that was trying to bring people together. He was a friend to everyone," Paul Farnan said.
The Farnans asked Mullock to display the piece on loan from the Ojentis family. "I felt like this is the easiest 'yes' I ever had to make in negotiations," Mullock said.
There are several other local preservation projects where the Farnans could assist, Mullock added. "I think they're the up-and-coming young architects in Cape May," he said. "They are a great team."