Rescheduled: Newark Preservation & Landmarks Committee President to Address Livingston Historical Society

On the heels of the 2016 celebration of the 350th anniversary of the founding of Newark, New Jersey, Elizabeth R. Del Tufo, one of the city’s best known civic activists and ambassadors, will give a presentation at the Livingston Historical Society meeting on Monday, March 27, 2017 at the Livingston Senior/Community Center.

Originally planned for the January 23, 2017 meeting, this event has been rescheduled to the Historical Society's March 27 meeting.

Refreshments will be served at 7:00 pm, and the program will begin at 7:30 pm. All residents are welcome to attend.

Liz Del Tufo will tell the successive stories of Newark’s life, from “The Founding Years,” “The Industrial Years,” its “Roles as the Center of Commerce,” “The City Beautiful Movement,” “The Depression and the WPA,” “Post- World War II,” and “The Unrest of the ‘60s” to the present and its promising future as it readies itself to be a destination city.

She will introduce landmarks which in turn illustrate each period, ranging from Old First Church, Washington Park, The Ballantine House, Branch Brook Park, Forest Hill, The Rock, Penn Station, Terminal One, James St. Commons, NJPAC, and the new Pru Tower. There are 75 buildings on the NJ State and National Registers and six historic districts in Newark, as well as abundant new development and adaptive reuse.

The Newark Preservation & Landmarks Committee (NPLC) is the not-for-profit, volunteer-based, citywide advocate for the preservation of Newark’s historic and cultural resources. The NPLC recently published the book Newark Landmark Treasures, which brings together, for the first time, narratives of Newark’s buildings, parks, public art, and historic districts that are on the State and/or National Register of Historic Places.

Del Tufo is a longtime resident of the city of Newark with a long and productive involvement in the cultural life of the city and county. As the first Director of Cultural Affairs for the County of Essex, she created an ongoing concert series in the Essex County Parks and was a driving force in transforming the abandoned Nike Missile Base in Livingston to the still-thriving Riker Hill Art Park.

She also founded The Newark Arts Council and served as its first director. The New Jersey State Council on the Arts praised her work, stating, “She has created an organization second to none in promoting and presenting the arts.”

The Livingston Historical Society meets the fourth Monday of the month, September through April, at the Livingston Senior/Community Center, 204 Hillside Ave.

Members of the community are welcome to attend for no fee; however, monetary donations to the Society are greatly appreciated. Newark Landmark Treasures will be available for purchase at the Livingston Historical Society meeting on March 27 at 7:00 pm.